Old Mystery books that include physical evidence?

Question

My Dad used to own these old 70's mystery books.. They were usually in the form of a Police file and included phyical pieces of evidence in the book. ie a piece of paper found in the murder scene, would be in a little pouch in the book so you could take it out and examine it. or a pill, or matches, or any other clues or evidence that was found on the scene of the crime. I can't remember what the books were called, or who published them. I want to try and find them, so if you have any information.. then that would be awsome.

Answer 1

The only thing that I could find that was similar to the books you described was a series by Dennis Wheatley, "The Crime Dossier" mysteries. They were originally published in the 1930's; however, reprints were done in the late 70's and early 80's so I think these may be the books you're looking for. The titles (and reprint dates) are as follows:

Murder Off Miami (1979)
Who Killed Robert Prentice (1980)
The Malinsay Murders (1981)
Herewith the Clues (1982)

These editions all contain the actual "hard evidence" clues that the originals had. However, when the books were reissued a third time in 1986 the "evidence" had been reduced to photographs. As you can imagine that took all the fun away from these books and the third attempt was a failure. The following link has some great info on the "Crime Dossier" series: http://www.denniswheatley.info/crimedossiers.htm

Alibris has one copy of one of the books titled "The Malinsay Massacre". It's very expensive though, at $110.24. Here's a link: http://www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?chunk=25&mtype=&qauth=dennis%20wheatley&qtit=crime%20dossier&S=R&bid=9102484098&pbest=&pqtynew=&page=1&matches=1&qsort=r

Biblio has several of the reprints available for sale at various prices. But beware! of those 1986 editions; they're the ones without the "hard evidence" like you mentioned; they just have it in photo form only: http://www.biblio.com/search.php?author=dennis+wheatley&title=crime+dossier&keyisbn=&format=any&stage=1

Ebay has two of the "hard evidence" ones up for bid at only $.99 each (with one bid for each already): http://cgi.ebay.com/DENNIS-WHEATLEY-WHO-KILLED-ROBERT-PRENTICE-VINTAGE-BOOK_W0QQitemZ190133926181QQihZ009QQcategoryZ29223QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And: http://cgi.ebay.com/Herewith-The-Clues-RARE-Dennis-Wheatley-Murder-Mystery_W0QQitemZ120144233305QQihZ002QQcategoryZ377QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Happy reading to you! :-)