Title: Mambo to Murder / I See Red
Author: Dale Clark / Sterling Noel
Cover artist: Uncredited / Uncredited
Yours for: Not For Sale (donation to the collection from Laurie Gagne)
Best things about this cover:
- "Dammit, Lily, you said we were gonna Tango to Terror! I can't mambo—you know that! I haven't got the hips for it! Dammit, Lily!"
- I love old-timey tough guys with their high-waisted pants and short loose ties and rolled cuffs and adamant stances and aggressive cigarette-gripping. This guy looks sooo much like a noir actor I can't place ... I mean, I can see him, but can't remember name or even movie. Usually a detective, I think.
- Lily is reaching into her clutch because she is definitely going to shoot tough guy and then go drink at BAR across the street.
- This is a great painting, actually. Lots of great details, including her hair, expression, chest ... everything about her, really. Also the full ashtray on the sill. Nice.
- I believe the original, unstickered tagline read "She taught him the steps to a danse macabre!"
Best things about this other cover:
- Miranda wanted her boudoir photo shoot to be "terrorist-themed" for some reason.
- What's the opposite of "Fear Hand"? (*That's* the opposite of "Fear Hand").
- Most of the things I want to say involve profane word play linking the title "I See Red" and the word "snatched," but I'm too modest so I'll just make the banal observation that "I See Red" is an anagram of "Desiree."
- Also, I keep reading "snatched bigot." And, occasionally, "snatched bigfoot."
Page 123~ (of Mambo to Murder)
"Nobody asks me any questions," I grinned, "without buying the answers."
~RP
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