We Are Sixteen Going on Seventeen

I absolutely love the paperback artistry of Ernest Chiriacka, aka “Darcy” (1913-2010), so I’ll employ pretty much any excuse to post more of his work on this page. But today is a special occasion—Killer Covers’ 16th birthday! To celebrate that, I am finally displaying (above) his front from the 1960 Pyramid Books edition of Roadside Night, by Erwin N. Nistler and Gerry P. Broderick.

Alas and alack, this is not a novel from my collection. But I’ve heard favorable comments about it over the years. The excellent blog Reading California Fiction—which was written by Don Napoli, before his death at age 79 in early 2021—offers this synopsis of its plot:

Ex-Marine Buck Randall is settled into a comfortable life. He owns and manages a small bar and motel up the coast from San Diego. The business keeps him solvent. His assistant Dom reliably helps out around the place. Joyce, an attractive eighteen-year-old who’s had a crush on him for years, is eager to become a serious girlfriend. His steady customers are also his friends. Then one day a stunning redhead, Sylvia Landon, comes into the bar. She exudes a sex appeal that Buck hasn’t felt before. Even after she leaves he can’t stop thinking about her. She returns; they talk briefly. She returns again; he cooks dinner for her. They spend the night together. He’s hooked.

The general outline of this story is apparent from the first few sentences. Sylvia is going to lure Buck into trouble to fulfill some nefarious purpose of her own. That’s not an original premise. So the question is how effectively Nistler and Broderick work it out. And here the authors deserve kudos all around. Buck, the first-person narrator, not only describes events but relays his feelings as well. These change with each plot twist. Longing, satisfaction, doubt, curiosity, guilt, anxiety all run through his mind. The writing is spare almost (but not quite) to the point of parody: short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, and of course a short book. The terseness keeps the story moving quickly and generates tension until the very end. Fans of the femme fatale are bound to enjoy this book.

The pair behind that slender example of “motel noir” are hardly household names. Novelist James Reasoner wrote in a 2009 critique of Roadside Night that “As far as I’ve been able to discover, this is the only book [Nistler and Broderick] ever published.” Nonetheless, he agrees with Napoli that it’s a better-than-average crime yarn. “What makes it worth reading is the prose,” Reasoner opines, “which is bleak and fast-paced, and the sweaty air of doom and desperation that hangs over the book like fog rolling in from the sea. … This isn’t some lost masterpiece of crime fiction, but it’s well worth reading and would make a good candidate for reprinting.”



There have already been several editions of Roadside Night produced, all by Pyramid. The one presented just above and on the left is the original printing from 1951, boasting an illustration by Canada-born Hunter Barker. To its right sits a still more captivating version, released in 1955. I regret not knowing the identity of that one’s cover artist. Does anybody reading this recognize the style?

When I launched this blog in 2009, I never imagined I’d still be writing it more than a decade and a half later. Yet here we are. I have a multitude of covers just as interesting as these stored away in my computer files. All I need is the energy, free time, and—in cases such as this—the proper occasion to retrieve and post them. Thank you for sticking with me during this long and oft-surprising ride!

(And yes, a classic song inspired the title of this piece.)