Paperback 93: Darker Than Amber / John D. MacDonald (Gold Medal R1957)

Paperback 93: Gold Medal R1957 ([3rd ptg], [1968])
Title: Darker Than Amber
Author: John D. MacDonald
Cover artist: Ron Lesser

Yours for: $5


Best things about this cover:

• "He'd seen a lot of girls, but nobody ... DARKER THAN AMBER"
• Not surprisingly, this book has some racial issues (see back cover)
• OK, is her name Amber, or is she just "amber-eyed?" And I thought you said "Darker than Amber." What gives?
• I'm pretty sure it's an impossibility, or at least a paradox, if your "lily-white maiden" has "round heels."
• This girl is deep in the middle of a boob-pointing contest - the object: stand on your tiptoes, and then point your boobs toward the sky without falling over. Closest to straight heavenward wins. She's working on a 45 degree angle here (not bad).

Best things about this back cover:

• His pictures says: "What do you goons want?" or "Yes, I'm Professor McGrady. Can I help you?" Or "That damned roof is leaking again" or "How about now? Do I look like Popeye now?"
• A "Wounded Spook" is not (thank god) what it sounds like.
• "She chunked into the water..." That's more detail than I need.
• Technically, at the end of that second paragraph, "cop" should have quotation marks around it. I'm just sayin'.
• "Eurasian beauty" - awesome. We just don't have this rich, insane racial vocabulary anymore. Now ... we have three possibilities for the meaning of "Amber" - her eyes, her name, and her skin.
• "... a heart like an ancient gutter"??! Full of ... relics? Vomit from the many vomitoria? Maybe if she gave up chunking into the water ...

~PAGE 123

"She was about twenty-five?"
"Twenty-six."
"What did she do?"
"She'd been a prostitute for twelve years."
Merrimay's brown eyes widened. "My word, that's quite an early start, isn't it?"

~RP