Paperback 1149: Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective / Agatha Christie (Dell 550)

Paperback 1149: Dell 550 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective

Author: Agatha Christie

Cover artist: Rafael de Soto

Condition: 7+/10

Value: $8

[Autumn Leaves, Ithaca, NY, summer '25]

Best things about this cover: 

• Hey, alright, balding middle-aged bespectacled guy gets to be semi-heroic. You don't see that every day.
• This lady is really bringing the hand action. Fear Hand™ reaching out toward us, while the other hand clutches her throat. Meanwhile, the guy's hands are also pretty busy, one of them holding and guiding the young woman, the other holding a handkerchief to his face (surely a more effective survival strategy than self-strangulation)
• I assumed they were fighting their way through poisoned gas, but maybe it's just a smoke from a fire. But if it was a fire, I assume we'd be getting more clearly FIRE iconography. Where are the flames? Since when do fires give off a kind of mauve miasma?
• Rafael de Soto was one of the artists who jumped from pulps to paperbacks, and you can really see the pulp expertise here. So good at conveying drama and action, so many nice little details—the wrinkles in his brow, for instance, or her bracelet, or his surprisingly stylish purple tie. If he's gonna die, he's gonna die in style! 

Best things about this back cover: 

• Mapback! God bless Dell for the Mapback period. Every back cover a cartological adventure!
• If ever there was an image of imperialism ... Great Britain is barely on this map, but the Houses of Parliament, seem to have invaded and absolutely crushed eastern Europe and Russia.
• The iconography is perfect. Paris has the Arc de Triomphe, Britain has Parliament, Turkey's got minarets, Egypt's got pyramids, and then there's Iraq, which is represented, of course, by its world famous bus.

Page 123~

    "Oh, yes! Edward's a perfect angel." She hesitated. "Not, perhaps, very much go to him. Just a little—well, I'd call it strait-laced. Lot of Puritan ancestry and all that. But he's a dear," she added hastily.

"Where oh where did my go go? Why is it so low? I'll never know"—Edward

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]

Paperback 840: Not I, Said the Vixen / Bill S. Ballinger (Gold Medal k1529)

Paperback 840: Gold Medal k1529 (PBO, 1965)

Title: Not I, Said the Vixen
Author: Bill S. Ballinger
Cover artist: [Bill Johnson]

Estimated value: $8-12

Donation to the collection from Mr. John Q. Brooklyn (I don't want to use real names w/o permission). Guy asks me "Can I send you a book for your blog?" Twist my arm!


Best things about this cover:

• "Isn't it true that your favorite letter is "I", Miss Lorents? ANSWER THE QUESTION!"
• "Do you deny that you are overwhelmingly sensual? DO YOU!?"
• This is a "vixen"? This looks like someone who showed up to a table reading for her role as "Vixen" in an episode of "Perry Mason." She does have a pretty boss head-tilt, but my prescription for greater vixenitude is less clothes, more gun. And … yeah, sure, go ahead and put on the glasses. OK, now shoot the D.A. and then stand over his body like, "told ya."

Best things about this back cover:

• Way to bury the lede, Gold Medal. How is PROWLED THE WORLD OF TWILIGHT WOMEN not on the cover!?
• She "ruined her lovers with the hot breath of scandal" ("scandal" being a last-minute substitute for "chili cheese fries")
• "Please state your name for the record." "Ivy Lorents." "And how do you spell 'Ivy,' Miss Lorents? I presume it starts 'I', 'V'…" "Not I." "Objection! Permission to treat the vixen as sensual, your honor."

Page 123~

"You had her … falling all over herself," Ivy said, pleased with the memory of Pauline's discomfort.

Please invest that sentence with all the Sapphic innuendo you can muster.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 735: The Wanton / Carter Brown (Signet 1713)

Paperback 735: Signet 1713 (1st ptg, 1959)

Title: The Wanton

Author: Carter Brown

Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: $8

Best things about this cover:

• "Emerging from the giant green space womb on her ornate hovercraft, Suzie began putting her magnetic hands to work..."
• Spangle tights!
• Wantons sure sit funny.

Best things about this back cover:

• Carter Brown, Private Accountant
• "Mom says I'm not supposed to smoke around the typewriter, but … I'm kind of a rebel."
• "…with death" — just add it to anything you happen to be saying for more drama.
• Who is Mavis Seidlitz and how do I get my hands on one of her (her?) mysteries?

Page 123~

Late the following afternoon, I sat in the visitor's chair—the one with springs—and watched the beaming smile on the Sheriff's face.

Because visitors like to *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* ….

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 487: The Shocking History of Advertising / E.S. Turner (Ballantine F 403 K)

Paperback 487: Ballantine Books F 403 K (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: The Shocking History of Advertising
Author: E.S. Turner
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $9


Best things about this cover:

• The Shocking History Of Fonts!
• What "tragic ailment" does the "Other Tragic Ailments" guy have? Besides the zits he has picked at, necessitating all the little bits of toilet tissue? I'm going to guess Massive Bald Oval Head Syndrome (MBOHS).
• I'd be surprised if Dr. Scott's Electric Corset didn't sell by the truckload. I mean, look at that lady. That corset is clearly rocking her "vital organs" big time. I doubt it's a coincidence that "organs" looks a lot like "orgasm," and that the word is running right up her leg.
• I want a T-shirt with that smoking rabbit head on it.

Best things about this back cover:

• Blah blah blah too much text too many colors my head hurts. 
• The integrated plug!? Sounds like an accessory for Dr. Scott's Electric Corset (plug sold separately).

Page 123~

Some excessively prudish criticisms of posters were voiced during this period. It is on record that even the Bovril bull was condemned by the town of Cork for the reason that it was too obviously a bull.

And thus I leave you with the image of massive bull schlong. You're welcome.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 214: Black Mail / Did She Fall Or Was She Pushed? - Doris Miles Disney (Ace G-506)

Paperback 214: Ace G-506 (1st ptg / 1st ptg, 1963)

Title: Black Mail / Did She Fall Or Was She Pushed?
Author: Doris Miles Disney
Cover artist: uncredited / uncredited

Yours for: $9


Best things about this cover:

• I believe the mail now prefers to be called "Negro"
• Sexy librarian look is basically ruined by the straitjacket
• "I got rejected from Haverford?! But that was my safety school! Noooo!"
• Awesome psionic powers - that horn-rimmed lady is packing the double whammy: Swirling Disorientation Vortex and Orange Implaing Lance of Death
• "Authentic background," HA ha. "The sky and fields look so real..."

Best things about this cover:

• That guy wins the award for Most Oddly Proportioned Detective. His feet are gigantic. And hazy.
• Experimental art - sometimes good, sometimes bad. Here ... thumbs down. No action? Is it cold or just desolate? What in the hell is on her head? Her vacant look does nothing for me. I'll take the freaked-out letter reader and even the freaky four-eyes on the flip side of this book over this lavender-hooded nobody.
• That title is laughably bad. The whole book should be just one word long: "Pushed."

Page 123~

Monday had figured so consistently in the pattern that this was the day on which he expected the watch to bear fruit.

That is, by far, the most exciting sentence on the page. Reading her prose is like watching paint dry. Beige paint.

~RP

P.S. where are my snarky, enthusiastic commenters? I've actually lost two "Followers" in the past week? Boo hoo. I know I have been *slightly* behind on my postings, but come on - help me out here a little. Give me a push. A little momentum. Somethin'. Thx.