McGinnis Nine-Nine: “One Wife’s Ways”

Part of a celebration of Robert McGinnis’ XCIXth birthday.



One Wife’s Ways, by Gardner F. Fox (Gold Medal, 1962).

New York City-born author Gardner F. Fox (1911-1986) has shown up several times in Killer Covers, under his own name as well as assorted noms de plume. He may be best remembered nowadays for the work he did as a comic-book writer, laboring over such DC titles as Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Sandman. He also created Barbara Gordon, which as any Batman fan knows, was the true identity of Batgirl.

Fox, though, began his lengthy career concocting stories for pulp magazines in all genres, especially science fiction and westerns. His first published novel, a historical romance titled The Borgia Blade, was released in 1953 by Belmont. He went on to pen a succession of sword-and-sorcery yarns, historical adventures, and—under the pseudonyms Rod Gray, Glen Chase, and Troy Conway—a wealth of rather risqué espionage tales. He’s credited, too, with a few suspense novels.

One Wife’s Ways fits into that last category. Here’s a plot synopsis:

Somewhere there was a woman who knew the truth about the automobile that plunged over the cliff, the truth about the odd robbery attempt that was no robbery at all, the truth about the bomb that was meant to kill Dan Kinnick.

Somewhere there was a woman …

Midge—liar and cheat, and long past caring whether somebody was really trying to murder Dan Kinnick.

Donna—lover and protector, and courting death the way some girls court mink.

Thyra—temptress and hoyden, not caring how many times the killers failed to get Kinnick, just so long as she could keep him in her bed.

After being long out of print, this slender work was reissued in 2018 by Wildside Press—with its original Robert McGinnis cover art!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: Read Chapter One of this novel by clicking over to Kurt Brugel’s extensive site, The Gardner Francis Fox Library.