New York: Ace Books, Inc., [1953]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. 

First edition and first paperback edition. Ace double D-9. 

Paperback original of the Michael Morgan novel Decoy. 

A hard-boiled Hollywood novel. 

Bill Pronzini writes in 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction on pages  580-582, "Decoy is still one of the giants (midgets?), a novel so deliciously bad that it must be read again and again to be fully savored and appreciated."

 S. Jaffery, Double Trouble: A Bibliographic Chronicle of Ace Mystery Doubles, pages 6-7. 

This copy was signed and inscribed by C. E. Carle one of the two authors using the pseudonym,

 to Sol and Patty Grossman as shown. Sol was a pre-eminent 

bookman and publisher and book fair promoter in Southern California.. 

The book is tight and square and in very good condition with a little edge 

rub to the spine of the book.  Spine is a bit faded very light creases. 

There is a small crease to the right hand corner of the front cover a shown.

This is not a common book to find signed. 

The book is a first edition.