Friday, January 6, 2017

Paperback 984: Vanish in an Instant / Margaret Millar (Dell 730)

Paperback 984: Dell 730 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: Vanish in an Instant
Author: Margaret Millar
Cover artist: Griffith Foxley

Estimated value: $8
Condition: 6/10

Dell730
Best things about this cover:
  • Death comes for Richie and Joanie and the whole Arnold's gang!
  • Two great surprise faces. And then blond dude. Blond dude is like "Hey ... I'm also here ... what's up? Nice knife."
  • My two favorite things about this cover are That Hand and That Ribbon.
  • Margaret Millar was the wife of Kenneth Millar, aka Ross Macdonald. Ross and I both have English Ph.D.s from Michigan. Go Blue.

Dell730bc
Best things about this back cover:
  • It's kinda busy. Swoosh, swish, plummet!
  • "How many mysteries rate THIS kind of rave?" Uh, six! No, eight! Thirty-four! ... what do you mean, "rhetorical"?
  • Gonna need a fact-check on "Not one in a hundred." Sounds kinda made-up.

Page 123~

"Are you still here?"
"Yes."
"Want a drink?"
"Not now, thanks."
"It's rum," she said.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

3 comments:

A said...

To quote the infamous Crocodile Dundee, "That's not a knife"

Unknown said...

Is the knife made of glass? Or is the knife the thing that's vanishing as per the title?

Rex Parker said...

Plastic cafeteria knife.