PaperBack: “The Hoods Take Over”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Hoods Take Over, by Ovid Demaris (Gold Medal, 1957). Cover illustration by Barye Phillips. Publisher Stark House Press reprinted this novel, Demaris’ second, back in 2019.

PaperBack: “Kill the Boss Good-by”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.

Kill the Boss Good-by, by Peter Rabe (Gold Medal, 1956). The author called this standalone crime novel “one of my favorites.” Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

READ MORE: “Review: The Duplicate Keys, Part 2–Port of Rabe,” by Chris Lyons (The Westlake Review); “A Too Brief Conversation with Peter Rabe,” by George Tuttle (Mystery*File).

PaperBack: “I, Mobster”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



I, Mobster, by “Anonymous,” aka Joseph Hilton Smyth (Gold Medal, 1958). As Wikipedia relates, Smyth (1901-1972) “was an American publisher and pulp author. He and two associates, Walker Gray Matheson and Irvine Harvey Williams, in connection with their publishing activities, were convicted in 1942 for acting as agents for the Japanese government without registering with the State Department.” Under the nom de plume Joseph Hilton, Smyth went on to publish two novels: Angels in the Gutter (1955) and President’s Agent (1963). I, Mobster—released originally by Gold Medal in 1951, bearing a different cover—was touted as the “autobiography of a high-level New York mob figure,” but the truth of that has been called into question. The book became the basis for a 1959 Roger Corman movie of the same title “starring Steve Cochran in a rags-to-riches, innocence-to-corruption tale of a neighborhood kid who becomes a top man in the mob.”

Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

PaperBack: “The Hoods Come Calling”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Hoods Come Calling, by “Nick Quarry,” aka Marvin H. Albert (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1958).

Albert has been much on my mind lately, thanks to a longish piece I posted in my other blog, Killer Covers, about his 1970s Alistair MacLeanesque thrillers. The Hoods Came Calling is unrelated to those. It was the first of six books he wrote about “a tough, no-nonsense private eye from New York City,” Jake Barrow. As Kevin Burton Smith explains in The Thrilling Detective Web Site, “many regard the half-dozen Barrow novels [as] Albert’s very best work. In many ways, they’re not much different from other B-listers’ pulp fiction of the era, but they’re delivered fast and hard, with a lot of energy, some well-crafted action scenes and, predictably, plenty of garment-disadvantaged babes. There’s still a fair amount of cheese in all of Albert’s work (he occasionally wrote like he must have been wearing boxing gloves), but at least it’s good cheese.”

Cover art by Barye Phillips.

BONUS: On Flickr, men’s magazine expert Robert Deis has posted the spread below, captioned: “A nice action scene by artist Samson Pollen, with a scantily clad babe included (as usual), for a story by mystery writer Nick Quarry in For Men Only, October 1962. The story is an adaptation of Quarry’s 1958 novel The Hoods Come Calling … The little box at bottom left says its a SPECIAL SUSPENSE BOOK BONUS. I think part of the suspense is whether the babe's bra will fall off or not.”



Click on the image for an enlargement. You know you want to.

PaperBack: “Witness This Woman”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Witness This Woman, by Gardner F. Fox (Gold Medal, 1959). Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

PaperBack: “The Girl in the Gold Leather Dress”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Girl in the Gold Leather Dress, by Victoria Kelrich Morhaim (Signet, 1961). Morhaim penned at least one other novel, the similarly titled The Girl Who Had Everything (1962). Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

PaperBack: “Inquest”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Inquest, by Milton K. Ozaki (Gold Medal, 1960).
Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

READ MORE: “Milton K. Ozaki: A Collage and Homage,”
by Bill Crider (Mystery*File).

PaperBack: “The Limping Goose”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Limping Goose, by Frank Gruber (Bantam, 1956; later republished as Murder One), is the penultimate entry in Gruber’s series starring con artist Johnny Fletcher and his strongman sidekick, Sam Cragg. Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

PaperBack: “Prisoner’s Base”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Prisoner’s Base, by Rex Stout (Bantam, 1955). Originally published in 1952, this was Stout’s 15th novel starring detectives Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Cover illustration by Barye Phillips.

READ MORE: “Archie’s Time Out: Prisoner’s Base,” by Brad Friedman (Ah Sweet Mystery!).