Saturday, April 17, 2010

Paperback 307: Payment Deferred / C.S. Forester (Bantam 816)

Paperback 307: Bantam 816 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Payment Deferred
Author: C.S. Forester
Cover artist: Harry Schaare

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

  • The hot new sequel to "Interest Accrued," from the publishers who brought you "Expenses Deducted"
  • "They're after me, Gladys! I know they are. You defer *one* payment and they sic the dogs on you. That's why I've put my throne by the window, so I can keep my eye ... hey! What's that? Is someone going through our trash? Oh. No, just a raccoon. Here, get me some more Red Bull, would ya? Gotta stay alert ..."
  • I love her face — happy, like she's imagining what she'll do with his money when he's inevitably bumped off.

Best things about this back cover:
  • "... will keep you chained to your chair..." — That's pretty vivid. "This book will perform such degrading acts of bondage upon you that you'll be forced to acknowledge its awesomeness."
  • Hey, looks like the original hardcover features a guy looking out a window, too. I'll take the cover with the sexily murderous strawberry blonde any day of the week.

Page 123~

For once he was neither the hotel prisoner nor yet was he at home with his father. It was the transition stage. He spent his time deliciously, luxuriously.

Ah, the transition stage from hotel prisoner to home with father. Such a heady time in a young man's life.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

6 comments:

shushie said...

Payment may be deferred, but what about happy hour? I don't know if I've ever seen two people more in need of a drink. Their empty glasses and expressions say, "Refill, on the double!"

Unknown said...

While I like the detail in these two Harry Schaare covers, I'm not confident of them selling books. They both feature tense/bored looking bloke-doing-nothing in the foreground, and annoyingly smug looking women in the background. Just the vaguest hints of plot are discernible.

Payment Deferred's rear blurb isn't moving units either, it spends half the cover proclaiming: If you liked the bestsellers The African Queen and Flying Colours ... well his book is nothing like them!.

Brian Busby said...

I'm with Xerxes. I admire the technique, but wonder that anyone thought it would attract any readers.

A man staring out a window, glass in hand, as a woman in a green dress looks on. I hesitate in providing a link to my own, but can't help but see similarities in a forgotten pulp novel I just put down.

Now, this is how to sell a book!

Michael5000 said...

WITH a Forester. You can't go wrong WITH a Forester. What happens ON a Forester, that's more than I want to know.

Unknown said...

My favorite Forester title ("Poo Poo and the Dragons") and the look on that guy's face leads me to believe "Payment Deferred" is a euphamism for something bathroom-related.

Valentin Galea said...

I had to stop reading as I was laughing uncontrollably at work! :))