Paperback 339: Pocket Books 6083 (5th ptg, 1961)
Title: The Case of the Backward Mule
Author: Erle Stanley Gardner
Cover artist: Uncredited
Yours for: $6
Best things about this cover:
- A conceptual mess. What century is it? Why is the space princess massaging her scalp, and what does it have to do with bizarrely mustachioed Chinese man on the donkey? No wonder I've never heard of "Terry Clane" and "Inspector Malloy"—how do you expect to get an enduring series off the ground with this muddled a marketing campaign?
- "Behold, as Eva Gabor summons miniature Chinese ghosts from the distant past using the power of her Magic Updo!"
- God, the more I look at this cover, the uglier and sillier it gets. Different colors on all the different (stupid) fonts? I'd cut Everything But The Girl and start over.
Best things about this back cover:
- "Don't touch anything! You're leaving blue fingerprints everywhere!"
Page 123~
"In our business, we don't do too much speculative thinking, Mr. Clane. We investigate. And when we investigate we make it a point to cover all of the possibilities."
"I see."
"Even," Malloy went on, "including that poker-faced Chinese servant of yours, Yat T'oy."
"I see."
~RP
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