Title: Hammett Homicides
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Cover artist: Gerald Gregg
Yours for: $30
Best things about this cover:
- Taste the (lead) rainbow!
- Uh, guys? I think it's probably dead now.
- I see a pretty butterfly.
- Gerald Gregg is my favorite early, semi-abstract, non-sleazy cover artist.
Best things about this back cover:
- [ahem] … MAPBACK!
- So iconic—Hammett's S.F.!
- Sausaleto? What the?! … aw, I can't stay mad at you, mapback! Come here!
Page 123~ (opening paragraph of "The Main Death")
The captain told me Hacken and Begg were handling the job. I caught them leaving the detectives' assembly room. Begg was a freckled heavyweight, as friendly as a Saint Bernard puppy, but less intelligent. Lanky Detective-Sergeant Hacken, not so playful, carried the team's brains behind his worried hatchet face.
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
3 comments:
as friendly as a Saint Bernard puppy, but less intelligent
Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark.
I was just studying a Gerald Gregg back cover yesterday, a map of two adjacent apartments that were the scene of a murder. I found myself trying to figure out how the flow worked; would the kitchen really be down a long hall from the living room? How come there's no way into the bedroom except through the bathroom?
Last book had yellow eyes, this one has silver eyes. Nobody has silver eyes. Gray, yes, silver, no.
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