The Author's First Mystery
The Black Pigeon
Notes: 311 pages. The author's first mystery in book form, following several romance novels. A number of her mystery stories were serialized in newspaper beginning in the late 1920s. In this book, an unscrupulous stock promoter is murdered and in his will is a reward of $5,000 for anyone who can catch his killer. NYPD is on the case but the dead man's secretary solves the mystery. Based on newspaper records, this novel first began appearing in papers in early 1929, many months before the stock market crash of 1929 made everyone aware of the volume of shady stock deals propping up the American economy.
About Austin not much is known. She published ten novels between 1927 and 1933 and a final mystery in 1939. The Black Pigeon is uncommon, even though it went through at least three printings in the US and was also published in England.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). Very good in a very good dust jacket.
Publication: New York: Greenberg, 1929.
Item No: #9203
Price: $300