Friday, September 26, 2008

Paperback 143: Double, Double / Ellery Queen (Pocket Books 874)

Paperback 143: Pocket Books 874 (1st ptg, 1952)

Title: Double, Double
Author: Ellery Queen
Cover artist: Tom Dunn

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

  • Betty's audition for Macbeth was cut violently short...
  • Betty's voracious appetite for men's hands knew no limits...
  • Extreme Chiropractics!
  • Honestly, this is one of the most vivid and memorable covers in my collection. I want to read the book just to figure out what he's doing to her (or vice versa)

Best things about this back cover:
  • Super pastel rectangles. Love them.
  • "Town Hermit" - is that an official position? It's capitalized!
  • There is a "little" too much use of "scare" quotes on this back "cover.
  • It seems a little odd that the selling point of this mystery is that it includes SEVEN murders (arbitrary?) and that there were NO CLUES - what the hell does "Double, Double" have to do with anything? This should have been called "Seven Murders, No Clues"

Page 123~

Now the last lingering bong was gone and Dakin was his proper hatchet self again, and Ellery said, "So," like little Hercule Poirot, and he went over and shut one of the windows, shivering.

This may be my favorite "Page 123" sentence ever, if only for "the last lingering bong."

~RP

7 comments:

literarychica said...

Whoa, that cover is fierce. Literally. It does not seem implausible that she's about to chomp on her hand. That sentence is exactly the kind of sentence that makes me want to pull out a red pen. I'm a bit old school when it comes to grammar though. :-)

Anonymous said...

"Now the last lingering bong was gone..." ...it just rolls off the tongue. And it somehow reminds me of how most of the parties I attended in college ended...

Anonymous said...

Easily my favorite cover in the collection!

Anonymous said...

We'll have no yawning on this cover, young lady!

Michael5000 said...

One always becomes one's hatchet self again, after that last lingering bong....

Totally agree. Double, double can't get to seven unless you start with 1 3/4. And how likely is that?

borky said...

Cover: Betty'd been born with no arms, so needed assistance whenever she wanted to make a Red Indian war cry sound.

Benzadmiral said...

"Double, Double" is not one of the best Ellery Queens. It's good, but not great. Try "Cat of Many Tails," an early serial killer novel set in the summer of 1947.