Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Paperback 139: Bodies Are Where You Find Them / Brett Halliday (Dell D327)

Paperback 139: Dell D327 (1st New Dell ptg, 1959)

Title: Bodies Are Where You Find Them
Author: Brett Halliday
Cover artist: Bob McGinnis

Yours for: $7


Best things about this cover:

  • Bob, Bob, Bob - why are you hiding her!!?
  • The title of this book is so true
  • If you Google ["is where you find it"], you'll be shocked at how many different things apply. Short list: Love, Home, Gold, Faith, Fun, Jazz, Art, etc.
  • It's actually a very smoky cover, for being awfully short on lady flesh. Dishevelment + those eyes = hot.
  • Love the double entendre on "bodies" here
  • That Mike Shayne mug is a kind of trademark that appears on nearly all the Dell pbs of Mike Shayne novels. It's a Bob Stanley design, I think

Best things about this back cover:

  • Honestly, I have no idea what I'm looking at. Is that the corner of a bedsheet?
  • "... lots of money, from way back." Like ... antebellum? Is his wealth all in ducats? Doubloons?
  • The only think I like more than an heiress is a "madcap heiress."
  • Whoa whoa whoa - that chick on the front cover is dead? If so, that's a cruel, cruel joke.

Page 123~

"Let's just pretend we're invisible," Shayne suggested.


~RP

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was loosely based on the premise of this book. Very loosely.

LGD said...

"Honestly, I have no idea what I'm looking at. Is that the corner of a bedsheet?"

Yes, and her right-foot bedroom slipper, lying on its side, seen from the angle where her foot would be.

Michael5000 said...

That "let's pretend we're invisible" gambit never works.