Title: The Crazy Mixed-Up Corpse
Author: Mike Avallone
Cover artist: Jack Floherty
Yours for: $19
Best things about this cover:
- Peek-a-boo nighties are a staple of vintage paperback covers, but you rarely see the women in said nighties *actually* playing peek-a-boo.
- Or maybe she's just sad. Or performing some odd modern dance routine. Whatever she's doing, she appears to be doing it while wrapped in the kind of cellophane they use to cover fruit baskets.
- "Oh, what's a corpse to do!? [sob sob, toe point]"
Best things about this back cover:
- "Flounced" is a fabulous word.
- Nice contemporary hot-chick references in the opening sentences. I like how the writer is on a first name / first name / last name basis with these legendary lookers.
- "She wore clothes nakedly" = Avallone at his Hammettiest.
- Second paragraph reads like a tagline discard pile. "You put those on the cover!? Those were just notes!"
- Rarely, upon taking candy from a baby, do you demand that it take off its clothes.
Page 123~
He dug a thick fold of something from his pocket, fanned it out. Checked it the same way you do a map. It was a map.
Sometimes, you gotta stay literal. Keeps readers on their toes.
~RP
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