Paperback 675: The Lodger / Mrs. Belloc Lowndes (Pocket Books 43)

Paperback 675: Pocket Books 43 (8th ptg, 1944)

Title: The Lodger
Author: Mrs. Belloc Lowndes
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

• Love! Wall-to-wall painting, fantastic composition, creepy miasmic haze, exciting font! Creepy over-the-shoulder look, purposeful walk, murder-hand! It's all here in a bright, simple package.
• Love the quaint "Mrs." Look, a lady writer!
• I read this book (this very book) many years ago and enjoyed it. Remarkably modern-feeling, especially for a book that turns 100 this year.

Best things about this back cover:

• See. "Why?" rather than "Who?" None of this whodunnit crap for Mrs. Belloc. This puts the book more in the tradition of noir, and a lot of good contemporary crime fiction, which explores the qualities of criminality and darkness rather than merely offering a puzzle to solve.

Page 123~

"Hark to her now!" Bunting looked at his Ellen with amusement. "Contrary isn't the word for her! But there, I've noticed the last few days that she seemed to be taking that monster's part. That's what comes of being a born total abstainer."

Ellen: Hard on Liquor, Soft on Crime, Wrong for England.

~RP

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