Title: Murder is the Pay-Off (Popular Library 50-426, 1st ptg, 1960)
Author: Leslie Ford (she can't be stopped)
Cover artist: uncredited
Yours for: $7
- "Here, hold this dead man against your chin. It'll stop the swelling."
- She looks like a lady in a commercial for some cleanser that gets blood stains out of your carpet.
- The horrific palette on Ms. Ford's books continues unabated.
- "Wallop" is a funny word.
- I'm not sure you want to suggest that the reader has to be "dragged along."
- "GUARANTEE!" — I can't wait to see what this "full reading satisfaction" is all about.
Page 123~
Swede Carlson's thick hand planted itself quickly in the dark on Gus Blake's knee.
Mmm, I smell full reading satisfaction up ahead ...
~RP
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9 comments:
Dead man against chin! That one got me.
That's the first time I've seen "wallop" used in a non-specific, conceptual, gestalt sense. "A" wallop, sure, but "wallop" as some quality that exists at large in the universe and it is for all mankind to claim some small portion of it for his reading pleasure, um,no.
Send the book back to 355 Lexington Avenue demanding a refund and see what happens.
"Swede Carlson's thick hand planted itself quickly in the dark on Gus Blake's knee."
Sounds like the beginning of an evening of gaiety, all right.
i havent laughed this hard since i read your review of the book that said the reader would be so excited--(fill in the blank) he would vomit!!!!
You know, murder is a pretty crappy pay-off. I'm just saying...I won't be playing that particular game at the casino.
I love how even in death the man's arm is raised. He appears to have died whilst attempting to walk like an Egyptian.
I've been noticing that a lot of books from this period seem to feature purple as a main background color, not just on these Leslie Ford books. Was that really such an in color, or are we seeing the result of some other ink fading and changing over time?
Also, we have another badly distorted hand here. Reminds me a little of the first transformation scene in American Werewolf (the original with Jenny Agutter and the Dr. Pepper guy).
I didn't know you could "build" wallop, I thought you could only "pack" one.
"Doc Wernitz"? No doubt because someone else had already taken the name "El Mysterioso".
I feel sorry for poor Ms Ford, saddled as she was by such terrible cover artists.
It occurred to me that the lady on the cover looked desperately hungry....
Swede Carlson's thick hand planted itself quickly in the dark on Gus Blake's knee.
Looks like someone's been behind the barn.
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