Friday, May 3, 2013

Paperback 637: The Way the Cookie Crumbles / James Hadley Chase (Pocket Books 77922)

Paperback 637: Pocket Books 77922 (1st ptg, 1974)

Title: The Way the Cookie Crumbles
Author: James Hadley Chase
Cover artist: photo cover

Yours for: $15

PB77922

Best things about this cover:
  • Is the drug in the needle gonna make the mimes go away? If so, shoot me. Now.
  • I'm sorry. I said "mimes." What I meant was "mimes hovering over my death bed."
  • I don't know what corner-mime is miming, and I really don't want to know.
  • Design team leader: "Well, the title refers to cookies, so I'm thinking... chicks, drugs and mimes. What do you think?"


PB77922bc

Best things about this back cover:
  • JAIL BAIT. Sure, sounds good. There's been no image continuity or discernible theme so far, so why start now?
  • If her morals are ripe, shouldn't they be at their peak? Is she chaste? Is that what you're saying? I don't think that's what you're saying.
  • Aaaaaand ... a murderous dwarf. Of course. Perfect. OK, I think we're done here. Unless there's a kitchen sink someone wants to shoehorn into this plot somehow.

Page 123~

"Oh, never mind. Why didn't you get yourself some clothes, Jess? I sent you enough money."
"What the hell do I want clothes for?"
"Paradise City isn't New York. You can get picked up by the cops for looking the way you do."
"Frig the cops!"

If you ever wondered where N.W.A. got their inspiration for "Fuck Da Police"—well, now you know.

~RP

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4 comments:

D.A. Trappert said...

I haven't read this one yet, but Chase is typically a hoot. He has no idea how Americans talk and knows nothing about American geography. Which didn't stop him from writing dozens of tough crime novels.

frilled_shark said...

'Ira' has always seemed like a boy's name to me, so the reference to a "ripe body" surprised me for a second.

Karl said...

So... there are other businesses where if you get killed it isn't your tough luck? Does that mean it's your good luck? Or does it mean that there's a handsome compensation package that will make you feel perfectly okay about getting killed?

Keir said...

Thought Hitchcock was England's Master of Suspense...
Maybe when he went across the Pond he relinquished it to Forsythe or Le Carre. Never heard of Chase though.