The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece by Erle Stanley Gardner (Cassell, 1945)

Another find from the Lifeline Bookfair vintage table!  This is the first Australian edition of this book.  It's a very early paperback and a wartime publication, so it's in an austere utility format.  No exciting covers here!

There's also no blurb on this book, but there's really no need.  It's a Perry Mason story so we all know how it goes—Perry's client is arrested for murder, Perry locks horns with the police, Perry exposes the real killer at his client's trial.  However, there is a fascinating advertisement on the back which explains how the advertiser's product contributed to the War Effort:

The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer (William Heinemann, 1949)

I found this one in an op shop on the outskirts of Melbourne.

"Miss Georgette Heyer's "The Talisman Ring' has the authentic 18th-century atmosphere; with its embroidered waistcoats, jewelled snuff-boxes, lace handkerchiefs, quizzing glasses and what-nots.  But inside her brocade coats and silken breeches she never fails to provide real flesh and blood animated by the ardours and foibles common nature in each and every period . . .  It is indeed compounded of all the time-honoured ingredients--love, adventure, murder, robbery, a missing jewel, and a woman's wit.  Could anyone ask more?"

--John O'London's Weekly.

It's the second printing of the first Australian edition of The Talisman Ring.

—And this book is still in print throughout the English speaking world today.  Unlike most of Georgette Heyer's romance-writing contemporaries, her books continue to sell well.  I suspect her sense of humour is to blame, because underneath the romantic trappings and historical trappings of her plots she never takes her characters too seriously!

The Toff Goes Gay by John Creasey (Hodder and Stoughton, 1955)

All right, I bought this one solely for its title.  Childish, I know!

Why was a terrified French girl found wandering in London's East End?  Was she really frightened or was she pretending?  The Toff was called upon to answer both questions. . . .

      A man who knew the truth was murdered in the East End.  A Mayfair woman, afraid for her life, yielded up a part of the answer.  But the Toff had to go to Paris and be furiously gay in the face of death before he fitted the final piece into the grim puzzle.

Also: is it just me, or does the girl on the front cover only have one leg?