Mickey Spillane

My father didn’t read. Ok, he read the newspaper and model railroading magazines. But fiction? No. The exceptions were located at a shopping spot called the Mart, where stalls contained various low key vendors, meaning, most of the stuff in the place consisted of velvet Elvis paintings, soft pretzels, and troll dolls. One stall sold … Read more

The Innocent Mrs. Duff–Best 100 Mysteries of All Time

The Innocent Mrs. Duff —   Elizabeth Sanxay Holding-1946-used I read Number 100, only recently. And had to jam it into the list, somewhere. Maybe it belongs a lower number, I don’t know and won’t try to figure it out, my mind has lost its ability to discern between good great and greatest, to coin a … Read more

Pulp Vixens

Politically correct or not, I love the artwork on old paperbacks, magazine covers, and dust jackets depicting barely clad babes. I go as far as to collect them. And I find I’m not alone, by a long shot. I belong to flickr, the website for sharing photos. But besides pictures, there’s an underground section filled … Read more

I Married a Dead Man–The Book I Sold Zillions Of

I would start: Picture This! Yes, that emphatically, with exclamation point stressed, palms out, as if to stop traffic. I did. More than once. Some poor unsuspecting individual would ask the innocent question, “what would you recommend,” and that’s all  the encouragement I’d need. ‘I’m ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille’. Lights, camera, action, … Read more