Black Beauties

Back in early June, I noted on this page that the title of Irish author John Banville’s forthcoming Philip Marlowe novel, The Black-Eyed Blonde (Henry Holt)--to be released under his pseudonym, Benjamin Black--bore a remarkable similarity to that of Erle Stanley Gardner’s 1944 Perry Mason outing, The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde. At that time, however, I had not yet seen the British cover of Banville’s book. Now I have, thanks to James Morrison’s blog, Caustic Cover Critic. To be published by Mantle, the UK edition of The Black-Eyed Blonde--shown above on the right, and designed by Jonathan Pelham--is much less obvious and considerably more evocative than its U.S. counterpart, don’t you think?

Click on either of the images for an enlargement.