Cover art by Robert K. Abbett.
Ten years ago, in search of an appropriate way to celebrate Valentine’s Day here in Killer Covers, I assembled a gallery of 29 books with “kiss” in their titles. With romance abundant in the air again today, I’ve expanded my selection of fronts to 45.
One of my favorites, though, isn’t among those images: Dell’s 1961 cover—shown above—for The Kiss of Death, by Eleazar Lipsky (1911-1993), a onetime assistant district attorney for Manhattan turned novelist and playwright. That novel originally saw print in 1947, the same year it was adapted as a big-screen feature starring Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, and Richard Widmark as a giggling, sadistic killer. In addition to Kiss of Death (also reprinted as The Hoodlum), Lipsky published such works of crime fiction as Murder One (1948) and The People Against O’Hara (1950), the latter of which was turned into a 1951 movie starring Spencer Tracy.
Before you head out to a celebratory dinner with your beloved tonight, flowers in hand, or sit down for the umpteenth showing of Casablanca, When Harry Met Sally, About Time, The Girl Next Door, or some similarly sappy flick, take a glance through Killer Cover’s lip-smacking selection of kiss covers. It may not get you in the mood for love (perhaps a few too many guns are involved?), but it will give you something to discuss over crème brûlée or popcorn.
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