Slice of P.I.: “The Kissing Gourami”

(Part of a series celebrating fictional private eyes.)



The Kissing Gourami, by Kin Platt (Charter 1980), with a cover illustration by David Plourde.

First published in a 1970 hardcover edition by Random House, The Kissing Gourami was the initial installment in a seven-book series built around Max Roper, who The Thrilling Detective Web Site describes as a “Los Angeles-based operative for EPT (Emergency Procedure Terminus), a nationwide private investigation/security firm ... that frequently works for big business concerns, as well as doing the dirty work for various local and national government law-enforcement agencies when they need some behind-the-scenes work that will not come back to haunt them.” Author Platt (1911-2003) was a comics artist, caricaturist, and the author of both adult and young-adult mysteries.

In his excellent blog The Paperback Palette, Denver, Colorado, librarian Jeff Christoffersen (aka Jeffersen) writes that book and magazine cover artist Plourde painted not only the front for this title in the Roper series, but also created the art for at least three others: The Pushbutton Butterfly, The Princess Stakes Murder, and The Giant Kill. All of those, too, were released by Charter Books in 1980.



Click any of these covers to open an enlargement.