Kayo With Me

So I've been on this cross-country road trip (which is why this blog hasn't been updated since June 1973, or something) and while I have many, many adventures to recount... I thought I'd share a list of books I picked up today at Kayo Books on Post Street in San Francisco, just a block east of Dashiell Hammett's old apartment. I've been dying to visit this shop--which sells all vintage paperbacks, all the time--since Bill Crider mentioned it on his blog. I spent an hour shopping, though I easily could have disappeared inside this place for days on end.

My purchases fell into two categories: lurid true crime, and lurid fiction. The true crime:

Sintown U.S.A., a beat-up (but entirely readable) Lion pb. The real skinny on mid-century sin palaces like... Buffalo! Pittsburgh! Oklahoma City! Er... Fresno! (Edited by Noah Sarlat.)

Hollywood R.I.P, by I.G. Edmonds, a Regency paperback from 1963 detailing all kinds of grisly L.A. death stories. Harlan Ellison was a Regency editor for a brief while; I wonder if this was one of the titles he acquired.

Patty/Tania by Jerry Belcher and Don West and The Strange Case of Patty Hearst by John Pascal and Francine Pascal. What can I say? In a Patty Hearst mood.

Sudden Endings by Vin Packer (a.k.a. Marijane Meaker). An upbeat Gold Medal about 13 infamous suicides. How could I resist?

The "Dutch" Schultz Story by Ted Addy. Yeah, I can't seem to pass up gangster paperbacks, either.

The Girl in Lover's Lane by Charles Boswell and Lewis Thompson and The Girl in the Death Cell by Fred J. Cook. Apparently, Gold Medal had this "classic murder trials" series, all of which focused on girls, judging from the titles. The latter, Death Cell, covers the infamous Ruth Snyder/Henry Judd Gray case that inspired James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice.

As for the fiction:

A Man Called Spade. Hammett, of course. A Dell mapback, too. Beat to shit, but only $10... which is a great price for this edition. Had to own it.

As Tough As They Come, edited by Will Oursler. One of those great hardboiled anthologies, up there with The Hard-Boiled Omnibus. Also a beat to shit copy, but only $3 for a thick little hardboiled bible.

The Big Kiss-Off by Day Keene. There's always room for more Keene.

Suddenly By Shotgun by Norman Daniels. Hollywood starlet noir.

The Deadly Desire and Run for the Money by Robert Colby. Pretty sure Crider mentioned these. At $3 a pop, worth the risk.

42 Days For Murder, by Roger Torrey. Not a vintage paperback, but a Dennis McMillan reprint from 1988. Still, I couldn't resist, because it's about an SF PI who goes to Reno. (Coincidentally, I am a nerd currently in SF, and headed to Reno in the near future.)

Anybody out there ready any of these?

The Whole Amazon eBook Price War Came to Mind...

... when I read this passage in Gavin Lambert's short story, "The Slide Area":

She scratches her nose with a jewelled and freckled finger. "Are you sure you haven't read The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde?"

"Absolutely."

"Then I shall have to take it on trust. With an opening paragraph like that I think..." She breaks off vaguely, fumbling in her crocodile bag and giving the assistant a quarter.

The assistant says: "Thirty-five cents, please."

She takes an alarmed step backwards. "You mean it's one of the expensive ones?"

"It's thirty-five cents."

The Countess replaces the book in the Westerns rack. "Much too expensive," she says firmly, "when no one knows if it's really good. I adore pulp literature but one must retain one's sense of values. Where is your selection of twenty-five cent crime novels, please?"

Reprinted in David L. Ulin's Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology (Library of America, 2002).

The Feel-Good Noir Collection of the Summer

I'm calling it now.

Today I received an advance copy of Stark House Press's latest Harry Whittington collection, which includes three insanely rare short novels: To Find Cora, Like Mink Like Murder and Body and Passion. Whittington, of course, was the King of the Paperback during the 1950s and the author of the paperback suspense classics Web of Murder, The Devil Wears Wings and A Moment to Prey. All three were reprinted by Black Lizard in the late 1980s; all three are definitely worth hunting down and savoring. (This Harry Whittington, it's worth noting, was not the dude Dick Cheney shot in the face.)

Now I haven't read a single word of these short novels—I only received this ARC today—but the introduction alone is worth the price of the book. In it, mystery expert David Laurence Wilson talks about how he tracked down these rare finds, and it's like a pulp-nerd detective story. Sam Spade had his Maltese Falcon; Wilson has his "39 Unknowns"—namely, the 39 novels Whittington wrote under house names starting in 1960. Each were required to be 60,000 words long, and Whittington later wrote that he cranked out 39 of these suckers, month after month. Yet, he never revealed their titles. Wilson writes that it was "the beginning of a literary legend."

I won't ruin the surprise for you, but you'll be amazed how many of these Wilson pins down. Wilson's my new hero. And the three short Whittington novels, one of which has never been available in English? I consider them a bonus.

The new collection will be available this coming July. I'd pre-order this one from Stark House directly, or through your favorite indie mystery shop.

Backflash #1

Can you guess the author/title of this vintage paperback just from the back cover copy? Leave your guesses in the comments section. (Hurry before Bill Crider nails it.)

Hard Case Goes Widescreen

I love this cover to next September's Hard Case Crime release, Losers Live Longer, by Russell Atwood. HHC honcho Charles Ardai writes in his most recent e-mail newsletter:

The book will be printed and bound the ordinary way, but in order for you to read the cover properly you'll need to hold the book sideways. (There are a few examples of sideways covers back in the pulp days, and we thought it would be fun to do one in our line.)

I know that the Regency Books edition of Jim Thompson's The Grifters was printed sideways, but can anyone remember any others?

A Book I Want to Read Right Now, Damnit

Yesterday Bookseller.com (and the Rap Sheet) reported that UK publishing house Quercus picked up the rights to a long-lost Mario Puzo novel: Six Graves to Munich. It was published under a pen name ("Mario Cleri") just a year before The Godfather. Not only do I love the sound of this, but I'm a fan of those late 1960s Banner paperbacks, which include David Goodis's last novel, Somebody's Done For, a cool reprint of David Karp's Hardman, as well as Gil Brewer's The Tease and Sin For Me. And Puzo/Cleri novel looks just as cheesy/cool. But can a used copy be found anywhere online? Nope. Looks like I'm going to have to wait until next June to check this out... and even then, I'm sure it'll feature some sleek, perfect bestseller-y kind of cover, a far cry from the pulpy glory of the original Banner cover.

Paperbacked

Yesterday, Philly Poe Guy and I made our second annual trip to Gary Lovisi's NYC Vintage Paperback & Collectable Book Expo to get our hardcore book nerdin' on. (For the record: Sunday morning is the best time to drive from Philly to NYC. It takes something like 90 minutes, from turnpike to tunnel. The rest of the week? Take the train.) We shopped for about an hour and a half, and I walked away with...

The Philadelphia Murder Story (Leslie Ford). Hands down, the find of the day. Only $1, with a cool Philly map on the back! (I bought nine others on this list for a buck each, too.) BTW, if you click on the map above, I used to live near #6: the Warwick Hotel.

The Pitfall (Jay J. Dratler) Just read about this one in Kevin Johnson's The Dark Page. Looks cool. Never heard of Dratler before.

Winter Kill and Giveaway (Steve Fisher). I've been looking for more Fisher after enjoying the Hard Case reprint of No House Limit. He was buddies with Cornell Woolrich, back in the day.

The Name of the Game Is Death (Dan J. Marlowe). I own the Black Lizard edition; this is the original Gold Medal edition, which is allegedly different. We'll see...

One Endless Hour (Marlowe). I have a later Gold Medal edition, but this is an earlier one, with cooler cover art. Me: sucker for cover art.

Shake Him Till He Rattles (Malcom Braly). Ed Gorman recommends Braly. Ed speaks, I listen.

The Lurking Man (Gerald Butler). I loved Butler's Kiss the Blood off My Hands. This was originally published under the title Mad With Much Heart. And no, this is not the dude who starred in 300.

The Hoodlum, a.k.a. Kiss of Death (Eleazar Lipsky). Picked this up because of the film noir connection, but also because it's a Lion paperback, and my collection has far to few Lions.

The Case of the Violent Virgin/The Case of the Bouncing Betty (Michael Avallone). An Ace Double Novel from the "Fastest Typewriter in the East." I've hawked books from Avallone's old desk at Port Richmond Books.

Stop This Man! (Peter Rabe). Early Rabe. Ridiculous yet awesome title. ("Wait, which man? Ohhhh... this man.")

Lady in Peril/Wired for Scandal (Lester Dent/Floyd Wallace). Another Ace Double. Dent wrote the Doc Savage novels, and far too few hardboiled stories under his own name.

I Should Have Stayed Home (Horace McCoy). Passed up this paperback last year, regretted it. Found it again this year.

The Bedroom Bolero (Avallone). More Avallone. Way sleazy-looking.

Creeps by Night (edited by Dashiell Hammett). A collection of horror stories introduced by Hammett, who probably cranked out his essay in 10 minutes between gin gimlets. But still... it's Hammett.

Bring Him Back Dead/There Was a Crooked Man (Day Keene). Al "Sunshine" Guthrie's favorite paperback writer. And it's a rare Lancer Books "2 for 1" edition, which was probably Lancer trying to eat Avon's lunch and gagging.

The Scarf and Terror (Robert Bloch). Joe Lansdale's favorite paperback suspense writer. I've been looking for the former for a while; never heard of the latter. I wonder if it was reprinted under a different title.

Duel and Other Horror Stories of the Road (edited by William Pattrick). Impulse buy, with contributions from Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Roald Dahl, Jack Finney, and... Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? A road story? Really?

Do Not Murder Before Christmas (Jack Iams). Me: sucker for holiday mystery novels. And you know what? I read half of this last night, and it's flat-out fantastic. The action is set in an unnamed city, but I swear it reads an awful lot like Philadelphia. I did some internet digging this morning (when I should have been writing) and learned that Iams was a lifelong journalist, and his son, David Iams, was the longtime Philadelphia Inquirer society columnist. Need to do more research on this. We might have another forgotten Philly mystery writer on our hands... stay tuned.

Chicago Confidential (Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer). I have the New York and Washington D.C. editions of this non-fiction series; now the trinity is compelte!

Murder on Delivery (Spencer Dean). I read about this series somewhere. Can't remember where. Picked it up anyway. It was a buck!

Obit Delayed (Helen Nielsen). Nielsen's great. I have some of her Black Lizard reprints.

Scratch a Thief/My Pal, the Killer (John Trinian/Chester Warwick). The second title is flat-out awesome.

The Mourner (Richard Stark). Own it... but not in this Pocket edition!

Color Him Dead (Charles Runyon). Went through a Runyon kick a year ago; this is one I haven't read.

Shoot the Works, What Really Happened, Murder by Proxy, The Uncomplaining Corpses (Brett Halliday). I'll never pass up a Mike Shayne for a buck a piece.

I also picked up some Gryphon Books (Lovisi's own publishing house):

Paperback Parade #69
Paperback Parade #70
Antique Trader Collectible Paperback Price Guide (by Gary Lovisi)
Hardboiled #38
If You Have Tears, by Howard Browne

Anybody out there read any of the above? Anybody know more about Jack Iams?

The Answer to Your Paper Back Book Storage Problem

The Murderer Vine

And my nomination for Best Opening Paragraph I've Read in a Long Time:

Here we sit in Puerto Lagarto—Port Lizard. It's on the old Mosquito Coast. Lizard and Mosquito, the two specialties down here. We're far below Yucatán. Compared this dump Yucatán is civilization. You put on a fresh shirt and thirty seconds later it's sopping wet. No paved streets and only one place with ice. That's the local cantina, La Amargura de Amor. The Bitterness of Love. Narcisco Ramirez owns it. He owns the only refrigerator. He packs it full of beer every morning. I sit in the Bitterness and drink my way from the front to the back of the refrigerator and look at the bay.

It's from The Murderer Vine, by Shepard Rifkin, out in May from Hard Case Crime. Bill Crider posted the original cover over at his place. I think Bill Crider owns every paperback ever published.

Meet Rex Parker...

... my new hero. Parker keeps a blog called Pop Sensation, and every couple of days he posts a vintage paperback scan (front and back!), then proceeds to skewer the crap out of it. Or, more rarely, praise it/the writer. His comments are hilarious and dead-on. ("The left nipple. It's like I'm staring down the barrel of a gun.") Even better, Parker sells the stuff he presents, so it's like visiting a real cool used book shop with a sardonic owner, commenting on everything you pick up. It's just pure awesome.

I have no idea who Parker is, but based on his Blogger profile interests (comics, crime fiction, gin, werewolves, grammar) I'd say he's a kindred spirit.

The Ultimate in Paperback Nerd Gear

Yep. I've gone and done it. I've inched over just a little further into total Gold Medal Geekdom. Mass-Market Madness. The full-on Bill Crider Crazies.

Last week, I purchased 300 paperback-sized poly bags from Budd Plant in Grass Valley, California. I purchased these bags ($6.50 for 100, plus shipping and handling) for the express purpose of bagging and sealing my Gold Medal, Lion, Signet, Avon, Pocket, Bantam and other assorted vintage paperbacks.

In the words of my son Parker: "Dad, that's the most boring package ever."

And maybe he's right.

But would you look at those mothers (above)? All safe and nestled in their bright, shiny polypropylene pockets? It's a thing of beauty. And I've spend a lot of time this weekend bagging my collection. The most needy cases were served first: my Goodises, Horace McCoys, Cains, Woolriches, Westlakes, Starks, Thompsons. Followed by any Gold Medals and Lions. There are only so many bags to go around, and I'm afraid I had to play favorites. The task is not finished, but already I see that three hundred is far, far too few...

And yes, I said polypropylene. Sorry Al Gore. Sorry Planet Earth. These suckers will be around forever. That's the point!

Mmmmmm. Bags...

The Lord Taketh, Then Giveth, Then Wouldn't You Know It, Taketh Again

Up and down times here in Philly. Just a few weeks ago I learned that one of my favorite used bookstores is closing its doors. I can't say which one, because I don't think the news was meant to be shared just yet. But man, is this a blow. I've found so many great crime and horror novels there over the years. I've blogged about my finds often.

And then... within the same week... I learned that Brave New Worlds, one of the two comic shops I frequent, is opening an Old City Philly branch that is literally a block away from my office at the City Paper. True enough, BNW2 opened its doors last Wednesday. I was there, about an hour after it unlocked the door, picking up my usual books, as well as the November issue of Marvel Previews, which features a page on my Moon Knight one-shot ("Date Night"). Kind of a cool geek moment.

But then I come home from a nice Labor Day weekend away with the Bride and Brood to discover that the AMC Orleans 8 -- the theater where I pretty much watched every movie from 1987 until 1995 -- has closed its doors and has a date with a wrecking ball. I saw RoboCop there. Friday the 13th Parts VII and VII. (And I think Jason Lives, too.) Leviathan. Deep Star Six. T2. Total Recall. Batman. Phantasm II. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part IV and V. Hellraiser I, II and III. Pumpkinhead. Nightbreed. Lord of Illusions. And thousand other horror and action flicks, most recently being Grindhouse (along with Ed Pettit and Al "Sunshine" Guthrie). This place, along with Marlo Books across the way in the Roosevelt Mall proper, was my teenage dream factory. During high school If I had $20, I'd promptly spend it on paperback horror novels and movie tickets. But now both places are gone, and it depresses the fuck out of me.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the garage, cradling my back issues of Fangoria.

Isn't She Lovely?

The full cover of The Blonde trade paperback, at finer booksellers everywhere the day before Halloween. Yes, my name is spelled right. (Wise arse.)