Dan Stumpf’s recent review of Spin the Glass Web serendipitously uncovered the fact that it was published by Harper in hardcover as a sealed mystery, in which the final chapters were sealed with a paper flap. The gimmick was that if you brought it back to wherever you bought it with the seal still intact, you could get your purchase price fully refunded.

   This was nothing new. Back in the 1920s and 30s the same publisher published a full line of these books, designated as Harper Sealed Mysteries, and Victor Berch recently completed a full checklist of these.

   The official series ended in 1934, but some research on the part of Victor and myself, plus some input from Bill Pronzini, has uncovered a few more books for which Harper used the same promotional idea.

   There may be others, but this list should contain most of them:

JOHN DICKSON CARR Death Turns the Table, 1941.

BILL S. BALLINGER Portrait in Smoke, 1950.

MAX EHRLICH, Spin the Glass Web, 1952.

BILL S. BALLINGER The Tooth and the Nail, 1955.

NICHOLAS BLAKE A Penknife in My Heart, 1958.

NICOLAS FREELING Question of Loyalty, 1963.