Matrix

Black cloth boards with silver lettering to spine. Spine slightly slanted. Foxing to top-edge. Small dent to edge of front board. Dust jacket a little rubbed to spine, with two closed tears to head. Minor foxing to flap of lower panel. First UK edition. (Originally published in the US in 1970 by Ballantine Books.) *** The publisher Robert Hale produced books mainly for the library market and it is unusual to find a copy of this title without any library markings. *** Douglas R. Mason (1918-2013) was a UK junior-school headmaster and prolific author from 1964 until the late 1970s, both under his own name and as John Rankine. “Generally speaking he seemed content to produce rather low-pressure work, though the republication in the twenty-first century of some of his better tales, along with some new matter, suggests that his career and accomplishments may be of greater interest than previously assumed.” (SFE)