*****
A Mess of March ... I'm moving all the NGAIO MARSH titles to the front of the queue (literally, Roger Daltrey sang the word "queue" as I typed it just now ... freaky coincidence) because one of my readers seems to have a thing for her :)
Book 8: Singing in the Shrouds (Berkley, 1960)
Cover artist: photo?
- A book that takes on the collapsing telecommunications system, apparently
- Her miniskirt has its own miniarm.
- Finally, someone has tamed the wild, native, animalistic mystery novel and made it "civilized literature." Where's my houseboy with the tea!?
Book 9: Death of a Peer (Pocket 475, 1947)
Cover artist: Aargh, uncredited
- This lady's got Fear Hand (TM). In fact, she appears to have a double case of it.
- Ouch. Skeleton key to the eye. That's gotta hurt.
- Well if it's WEALTHY, of course we care...
Book 10: Death of a Fool (Avon T-254, late '50s)
Cover artist: Uncredited
- Fear Hand! (TM)
- Jenny recoils in horror as she sees that her gardener has failed to blow all the leaves off her front lawn. And squirrels on her bird-feeders!? Oh, the humanity.
- Inspector Alleyn arrives to cut through the heathen nonsense of the simple souls. Civilization! God save the Queen, wot!
Book 11: Swing, Brother, Swing (Pocket 762, 1951)
Cover artist: Lew Keller
- "Swing, Brother, Swing ... for Hepcats only, man!"
- Secret ingredient to all good mystery cover copy — just add "... with DEATH!"
- I'm sorry, I started laughing at "accordion" and haven't stopped yet
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
12 comments:
"...with DEATH!"
This reminds me of an afternoon at least 20 years ago, when a buddy and I were drinking beer and watching TV; a promo for Hawaii 5-O came on - "5-O races death to find a killer!"
Of course 5-O races death, we said; they *always* race death. Then we started thinking about what else they might race: maiming, injury, paper cuts, a nasty hangnail, that uncomfortable bloated feeling...
Erik, don't forget that dreaded "not so fresh feeling."
I love that they draw attention to the fact that the edition is complete and unabridged...I pity the fool that mistakenly bought the abridged version of Death of a Fool!
I love how the second one is "a necessity for every fan." They somehow neglect to tell us "fan of what" needs this.... Fan of travel? Tea? Crochet? The Ohio State University (go Buckeyes!)? Tolkien novels? I guess they needed a bigger book to fit that on the cover.
Excellent post, Rex. I'm still laughing at you laughing at the accordion.
Is there any way to slide your fingers down the keys of an accordion besides grotesquely? No, there is not.
Hmm... I would think it'd be a no-brainer that a person in something called a "Sword Dance" would "meet sudden death in a rather nasty fashion." In fact, that sounds like it's probably an understatement.
Death of a peer: for me it seems there's a comforter in his forehead...
The accordion blurb got me snickering too, but I remember days when the local 'bands?' tried to play new music and there was always an accordion player @#$%& the music.
I'd forgot that crime novels always had lurid covers. Fear, terror, horror had to be suggested no matter what the book was about. And how often did the blurbs tell you anything?
I have a huge collection of Agatha's books. I reread them frequently, but now I've got to go take another another kind of look at them. Covers and blurbs! Oh My!
Patg
...with DEATH!!!
These covers are... just like that, yes.
I have the original artwork for the cover "Swing Brother Swing" if anyone is interested..... from the artist lew keller.
818-605-8189 Ross
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