57 Books from the University Book Sale: Book 48

Title: The Window at the White Cat (Dell D411, 1st ptg, 1961)
Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Cover artist: Victor Kalin

Yours for: $6

• "Meow, I'm a house."
• Isn't "cathouse" another word for "whorehouse?" Yes. Yes it is.
• Cool wraparound cover by Victor Kalin, though the back just has some Tim Burton-esque tree, the eerie effect of which is deadened by the avalanche of text that's covering it.
• "The Cat With Wide-Set Ears and Mutton-Chops!"

Page 123~

The figure stopped to read the taximeter, shook his fist at the chauffeur, and approached me, muttering audibly.

Isn't muttering inherently audible?

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

57 books from the University Book Sale: Book 1

Title: The Confession + Sight Unseen
Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Cover artist: Victor Kalin

Yours for: best offer

"Mrrowr"
"Hello?"
"Meow?"
"Uh, I'm calling about the antique phone you advertised in the paper?"
"[purrrr]"
"Is this Rinehart?"

[My wife thought this was a book about a cat named "Rinehart," by a woman named Mary Roberts — a reasonable inference, I say]

Page 123~ (from "Sight Unseen")

Of Elinor Wells I have only my wife's verdict, and I have found that, as is the way with many good women, her judgments of her own sex are rather merciless.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Paperback 209: The Opening Door / Helen Reilly (Dell 917)

Paperback 209: Dell 917 (1st ptg, 1956)
Title: The Opening Door
Author: Helen Reilly
Cover artist: Victor Kalin

Yours for: $7


Best things about this cover:

• Given how it's cut and hung, I'm surprised the door opens at all
• That lady makes for a very nice-looking corpse. Normally, I go for women who are more than 3 ft. tall, but in her case, I'll make an exception.
• I change my vote. The expression on her face says not "dead" but "drunk and happy about it."

Best things about this back cover:

• Whoa. What the ... see, I almost like this. Dramatic meltdown, in slo-motion. That, or she's doing her best Elvis/James Brown song-ending pose. The one big difference: I think both those guys had more than three fingers on their right hands.
• "Taint of murder" - oh, man, that's the worst kind of taint
• "The Knob Is Turning" - a. that should have been the title of this book, b. that's what she said.

Page 123~

Gerald was talking to Cicely Thwaight near a clump of palms. How he had - dwindled, Eve thought dispassionately.

But Thwaight! There's more!

~RP

Paperback 78: Slaughter Street / Louis Falstein (Pyramid G437)

Paperback 78: Pyramid G437 (1st ptg, 1959)

Title: Slaughter Street
Author: Louis Falstein
Cover artist: Victor Kalin

YOURS FOR: $12 (SOLD - 4/18/08)


Best things about this cover:

• "... and even her fierce, shameless love would be no shield" - lying in bed naked gets my vote for Least Effective Shield of All Time
• This cover is So good - so many of my favorite cover elements: naked redhead, smoking guy with gun, motel (I imagine), etc.

Best things about this back cover:

Sorry, I stopped reading at "bowels"

RP