Saturday, May 3, 2008

Paperback 90: The Hot Diary (Howard J. Olmsted) / Ring Around a Rogue (J. M. Flynn) (Ace Double D-459)

Paperback 90: Ace Double D-459 (PBO 1960 / PBO 1960)

Title: The Hot Diary / Ring Around a Rogue
Author: Howard J. Olmsted / J.M. Flynn
Cover artist: uncredited / uncredited

Yours for: SOLD (early May 2008)


Best things about this cover:

  • Don't make Robert Stack angry. You wouldn't like Robert Stack when he's angry
  • This cover is great - quintessential hard-boiled with a mod style (again, love pink in my hard-boiled covers). They are both dressed impeccably. Her dress is fierce (love the black accents, especially the band and bow toward the hemline), and he carries off a trench-coat way better than most dopey goons.
  • Does this count as "bondage?" I'm counting it. I imagine that her hands are tied. That, or she lost her right arm in the war or a freak fishing accident.
  • "Never Write About Murder" - uh ... you just did.

PAGE 23~

I wouldn't have minded if she'd slapped me or swore at me. But her calm, unmoved acceptance of the kiss frosted me. It hit me where I lived, in my pride.



Best things about this cover:

  • These two covers make a nice pair: "Things To Do With a Girl When You're Armed": "You can grab her like this ... or kiss her like this ... it's up to you."
  • Here's a sexless sex scene if I've ever seen one. He looks ... wooden. "Let's see, I put my gun ... here, and my left hand reaches around like ... so. OK. What do I do with my lips again?" Etc.
  • The painting here does nothing to up the eros. The paint looks hastily daubed on. She has that horrid bottle-blond rubbery head look (see the "Finger Man" cover), and rarely have I been so unmoved by so much female skin.
  • "A Car, A Girl and A Gun" - or "Copywriter Gives Up, Decides Life's Meaningless" - that's him there, plummeting over that cliff in the car.

PAGE 123~

Deal grabbed him by the shirt front, yanked him from the sofa, and backhanded the expressionless face. Blood trickled from the corner of the flat lips but Chiong did not cry out.


~RP

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

RING AROUND A ROGUE - sounds like a prostate exam gone wrong...

Is he doing a split? Man, that's gotta hurt. A groin pull like that, well, I think you can count him out of the next figure skating competition.

Anonymous said...

Rex, is there something about the guys always having to be in suits while the girls are in various states of undress? I mean, I know that sexual equality was not something paperbacks of this time were in to, but it seems like every time there is a guy and a girl together, he is always wearing a suit, even when it is completely inappropriate to do so. My guess is that showing female skin became risque but acceptable long before it was ok to show male skin - true?

Michael5000 said...

I was going to add to the "sexless sex scene" indictment: he looks wooden, yes, but also he is still wearing his jacket and tie.

The woman's right appendage looks more like a tentacle than an arm; maybe it's a science fiction novel?

First rule of Murder Club: Never write about Murder.... oh, never mind.

Rex Parker said...

Zach,

If it's male skin you want, check out the "Shirtless Man" label under "Labels" (there are currently 6 ... specimens).

Presumed audience of these things was decidedly male, hence the preponderance of female eye candy. Actual audience was probably pretty diverse.

The gay male part of my collection, which is yet to come (!), is not very big (!) (by comparison with the lesbian collection), but it's very, very memorable. Trust me.

-RP

Verilees said...

Is the car going over backwards over the cliff? Did cars then have headlights on the back for night backing up?