In some ways this is a typical 1950s pulp cover, using with the time-tested babes 'n violence formula. But what I like about it and think makes it special is that whatever hack artist painted it really made a special effort with the guy in the red shirt getting shot. His body language and expression are fantastic! The artist surely had a model pose for him--how else would you get the details like his splayed hand and knee bent just so? It's also nice how everything--not just the bullet but the gaze of the three other figures--comes to a point on the guy's back, which is the picture's unseen focal point.
The book itself is awkward and wordy, but not entirely bad:
Jesus--Lew felt a prickle as the sweat burst from his forehead--had he brought along with him down here to Florida to this very house the very guy that wanted to rub him out?
His hand trembled slightly as he took the cigar from his mouth and hunkered down on his heels in front of Grizzard.
"You wouldn't hold out on me, would you, Grizz?" his voice almost wheedling. "We slapped you around a little but you had it coming, a crack like that. But I always treated you right, didn't I?"
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The Face of the Ancient Orient
What comes in a box?
The Age of Reason
The Coming of the French Revolution
Andre the Courier
Hide-Out
Brideshead Revisited
The Golden Book Sherlock Holmes
Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, vol. 5
God's Smuggler
Mixology
The Score
The Frazer Acquittal
Wife or Death
Wild Game Cookbook
Crime Patrol No.9
Boy's Choice
The Value of Fairness
Cancelled Japanese Stamps
The Play of Character in Plato's Dialogues
Scoop
Barchester Towers
Fathers and Sons
Evil Genius
Early Man in the New World
Camp Craft
The Man in the Net
7 Types of Ambiguity
Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust
The Idea, a novel told in woodcuts
The Simple Art of Murder
History Begins at Sumer, featuring the typography of Edward Gorey
Marvel Spectacular featuring the art of Jack Kirby
The Age of Analysis
Metropolis: An American City in Photographs
Engineering is Like This
The Ponder Heart
Don Martin Digs Deeper
The Golden Book Encyclopedia of Natural Science (Volume 9, Kinglets to Meteor)
The Mountlake Terrace High School 1964 yearbook
Take a Letter: A Cyclopedia of Business & Social Correspondence
The Vice Lords: Warriors of the Street
Islam and The Golden Home and High School Encyclopedia
Munakata
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