Dan Kavanagh; Julian Barnes — Duffy

London, Jonathan Cape, 1980. First edition. Cloth. An extremely scarce, signed first edition of Julian Barnes' detective fiction series featuring the detective and ex-policeman 'Duffy&apos. Signed by Barnes under his pseudonymous name Dan Kavanagh. This novel was issued the same year as 'Metroland', Barnes' debut novel which was published under his own name.  He wrote this work under the pseudonym as it was liberating and allowed him to indulge in 'fantasies of violence' that he could not write under his own name, as he stated in a 2014 Guardian interview. Reviews for this work comment on the use of callous rhetoric, a far cry and contrast from Barnes' novels issued under his own name. Under the name Kavanagh, Barnes allows himself a different literary personality. The Duffy novels were only reissued in 2014, over thirty years since their initial publication. Any edition of the work is extremely scarce, and we have a fine first edition here. The character Duffy is dubbed as being one of Britain's first openly bi-sexual detectives. This first novel explores the 'seedy underbelly of soho&apos. There were four Duffy novels total, 'Duffy', 'Fiddle City', 'Putting the Boot in' and 'Going to the Dogs&apos. 'Duffy was a bisexual investigator well acquainted with the delicate balance between the law and outlaw in Soho's Golden Mile. It had been four years since he left the force, his career cut short when someone mysteriously framed him.. He wondered why the police were bungling their surveillance.' An unusual, and very scarce work of Detective Fiction. In the publisher's original cloth binding. With unclipped dustwrapper. Externally, excellent with minor shelfwear. Dustwrapper is fine. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Fine . Ill.: None. Fine/Fine.