# Help: trying to get hold of a hard to find book



## strung out (Sep 24, 2011)

trying to get hold of an old detective story from 1934 as a present for someone.

it's called _The Body in the Silo _by Ronald Knox, and was also published in the USA under the name _Settled Out of Court_. so far, the only copies i've managed to find are one on US amazon for $200, and some cheap as hell copies in german on a german bookselling site.

ideally, it would be nice to get a 'proper' copy, but if i could just get the electronic text and bind it myself, that would be cool too.

anyone got any ideas about where else i might be able to find it, or an electronic version? i seem to have exhausted everywhere online (i think)


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## Termite Man (Sep 24, 2011)

ignore me


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## strung out (Sep 24, 2011)

is that the actual book or just the dust jacket?


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## Termite Man (Sep 24, 2011)

strung out said:


> is that the actual book or just the dust jacket?



I think you can guess from my edit


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## Termite Man (Sep 24, 2011)

http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/...xt0)=the body in the silo&fn=search&vid=BLVU1

I think you may be able to order a copy to get bound yourself from the British Library.


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## strung out (Sep 24, 2011)

was a good try. i didn't spot that on my google travels, so i'm hoping i missed something. i saved the dust jacket anyway so i can print it out to go on a copy i print myself if i can get hold of an electronic version


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## strung out (Sep 24, 2011)

Termite Man said:


> http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&scp.scps=scopeBLCONTENT)&frbg=&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1316882253024&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&dum=true&indx=1&tb=t&vl(freeText0)=the body in the silo&fn=search&vid=BLVU1
> 
> I think you may be able to order a copy to get bound yourself from the British Library.


ooh, looks like it could be promising. ta!


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## Termite Man (Sep 24, 2011)

does it have to be that specific book or will others by the same author be acceptable?


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## strung out (Sep 24, 2011)

that's the only one by that author he hasn't got!


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## Termite Man (Sep 24, 2011)

strung out said:


> that's the only one by that author he hasn't got!



then the british library is the best I can come up with (or spending $200)


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## strung out (Sep 24, 2011)

cool. i think i might be abe to get them to send me a re-printed copy for a tenner. will look into that once i get paid on wednesday.

thanks for the help mate!


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## Termite Man (Sep 24, 2011)

no worries, don't forget the £10 finders fee for me as well


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

dead end 



> Dear Colleague
> 
> Thank you for your order placed with Articles Direct.
> 
> ...



don't know what they mean by their Legal Deposit collection. it's just a 1930s crime novel.


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 3, 2011)

Legal deposit is the thing where the BritisH Library has a copy of _every single thing that's published_, I think.


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

can't they just let me have one little photocopy of it?


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

There's a copy of it in the Heythrop Library.


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

maybe i should make them an offer they can't refuse


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## Roadkill (Oct 3, 2011)

bookfinder.com


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

Roadkill said:


> bookfinder.com


thanks for that. looks like the only copy for sale is the $200 one from the US.

i'll carry on looking for an electronic version i can print and bind myself.


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 3, 2011)

You set yourself quite a task for an actual copy, s_o.



> The Body in the Silo (1933), Still Dead (1934) and Double Cross Purposes (1937) — before Knox gave himself completely over to his religious scholarship.
> Less donnishly facetious than the 1920s tales, The Body in the Silo and Still Dead are commonly considered to be Father Know’s best detective novels, though oddly, they are two of the most difficult to find.
> 
> (AbeBooks lists the following number of copies for each Knox mystery title: Viaduct Murder, 27; Three Taps, 20; Footsteps, 35; *Silo, 7* — all in German or French; Still Dead, 17 — though 12 of these are Pan paperback editions ranging from thirty to fifty dollars;Double Cross Purposes
> ...


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

maybe i could buy one of the german editions and translate it myself


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 3, 2011)

What happens when you click that? It's blocked here. Assume it'll be disappointing but I'm curious.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

Have you considered simply re-writing it from scratch yourself, like Pierre Menard with Don Quixote?


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 3, 2011)

_It was a dark and stormy night when 5'11 PI Butch Old-Rosie looked up from his canticles..._


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

5t3IIa said:


> What happens when you click that? It's blocked here. Assume it'll be disappointing but I'm curious.


I'm only on my phone, but I think that's just the dust jacket


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 3, 2011)

Bum


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

Santino said:


> Have you considered simply re-writing it from scratch yourself, like Pierre Menard with Don Quixote?


How hard could it be?


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

strung out said:


> How hard could it be?


Exactly. I'll even start you off:

'Once upon a time there was a body in a silo. Who had killed this man (or woman)?! So I decided to find out.'


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

First I went to interview her bereaved sister.  She was wearing dungarees and a smile you'd run twice round the block to see.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

'She didn't know anything about the murdered person, so I left. (And by the way, isn't Jesus brilliant? Much better than Bertrand Russell, for example.)'


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## teuchter (Oct 3, 2011)

If I was strung_out's friend, and he gave me a present which was a book printed out on his printer and stuck together with pritt-stick and in a dust jacket also printed out on his printer from a ropey photo of the actual dust cover, I'd wonder why he didn't value the friendship enough to get me a real book. I'd go into WHSmith and take a photo of a "thankyou" card on my phone and print it out and send it to him in a secondhand envelope stuck together with sellotape, 2nd class mail with a stamp that's too low value which he'd have to pay the excess on.


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

Thanks for your views


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

'Just then a man tried to kill me but I dodged the bullet and he died instead.'


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

Santino said:


> 'Just then a man tried to kill me but I dodged the bullet and he died instead.'


Boomerang bullet or some kind of reflection device?


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

strung out said:


> Boomerang bullet or some kind of reflection device?


He just died because I dodged the bullet so well.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

I saw a man walking along the street who looked vaguely familiar.  He nodded at me so I ran down an alley and hid in a dumpster.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

In the dumpster was a clue, it said that Roger did the murder.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

I went straight to Roger's place to see if he was there.   He lived above a laundromat with no air-conditioning.  He was there all right.  His body was still warm.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

Then Harry Potter flew in through the window and said 'I'm just in the area, need any help?' and I said can you raise the dead and he said no so I said 'Ok thanks anyway' and then he left.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

I smoked Roger's cigarettes while I had a think. His girlfriend came in and fainted.  You'll be surprised to learn that she hangs out in a gin joint I used to go to sometimes.  'Hello dollface', I said.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

When she woke up we went out into the park and buried Roger. Roger was a dog, which I forgot to say earlier.


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## teuchter (Oct 3, 2011)

Roger's girlfriend offered little practical assistance in digging the hole.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

She had nice hands but they were shaking.  She said she couldn't go back to roger's so I took her back to mine.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

Roger's girlfriend wasn't a dog, by the way. If you were wondering.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

Oh yeah, and a bit later on we were in a car chase and stuff.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

Santino said:


> Oh yeah, and a bit later on we were in a car chase and stuff.



I expect that was Dollface's other suitor.  He's the jealous type.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

I was hoping that when we got back to mine she would get all bare.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

Santino said:


> I was hoping that when we got back to mine she would get all bare.



Well you shouldn't have rushed to the car chase and stuff.  She's a generous girl, Dollface,  and you still blew it.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

Just then I found another clue.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

Ooh!   What is it? tell me, tell me!


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

I dunno, some note or somethng. Do I fucking look like Sherlock Holmes?


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

Tsk. 

I expect it was an esorteric note to Roger from a minister of some dodgy church.

I would imagine a man with a gun will be visiting our reluctant hero's gaff soon, too.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

I reckon we're about 75% there on this. 75-80%.


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## jakethesnake (Oct 3, 2011)

A sudden unexpected blow to the back of my head... I blacked out


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

jakethesnake said:


> A sudden unexpected blow to the back of my head... I blacked out



Damn! I never see that happening.

I wake up in an alley. My wallet and dollface have gone. 

but I've found the sandwich I dropped when I was hiding in the dumpster so that's lunch sorted.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

Santino said:


> I reckon we're about 75% there on this. 75-80%.


 
I reckon so.  We've got dollface and a minister.  we should probably have a coffee with someone from the DA's office.  See if they can shed light on matters.


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## bluestreak (Oct 3, 2011)

more more more


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

The guy from the DA's office wasn't very helpful, tbh.  DA doesn't like you yadda yadda yadda, same old same old.  He did say that dollface is very accommodating though and sympathised with me for missing out on seeing her all naked and stuff.

And he lent me his car for the car chase.   It was a Stutz Bearcat.


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## teuchter (Oct 3, 2011)

I feel there is some inconsistency in the narrative voice employed in this novel.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

Seamless, seamless is what it is.


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

'Shut up, teuchter' I said as I punched him out and then I got in my sports car.


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## teuchter (Oct 3, 2011)

Then I realised that I didn't actually own a sports car. Teuchter was laughing at me, although I did not really understand why, because my function in the novel was really just as a kind of clown, and a badly written one at that.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

teuchter said:


> Then I realised that I didn't actually own a sports car. Teuchter was laughing at me, although I did not really understand why, because my function in the novel was really just as a kind of clown, and a badly written one at that.



Hey, boozehound, here's a dollar for some gutrot.  Now skedaddle before I have to give you the bum's rush.


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## teuchter (Oct 3, 2011)

quimcunx's dialogue was also badly written. The novel scored 1 star in a Sunday supplement review and the author committed suicide. Only ten copies were ever printed and would occasionally surface on ebay at outlandish prices.


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## quimcunx (Oct 3, 2011)

You're ruining poor strung out's thread.


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## strung out (Oct 3, 2011)

i think we're done here tbh


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## Santino (Oct 3, 2011)

Just then Doctor Who arrived and erased all of teuchter's rubbish bits from history.


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## billy_bob (Oct 4, 2011)

Can I request that quimcunx and Santino do some more threads like this? My tummy hurts from laughing.


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## Pingu (Oct 4, 2011)

strung out said:


> trying to get hold of an old detective story from 1934 as a present for someone.
> 
> it's called _The Body in the Silo _by Ronald Knox, and was also published in the USA under the name _Settled Out of Court_. so far, the only copies i've managed to find are one on US amazon for $200, and some cheap as hell copies in german on a german bookselling site.
> 
> ...


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## quimcunx (Oct 4, 2011)

The good thing about waking up bruised, battered and cashless in an alleyway is you're perfectly disguised for turning up at a soup kitchen run by the Reverend Gleebo McDuff.


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## Santino (Dec 10, 2013)

This book is now available to buy easily on the internet.

strung out


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## teuchter (Dec 10, 2013)

Two years in the future, Santino sent a message back to 2011 with surprising, but underwhelming, news.


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## strung out (Dec 10, 2013)

Santino said:


> This book is now available to buy easily on the internet.
> 
> strung out


I bought it for dad earlier this year! I think he enjoyed it 

Ta for thinking of me!


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## quimcunx (Feb 28, 2014)

Santino said:


> This book is now available to buy easily on the internet.
> 
> strung out



oh, strung-out's book. I thought you meant ours.


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