Sunday, February 12, 2012

Paperback 499: The Bamboo Blonde / Dorothy B. Hughes (Pocket Books 394)

Paperback 499: Pocket Books 394 (1st ptg, 1946)

Title: The Bamboo Blonde
Author: Dorothy B. Hughes
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $8


PB394.Bamboo

Best things about this cover:
  • Fear Hand! (a damned good example of the form)
  • "No! No! Not a wart! Not now! Leonard will think I'm hideous! I'll be the pariah of the cotillion."
  • She's got Norma Desmond eyes.
  • Those curls are so perfectly circular and evenly set. Looks like her hair was made from some kind of mold or forge.
  • People liked knowing *exactly* which book they were getting from Pocket Book. Just like McDonald's customers liked knowing exactly how many had been "served" before them.


PB394bc.Bamboo

Best things about this back cover:
  • "Beautiful, but Dead, so ... I'll give you a 50% discount. Whaddya say?"
    CON SATTERLEE—good luck ever topping that name.
  • "The debonair Kew! The strapping Ar! The feckless Ess! And the toothsome Tee!" 

Page 123~

But he couldn't, not in a billion light-years, be guilty of murder.

I don't know. A billion light-years is a stupidly long time (especially insofar as it's not a time at all).

~RP

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3 comments:

Tulse said...

Actually, a billion light-years is not a stupidly long time -- this is an error more commonly known as The Kessel Run Confusion.

And "Griselda"? Seriously?

Dave M said...

Only stupid because a light-year is a measure of distance, not time.

Rex Parker said...

Well, exactly. I see that my "stupidly" didn't convey that at all. Duly noted and modified.

rp