Because I Needed a Trimble Fix …

Cargo for the Styx, by Louis Trimble (Ace, 1958). This was published as part of a paperback “double novel,” with J.M. “Jay” Flynn’s Terror Tournament on the flipside. Unfortunately, the cover artist for Cargo is unidentified.

READ MORE: “A P.I. Mystery Revew—Louise Trimble, The Surfside Caper,” by Steve Lewis (Mystery*File).

Rader Love: Halloween Treats

Part of a month-long celebration of artist Paul Rader’s work.



Drink with the Dead, by J.M. Flynn (Ace, 1959). This standalone novel by newspaperman-turned-novelist Jay, or J.M., Flynn—perhaps best remembered for writing The Five Faces of Murder (1962) and four previous tales about “an off-the-wall San Francisco bar owner and secret agent named McHugh”—was packaged in a two-for-one paperback with Mistress of Horror House, by “William Woody,” aka Woodbury William Fagette (1903-1974). Rader did not also paint the front of Woody’s yarn, but I cannot quite make out the actual illustrator’s signature at the bottom of that other cover. Any ideas?

So concludes Killer Covers’ month-long tribute to paperback cover artist Paul Rader. Over the course of this series, we’ve offered an overview of Rader’s career and influences; talked with his daughter, Elaine Rader, about his painting history as well as her mother’s role as the sexy “Rader Girl”; and relished daily displays of more than 40 of Rader’s most memorable images. That Brooklyn-born artist who once thought he’d make his name and nut as a portraitist, ultimately earned renown instead as a prolific, mid-20th-century creator of captivating fronts for crime, romance, and soft-porn fiction. Assembling a gallery of the lesbian-themed novels to which Rader contributed his illustrations would, alone, be a rather considerable task.

Although Paul Rader’s reputation waned after his death in 1986, it has grown again more recently, as vintage-book collectors have rediscovered his dexterity at capturing the supple wonders of the female form in colored inks. Southern California books historian Lynn Munroe, who has devoted years of study to this artist’s work, explains that Rader’s principal talent was “taking the art of the pin-up, formerly used mainly on calendars and [in] advertising, and adapting that look for mass-market paperback book covers.” Rader, he adds, “was the 1960s heir apparent to the classic pin-up legacy of Charles Dana Gibson, George Petty, and Alberto Vargas.” At the height of his career, Rader’s not-so-good-girl-art became as familiar to paperback readers as that of Robert McGinnis, Mitchell Hooks, Harry Bennett, Ernest Chiriacka (aka Darcy), and other painters whose work was in high demand by publishers.

There are so many captivating Rader book façades to choose from, that when I set about paring down a list of my remaining favorites to install in this last tribute post, I still wound up with 110! Since I’d like to save some for future use, I have further narrowed my selections down to another 40, which I offer below for your delight.

Click on any of these images for an enlargement.

Take Fives

As I note in today’s column for the Kirkus Reviews Web site, this month marks the conclusion of my fifth year of blogging about mystery, crime, and thriller fiction for that publication. I offer a few additional thoughts on this anniversary in The Rap Sheet, but for Killer Covers, no manner of celebrating seems quite so appropriate as to display vintage paperbacks that employ “five” in their titles.

For instance, The Five Faces of Murder, by Jay Flynn (Avon, 1962), features cover art by Robert Maguire, while the illustration introducing the 1959 Dell edition of The Five Pennies, Grady Johnson’s biography of American jazz cornettist Red Nichols, is credited to Victor Kalin. Jack Finney’s 5 Against the House (Pocket, 1955), is fronted by a George Erickson painting; John Klempner’s Letter to Five Wives (Dell, 1951) showcases artwork by Bob Hilbert; Griffith Foxley was responsible for the cover of Five Alarm Funeral, by Stewart Sterling (Dell, 1954); it’s James Meese’s talent behind the façade of Neither Five Nor Three, by Helen MacInnes (Popular Library, 1952); and the 1945 Avon Murder Mystery Monthly release of Raymond Chandler stories, Five Sinister Characters, puts up a good front by Paul Stahr. The cover of 5 Murderers, another collection in that same Avon line, might also have been executed by Stahr, though I find no confirmation of that credit online. And sadly, the illustrations decorating the final two novels shown below—The Late Mrs. Five, by Richard Wormser (Gold Medal, 1960), and The Man Who Held Five Aces, by Jean Leslie (Pocket, 1950)—are uncredited.

Click on any of the images here to open an enlargement.

FOLLOW-UP: I’ve now found several places on the Web where Paul Stahr is credited as the cover artist for the above edition of 5 Murderers, so I guess we can assume he created it. Other examples of Stahr’s cover artwork can be found on Flickr.