Title: Kill Him Twice
Author: Richard S. Prather
Cover artist: Schlocky Crapperson
Yours for: Not For Sale (gift of Doug Peterson)
Best things about this cover:
- Well, it's yellow. With orange font. That's pretty original.
- Her hair ... her hair ... it's OK, until it gets over her elbow, and then it becomes something unrecognizable, bordering on unholy. Are those dead stoats hanging off her head? A dirty bathmat? A skein of brownish yarn.
- It appears that Pocket couldn't afford to pay cover artists any more, and so had to resort to picking old sketches and doodles out of the waste baskets and passing them off as art. Here, we see the partial remains of "Artist practicing drawing a dead guy."
- "I said 'Kill him twice,' not "Kill him and a guy who looks just like him!'"
Best things about this back cover:
- Nice big gun hand. Can't ask for much else.
Page 123~
They were lips that said hello and were warm friends two seconds later, carrying on a conversation Cassanova would have censored, carrying on a dialogue to bring dead libidoes back from limbo, carrying on a bedroomy hoo-hah in hot, hushed whispers—man, how they carried on.
I think "hoo-hah" means something different from what I thought it meant.
~RP
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12 comments:
I'd be inclined to write a lot more, about this back cover especially, but it's all so exciting that the only thing I can do is fluff up my skin and then take a nap. Hoo-hah!
Ah, I've been waiting for you to get around to posting a Richard S. Prather book!
I love these things, although this particular one looks like a slightly underwhelming example.
"Always Leave 'Em Dying", "Scrambled Yegs", both absolutely fantastic covers/blurbs, and I'll be able to die a happy man once I've finally tracked down a copy of his 'beatnik thriller', "Dig That Crazy Grave".
I love, amongst other things, how they always seem to make unfeasibly grand claims about the Prather's popularity ("the best-selling author in America today", etc).
Clicking on "Richard S. Prather" tag reveals that I've blogged 2 other Prather books already.
rp
Ah. That'll teach me to hit "publish" without even bothering to check - apologies.
"Slab Happy" looks like another winner.
Darn, you beat me on the "hoo-hah". Er, I mean of course, you mentioned that usage anomaly before I was able to. I think.
Also I think I have that same gun.
Schlocky Crapperson? HA! Love it.
Front cover: no way the right half of her dress should be staying up like that.
Back cover: Hoo-hah -- just kinda ruined the moment.
Did he really sell forty million books, as the cover audaciously claims? Yikes, Dan Brown is jealous.
Is the whole book written like the sentence from page 123? It would be unreadable if it was.
I love it when a woman fluffs her skin. Better yet, when she changes into something more hostessy. Appalling excerpt. I'd love to read the whole damned thing.
That is officially the best book excerpt I've ever read. Ever.
The only thing better than hoo-hah is "bedroomy" hoo-hah.
Something more "hostessy". Was she thinking of the giant loaf of bread costume or the giant Twinkey?
Looking at the cover, I just have to ask: is this where Quentin Tarantino got the idea for the poster for "Kill Bill" (1 and 2)?
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