Malice Aforethought" in "Famous Novels of 1931"

London: Gollancz, 1931. First Edition. Hard Cover. Dust Jacket. First UK Edition Thus. This Omnibus Edition also contains: "The Delicate Situation" by Naomi Royde-Smith, "The Garden" by L A G Strong and "Mackerel Sky" by Helen Ashton. Publisher's black boards with gilt spine lettering. A small patch of surface loss/rubbing to the front board at the bottom right hand corner (and a crease to the front board at the top right hand corner), possibly production faults, otherwise a near fine copy in like D/W. With the VERY SCARCE wrap-around band announcing: "CHRISTMAS/ Why not give/ these 4 splendid/ modern novels/ for the price of 1." Malice Aforethought is touted as the first modern crime novel. This is because it dropped the central feature of the genre from its beginnings to the twenties, the puzzle, to concentrate on the psychology of murder. This is clear from the very first sentence, which announces the identity of the killer: 'It was not until several weeks after he had decided to kill his wife that Dr. Bickleigh took any active steps in the matter.'. Although this is not the "true" First Edition of this title (which is particularly scarce and expensive in hardback) this Omnibus Edition is also incredibly uncommon. The author is better known as "Anthony Berkeley".