Paperback 952: The American Gun Mystery / Ellery Queen (Avon 523)

Paperback 952: Avon 523 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: The American Gun Mystery
Author: Ellery Queen
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $10-15
Condition: 8/10

Best things about this cover:

• So much emotion and drama in this one little tableau. It's really quite beautiful, even though I have no idea why a gorgeous blonde in an evening gown and opera gloves would be at the rodeo.
• It's lit like a religious painting. Caravaggio or Rubens or someone. She's bathed in light, praying, pleading ... I mean, this is probably some generic shlock, but the cover makes it look complex and compelling.
• Also ... sweet chaps.

Best things about this back cover:

• This is far less compelling. What is the shape of those blocks supposed to represent? I see the belt and gun and lock, but the puzzle(ish) pieces ... aren't convincing. As puzzle pieces. I'm no jigsaw aficionado, but that top piece, for instance, seems impossible.
• I don't like being invited to "solve" the puzzle, and I've never ever read a mystery with the idea that I was supposed to solve it. I realize that makes me slightly weird, as "mystery" fans / collectors go.
• "Deadly Puzzle" is still bothering me. Who associates rodeo with jigsaw puzzles? What's more, in what universe is a jigsaw puzzle scary? Ooooh, deadly puzzle! I'm shaking.

Page 123~

He gulped down two raw eggs, a steaming pannikin of coffee, an excited regurgitation of the preceding evening's events issuing from Djuna's chattering mouth, and then dashed downtown to Times Square.

PANNIKIN SKYWALKER is my new user name.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 805: Nina / Brian Black (Beacon B745X)

Paperback 805: Beacon B745X (PBO, 1964)

Title: Nina
Author: Brian Black
Cover artist: Uncredited [Barton?—see reversed signature, under couch]

Yours for: $20


Best things about this cover:

• I wish that, many years ago, I had created a "Women Spilling Backwards Off of Beds and Couches" tag. It's a thing.
• Looks like "twisted pleasures" is a literal statement. "I'm sorry, Burt, but I can't get in the mood unless I'm doing [gets on couch and adjusts herself] … [grunt, awkward dress tugging] … this!"
• I like how this cover is a panel from a Power Point presentation. Bullet list!
• Wow, high heels have done terrible and unnatural things to her feet.
• When were biceps bracelets trendy?
• I like that couch quite a bit.

Best things about this back cover:

• What is *proper* love with strangers? Does it involve handshakes and handwritten thank-you notes?
• "Candid"!? What happened to "frank"!? I miss "frank."
• Unfair to Jet Set! I'm so glad that we as a culture have evolved out of the terrible Jet-Settism that plagued our forefathers.

Page 123~

Nina found only one fault with the rodeo. It happened only once a year.

I knew it. I took one look at that cover and thought, "this is gonna be about the rodeo."

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]