Showing posts with label Lanterns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lanterns. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Paperback 961: The Chocolate Cobweb + Who's Been Sitting in My Chair? / Charlotte Armstrong (Ace Double G-511)

Paperback 961: Ace Double G-511 (1st / 1st, 1962)

Title: The Chocolate Cobweb / Who's Been Sitting in My Chair?
Author: Charlotte Armstrong / Charlotte Armstrong
Cover artist: Uncredited / Uncredited

Estimated value: $15
Condition: 7/10 (because of warp—else 9/10; square, shiny, unread)

AceG511.2
Best things about this cover:
  • "Come away from the cobweb, dearie. I'm saving that one for company."
  • "It's chocolate!" "It's pica, dearie."
  • This isn't the first time Charlotte (Armstrong) has been associated with Webs...
  • Mystery writers are frequently praised for their "skill" (here, twice) as if they were performing a parlor trick as opposed to, you know, writing well. I just read a conventional mystery (by Helen Nielsen—Sing Me a Murder) and it was painfully contrived, as most puzzle-mysteries are (though Nielsen is a fine writer, in general). Chandler's "Simple Art of Murder" has made it virtually impossible for me to take the whodunnit seriously, or even enjoy it. Too much improbable nonsense and implausible, unprofessional, downright stupid gimmickry, all to make a complicated plot work out just so. Pass.

AceG511
Best things about this other cover:
  • I love her so much.
  • She knows how to get comfortable. Kicked off the heels and curled up on the chair, just relaxing. Arm across the body says "Please &*%# off, I'm trying to enjoy my cigarette in peace, thanks."
  • The Girl Who Dreamed of Some Square Guy Holding What is Clearly a Desk Mic
  • "Authentic witches"?!—I don't know what you're on about, Anthony Boucher, but I'm intrigued.

Page 123~ (from The Chocolate Cobweb)

The little paw touched his tired head in a brief caress.

In a not-too-distant future, when dogs and humans have switched positions ... The Chocolate Cobweb!

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Paperback 641: The Blue Kimono Kill / Walt Sheldon (Gold Medal k1546)

Paperback 641: Gold Medal k1546 (PBO, 1965)

Title: The Blue Kimono Kill
Author: Walt Sheldon
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $15

GMk1546

Best thing about this cover:
  • "Honey, we need to talk. Don't be made but ... it's about your lipstick."
  • Mmm, chick-flavored.
  • And the winner of this cover is: The Lantern.

GMk1546bc

Best things about this back cover:
  • God save me from a text-only back cover, ugh.
  • "But Marlin's academic career didn't last long. For, you see, Marlin was a fish."
  • Adjective of the Day: "Zen-spouting."

Page 123~

"You strike me as a man who could be brave, Marlin, in, let us say, the face of crude torture."

"Let us not say, and then say that we did," countered Marlin.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]