...is and interesting book in more ways than one. First of
all there's that title. Not exactly PC, but then the book was
published in 1963, and it was published by Novel Books,
creators of some of the best titles ever, including my
favorite, DAMMIT, DON'T TOUCH MY BROAD! (The exclamation mark
is part of the title.)
But I digress. The reason I bought CORA on eBay was because
the author's name is Harry Whittington. I'd never seen this
book in any Whittington bibliography, or at least I don't
remember it, so naturally I had to have a look. (Another
digression: there's at least one book with Whittington's name
of the cover that Whittington definitely didn't write. The
Lancer book LOVE CULT was written by Ralph Carter.) I put in
a big bid, but CORA went for under $15, which I considered a
bargain. (Yet another digression: in a recent auction, one of
Whittington's Greenleaf books as "Henry Whittier" went for
well over a hundred bucks. I didn't get that one.)
When the book arrived, I was a little taken aback by the back
cover blurb. Here's the interesting part: "Now we take pride
in presenting a young, unpublished author -- Harry
Whittngton." This was 1963, remember, when Whittington was,
to say the least, well-published. He was no longer a kid,
either.
So I had to read to book and see what was going on. Now that
I have, I'm 90% convinced that Whittington did write it. The
pacing and the style are familiar. So is the plotting, which
is a bit of a twist on the one I'd just read in IF YOU HAVE
TEARS. In this book, the embezzler and the woman (a nympho,
in 1963 terms) get away with the crime. They're living in the
country in Kansas, afraid to spend all the dough, when along
comes Joe Byars, who's looking for Cora, his wife, who seems
to have disappeared. Before it's all over, we find out some
interesting things about Joe, and, of course, he's screwed.
(Not so much literally, however, no matter what the title
implies. The sex is all suggested, not described, and the one
hot sex scene in the book is about six lines long.)
Bill Crider
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