“Close-Up,” by Len Deighton

A plot synopsis for this eighth novel by British pastry chef-turned-editor-turned-author Len Deighton reads:

Ageing Hollywood star Marshall Stone is scared. Scared that the parts are drying up. Scared of being forgotten. So when he hears an eminent author is writing his biography, Stone seizes the chance of immortality. But painful memories and suppressed scandals soon threaten to destroy the carefully-constructed fiction of his life. Inspired by Len Deighton's own experiences of the film industry, Close-Up is a brilliant exposé of the sleaze, venality and betrayals of the studio machine.

The Cover-Up wrapper showcased above and below comes from a softcover edition published in 1973 by Signet Books. I like the artwork a great deal, but the identity of its painter seems lost to history. Even Tim Hewitt, the South Carolina former tech writer and paperback collector to whom I often turn for such answers, is stumped.

“I really wish I had a definitive answer on this one,” he wrote to me recently, “but no such luck. I’ve always been inclined to think it’s Elaine Duillo. It’s easily within her style and reminds me of her covers for the Ron Goulart ‘Johnny Easy’ books. But there’s some other quality about it that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes me think it could possibly be Sanjulián. (The shading on the woman’s body; the hard line separating her from the camera in the background; something intangible?)

“Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to go on except feeling and impression. It’s too bad, because Close-Up is easily the best cover Len Deighton ever got, at least in the U.S.”

I guess we’ll just have to be content with the credit for this illustration being a mystery—at least for now.