With this Friday being Valentine’s Day, I thought it only right to go with a romantic theme for my latest Tuesday pairing. Or at least sort of romantic, in what seems an appropriately twisted, crime fiction kind of way. On the left you will find the 1951 White Circle paperback cover from She’ll Love You Dead, a novel I believe was first published in Britain by Collins a year prior to that. According to the French version of Wikipedia, “Charles Franklin” was a nom de plume employed by Hugh Frank Usher (1909-1976). Under that name, explains the online encyclopedia, “he published his first novel, Exit Without Permit, in 1946,” featuring his eventually best-recognized protagonist, Grant Garfield, “a young and fearless lawyer” who often “leads with [an] iron fist” and was assisted by his “charming secretary Barbara Wentworth.” Usher/Franklin later wrote series featuring either Inspector Jim Burgess or Maxine Dangerfield, the latter being “a kind of James Bond in petticoats.” She’ll Love You Dead is listed among the Garfield titles. Sadly, I don’t see the illustrator’s identity provided anywhere on the Web.
Meanwhile, above and on the right, is the front of Love Me to Death, by Frank Diamond. It was released by Ace Books in 1955 as half of a double-edition paperback; on the other side readers found Gil Brewer’s The Squeeze. The cover of Love Me to Death is credited to Verne Tossey, about whom I’ve previously written on this page.
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