Thursday, March 19, 2026

Paperback 1164: And Sometimes Death / Jo Valentine (Pocket Books 1083)

Paperback 1164: Pocket Books 1083 (1st ptg, 1955)

Title: And Sometimes Death
Author: Jo Valentine
Cover artist: Tom Dunn

Condition: 8/10
Value: $10

Best things about this cover: 
  • "A, E, I, O, U ..."
  • What's the opposite of a peeping tom? Where you peep ... from inside the house ... at people who aren't hiding at all?
  • "Hold me, Steve. My weird neighbor is freaking me out."
  • LOL the original title makes it sound like a novel about the psychological problems of a misunderstood Norse god
  • What is the ragged-edged frame supposed to evoke here? It's not torn paper, or an explosion. More like a stain. Or a country in the Balkans you forgot existed
Best things about this back cover: 
  • Like Proust's madeleine, only shamefuler
  • So ... behind his hands ... is his heart? How did that happen? Henry Duncane, anatomical wonder!
  • That last paragraph is weird. Is he hoping for a disaster? What disaster? Does he see the disaster in the night sky "beyond her?" Is it an asteroid? I hope it is an asteroid.
Page 123~
Nobody bathed in Thor Lake.
See, that should've been the title of the book. 

~RP

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