----- Original Message ----- From: "William Denton" <
buff@pobox.com> To: "RARA-AVIS" <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003
4:55 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS: 1950s: So Deadly My Love
> Gorman and Greenberg's anthology PULP MASTERS has
Harry Whittington's
SO
> DEADLY MY LOVE (1957) in it. It was originally half
of an Ace double,
so
> it's not long. Not short enough for me to read it
all, though. The
> introduction says Whittington was formulaic but
stylish, but this one
is
> light on the latter.
>
> A private eye returns to a southern town ten years
after serving time
for
> a crime he didn't commit. The guy that sprung him, a
powerful
politician,
> needs help, because his right-hand man has
disappeared. This
politician
> is married to a woman that the PI loved, and who was
responsible for
the
> frame that sent him to jail. Right off the bat she's
making eyes for
him,
> and after a chat with the chief of police who's
trying to take control
of
> the county away from the politician, he meets a
stripper who was in
love
> with the missing man. There are many long
conversations where very
little
> happens. I skipped to the finish, which was
unsurprising.
>
I actually liked this one & think it's one of the better
Whittington's I've read. I particularly enjoyed the milieu,
classic corrupt small-town Florida, the setting for many Gold
Medals at the time. The original edition by Ace books (and
the Australian reprint from Phantom) feature one of my
favourite covers of all time. A blonde babe tied to a chair
while a very large, butch looking female warder is just about
to belt the bejasus out of her with a leather belt while a
lackadaisical-looking deputy-sheriff smokes a cigarette &
looks complacently on. This cover was censored in a later
Australian reprint - the deputy's star was removed. Amazingly
enough, the cover accurately represents a scene in the story.
A classic piece of noir iconography & the novel, IMO, is
a solid piece of Gold Medal 50's noir. Not a classic,
perhaps, but definitely top drawer 50's paperback original. I
have no hesitation recommending it to anyone who has read
& enjoyed Whittington or 50's Gold Medal novels in
general.
Rene
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