McGinnis Nine-Nine: “The Case of the Cautious Coquette”

Part of a celebration of Robert McGinnis’ XCIXth birthday.



The Case of the Cautious Coquette, by Erle Stanley Gardner
(Pocket, 1963).

Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason was certainly the most famous fictional criminal defense attorney of the 20th century, appearing in 82 novels, so it was only to be expected that the prolific Robert McGinnis would have illustrated at least some fronts for the paperback reissues of those books. In fact, he painted more than two dozen of them, in eye-catching colors and boasting women of conspicuous comeliness.

The Case of the Cautious Coquette was Gardner’s 34th novel about his incredibly successful Los Angeles attorney. The following plot summation comes from the PaperBack Swap Blog:

Mason is seeking witnesses to the hit-and-run accident that left his client (a poor college kid) with a broken hip and his mother (a widow) all shook up. Complexity rears its head after a newspaper ad yields two drivers of two suspected vehicles and eventually two settlements for one accident. Mason is further astonished when found shot to death in a garage is a chauffeur that turns out to be the driver of one of the guys who settled. In typical Dickensian-Gardnerian fashion, the vic was named Hartwell L. Pitken.

Attractive and cunning Lucille Barton wants Mason to represent her in an alimony action, which he declines since he doesn’t do divorce cases. But Mason is with Lucille when Pitkin’s body is found in the garage of her apartment building. Mason directs her to report the body to the police and then leaves. Just like his usual conniving client, Lucille doesn’t make the call and a neighbor provides a positive ID of the hottie, but is less sure of Mason. To avoid having to answer awkward questions from the police, Perry decides to cite attorney-client privilege. This lands him with a client he doesn’t want, so he has to prove her innocence when she is arrested for [the] murder of the driver.

In a rare linking of talents and resources, Homicide Detective [Arthur] Tragg and Mason join forces. Tragg’s rival on the force, Sgt. Holcomb, throws Tragg under the bus, so Tragg gratefully takes a tip from Mason. He cheers – silently, of course – when Mason tricks Holcomb and a witness into a false identification and makes Holcomb look like a big dummy in court. Mason and Tragg are even involved in a car chase, a rarity in the Mason novels.

Curtains—of the shower variety and others—pop up occasionally in McGinnis’ work, typically concealing the anatomy of fetching females. This particular front, however, seems to have been inspired by a somewhat more revealing 1949 jacket of the same novel.

Another Look: “The D.A. Breaks an Egg”

Warning: Artistic inspiration drawn from book titles may vary.



An egg-cellent pairing for Easter. Left: The D.A. Breaks an Egg, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Cardinal, 1958); photo front. Right: The D.A. Breaks an Egg (Great Pan, 1959), with a cover illustration by Sam “Peff” Peffer. This was the ninth and final entry in Gardner’s series starring Douglas Selby, the scrappy district attorney for fictional Madison County, California.

Another Look: “The Case of the Smoking Chimney”

Warning: Artistic inspiration drawn from book titles may vary.



Left: The Case of the Smoking Chimney, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1950), with a cover illustration by Wayne Blickenstaff. Right: The Case of the Smoking Chimney, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1961), with cover art by Charles Binger. Originally published in 1943, this is the second of two novels featuring amateur sleuth “Gramps” Wiggins. It was preceded by The Case of the Turning Tide (1941).

Another Look: “The Case of the Terrified Typist”

Warning: Artistic inspiration drawn from book titles may vary.



Left: The Case of the Terrified Typist, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Cardinal, 1958), with a leggy cover illustration by Rudy Garcia. Right: The Case of the Terrified Typist, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pan UK, 1964); cover art by Harry Sheldon. Originally published in the United States by William Morrow and Company, in January 1956, this was Gardner’s 49th (!) Perry Mason novel.

Another Look: “The Case of the Grinning Gorilla”

Warning: Artistic inspiration drawn from book titles may vary.



Left: The Case of the Grinning Gorilla, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1956), with a cover illustration from Milton Herder. Right: The Case of the Grinning Gorilla, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Great Pan, 1961); cover art by Pat Owen.

I like what author, blogger, and mystery-fiction scholar Curtis Evans wrote in his review of this mid-series Perry Mason outing:

Somehow I never imagined I would come across a Perry Mason mystery where the redoubtable defense attorney gets pursued through an eccentric millionaire's nearly deserted mansion by a killer gorilla. Yet, sure enough, this is just what I found in Erle Stanley Gardner's fortieth—if I counted right—Perry Mason detective novel, The Case of the Grinning Gorilla (1952).

In most American mysteries from the period, the titular “gorilla” would have been some nasty, hulking human bruiser with one ugly mug, who has it down for some reason on our series hero; but, nope, when ESG promises you a gorilla, you get an actual gorilla. And then some! Things get pretty hairy for our Perry, let me tell you.

Also nice is that in the Pocket edition on the left, the gorilla can be spotted only as a reflection in those dark glasses worn by the sunbathing lovely. Because I have not yet read the book, I cannot say for sure what the relationship is between her and a menacing ape, but clearly summertime frolics feature in Gardner’s yarn, as the original U.S. hardcover version features its own scantily clad figure.

A far less appealing photo front for this book can be seen here.

Another Look: “The Case of the Daring Decoy”

Warning: Artistic inspiration drawn from book titles may vary.



Left: The Case of the Daring Decoy, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1960); cover illustration by James Avati. Right: The Case of the Daring Decoy, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1963); cover art by Robert McGinnis. This was the 54th novel starring Los Angeles defense attorney Perry Mason, first published in 1957.

Hooks Hits: Arresting Gardners

Part of a series saluting artist-illustrator Mitchell Hooks.

The Case of the Sunbather’s Diary (Cardinal, 1958)

Like so many other artists of the mid-20th century—among them Robert McGinnnis, Mike Ludlow, Darrel Greene, Harry Bennett, Ron Lesser, Stanley Borack, and Robert Stanley—Mitchell Hooks painted fronts for Erle Stanley Gardner’s abundant novels.

Most of the eight covers in this post come from yarns starring Los Angeles defense attorney Perry Mason. Two, though—The Count of 9 and Traps Need Fresh Bait—are part of Gardner’s smaller series featuring L.A. gumshoes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam.

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife (Cardinal, 1958); The Case of the Crooked Candle (Cardinal, 1959)

The Count of 9 (Pocket, 1969); Traps Need Fresh Bait
(Pocket Canada, 1968)

The Case of the Nervous Accomplice (Cardinal, 1958); The Case of the Empty Tin (Cardinal, 1958).

The Case of the Careless Kitten (Cardinal, 1958)

The Lesser Look: “Beware the Curves”

Part of a month-long celebration of Ron Lesser’s artistic legacy.



Beware the Curves, by “A.A. Fair,” aka Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1966). This is the 15th book in Gardner’s series featuring mismatched Los Angeles private eyes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Ron Lesser created the cover for at least one other Cool and Lam novel, Bats Fly at Dusk.

Stanley’s Style: “Bats Fly at Dusk”

Part of a 100th-birthday tribute to artist Robert Stanley.


Bats Fly at Dusk, by “A.A. Fair,” aka Erle Stanley Gardner (Dell, 1953). Published originally as the seventh of Gardner’s yarns starring mismatched and bickering Los Angeles gumshoes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, Bats finds the brainy Lam having left town in order to join the fighting during World War II. (He’d volunteered for duty with the U.S. Navy at the end of the previous book, Owls Don’t Blink—one of my favorite entries in this series.) Nonetheless, Lam manages to solve the crimes presented in the lighthearted Bats ... and save Bertha from disaster.

To the Nines

Robert McGinnis’ name has come up one or two times in this blog, I know (OK, maybe one or two thousand times), but that’s because even now—approaching his 92nd birthday on February 3—he continues to turn out excellent work. This coming October, for instance, a new painting by McGinnis will be featured on Hard Case Crime’s reissue of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Count of Nine, shown above.

That book, you might remember, is the 18th original entry in Gardner’s series starring clever but oft-comical Los Angeles private investigators Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. The author saw it reach print initially back in 1958, under his by-then-familiar pseudonym, A.A. Fair. This is how Hard Case describes the plot: “Hired to protect the treasures of a globe-trotting adventurer, Bertha and Donald confront an impossible crime: how could anything be smuggled out of a dinner party when the guests were X-rayed coming and going—least of all a 6-foot-long blowgun? But that’s nothing compared to the crime they face next: an impossible murder …” The publisher goes on to promote its reissue of The Count of Nine as the novel’s “first appearance in bookstores in half a century!”

Hard Case has already brought out paperback editions of three other Cool and Lam yarns over the years: Top of the Heap, The Knife Slipped (apparently intended as the series’ second installment, but not released until 2016), and Turn on the Heat. McGinnis provided the cover image for The Knife Slipped; and now an even more beautiful example of his art will introduce this year’s trade-size edition of The Count of Nine. But that’s nine months away yet! In the meantime, let’s revisit four earlier fronts for Gardner’s tale.

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




Clockwise from upper left: Pocket Books edition from 1962, artist unknown; Pocket edition from 1969, with cover art by Mitchell Hooks; Heinemann UK edition, 1959, with art by Stein; and Pocket edition from 1966, with an illustration by Harry Bennett.

Incidentally, you can read a Count of Nine excerpt here.

Bennett’s Beauties: “This Is Murder”

Part of a month-long celebration of Harry Bennett’s artistic skills.



This Is Murder, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1963).

Because I Needed a Gardner Fix …

The Case of the Hesitant Hostess, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1959). Illustration by Charles Binger.

Adultery, Murder, and Mirth

The Knife Slipped (Hard Case Crime, 2016), with a cover illustration by Robert McGinnis that features modern-day burlesque dancer/pin-up icon Dita von Teese.

Today marks the official publication date of The Knife Slipped (Hard Case Crime), Erle Stanley Gardner’s long-lost 30th installment in a series he wrote—under the pseudonym A.A. Fair—about mismatched Los Angeles private eyes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. As I explained recently in my Kirkus Reviews column,

Apparently, Gardner concocted Knife as the second entry in this series, following 1939’s The Bigger They Come; but publisher William Morrow objected to its casting Mrs. Cool, a stout cheapskate of a woman who’d inherited her L.A. detective agency from an adulterous husband, as profane and not above gypping her clients. An Afterword in Knife speculates Morrow might have taken issue as well with Gardner’s portrayal of Lam’s fallibility, something that “brainy little runt” was less prone to in subsequent books. This rediscovered mystery begins with an overprotective mother and her daughter employing B. Cool—Confidential Investigations to look into the presumed philanderings of the younger woman’s spouse, Eben Cunner, who works for an automobile accessories wholesaler. Although Lam, a disbarred lawyer, is still learning the shamus game, he soon ferrets out the fact that Cunner has rented not one, but two, separate apartments under aliases. At one of those he’s been spotted with a comely blonde claiming to be his sister, and at both he has welcomed cops and firemen at odd hours. This is obviously not a simple hot-sheets case, but before our gumshoes can fathom its complexity, Cunner is murdered and suspicion falls on Lam and the chestnut-haired switchboard operator, Ruth Marr, who found the corpse. There are plenty of narrative contortions and distortions of the truth in these pages, but some semblance of justice is eventually reached.

Author Jeffrey Marks, who’s spent a great deal of time working on a new Gardner biography, spells out in his blog how his research into the life of that prolific California lawyer turned novelist finally brought The Knife Slipped—“the first new Erle Stanley Gardner novel since 1970”—to bookstores. He adds that “Over my time writing about Gardner, I came to appreciate the Cool/Lam novels more than Perry Mason. That might be sacrilege, but they represent a more hard-boiled, pulp-oriented story. Gardner had plenty of experience with those, writing 625+ shorter works for the pulps. Cool and Lam were the worthy successors to Ed Jenkins and Ken Corning. Gardner could be himself more in these books, and his infectious personality and wit come through in these books.”

To celebrate the tardy but certainly pleasing appearance of The Knife Slipped, I have gathered together, below, a handful of my other favorite covers from the Cool and Lam series.


Bats Fly at Dusk (Dell, 1963), art by Ron Lesser.



Beware the Curves (Pocket, 1960), art by Harry Bennett.



Double or Quits (Dell, 1963), art by Stanley Borack.



Some Women Can’t Wait (Dell, 1960), art by Robert McGinnis.



Spill the Jackpot (Dell, 1962), art by Harry Bennett.



The Count of Nine (Heinemann UK, 1959), art by Stein.



Top of the Heap (Dell, 1959), art by Robert McGinnis.



You Can Die Laughing (Pocket, 1961), art by Harry Bennett.

READ MORE: “A New (Old) Book Just Waiting to Become a TV Series,” by Ken Tucker (Yahoo TV); “Review: The Knife Slipped, by Erle Stanley Gardner,” by David Cranmer (Criminal Element); “The Knife Slipped—Erle Stanley Gardner,” by Bill Crider (Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine).

Rap Party: “The Case of the One-Eyed Witness”

Toasting The Rap Sheet’s first decade with a cover countdown.



The Case of the One-Eyed Witness, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Cardinal, 1959). Illustration by Darrel Greene.

Th-the-th-th-that’s all folks! To learn more about The Rap Sheet’s landmark 10th anniversary, simply click here.

Rap Party: “One Minute Past Eight”

Toasting The Rap Sheet’s first decade with a cover countdown.



One Minute Past Eight, by George Harmon Coxe (Dell, 1960).
Illustration by Robert Maguire.

Three down, seven more to go ...

Happy April Fool’s Day, Everyone!

Here’s another cover for the A.A. Fair novel Fools Die on Friday, from 1957. The artist responsible for this illustration is Victor Kalin.



READ MORE: “Confronting Frontal Nudity,” by J. Kingston Pierce
(Killer Covers).

Confronting Frontal Nudity

(Editor’s note: This post appeared originally in The Rap Sheet way back in 2007, long before I launched the Killer Covers blog. But it really belongs here. So, on this April Fool’s Day, 2016—a totally appropriate occasion, given the title of the book under consideration—I am reposting that Rap Sheet piece below.)

Regular readers of The Rap Sheet know my fondness for vintage paperback fronts, especially those that Independent Crime’s Nathan Cain might define as “book cover porn.” I find the squeamishness of modern U.S. readers toward provocative novel jackets ludicrous, especially when they’re hit through every other medium by risqué imagery (see this familiar advertising campaign for PETA, as an example), and when they appear more ready to take up arms against bared body parts on the nation’s bookshelves than they are violence in their crime and thriller fiction. I also applaud the willingness of publishers such as Hard Case Crime to bring back the sort of suggestive illustrations (see here and here) that were, interestingly, familiar to pre-Sexual Revolution Americans of the 1940s and ’50s, but are now deemed too risqué. Aren’t we all grown-ups here?

So Steve Steinbock’s post at Vorpal Blade Online about vintage Dell paperback covers struck me as amusing. Among the many fine examples he showcases of works by Ellery Queen, George Harmon Coxe, John Dickson Carr, and others are two versions of Fools Die on Friday, a Bertha Cool/Donald Lam mystery, originally published in 1947 and credited to “A.A. Fair,” one of the numerous pseudonyms employed by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. It seems that this novel bore two rather dissimilar paperback covers during its early years, one of which—shown on the left above—was distinctly racier than the other. When that original version (Dell No. 542) was republished (as Dell No. 1542), the redhead who’d previously been zipping up her skirt and displaying a handsome cleavage was now merely adjusting a shirt cuff. (Click on either of those images for an enlargement.)

(Right) The “mapback” rear cover of Fools Die on Friday.

According to Book Scans, a paperback history site,

This is the only Dell cover illustration ever to be altered. The first was published in 1951, the later printing appeared in 1953. Robert Stanley remembers painting over the old illustration, but claims that he was never told the reason, or who the request came from. William Lyles, the Dell bibliographer, believes the change was ordered by either [William] Morrow (the hardcover publisher) or by Erle Stanley Gardner ...

The model in the illustration was obviously one of Stanley’s favorites. She graces the covers of literally dozens of vintage paperbacks. You guessed it ... she’s his wife, Rhoda.

So what happened between 1951 and 1953 that might have prompted such a change? Plenty. In 1952, Congress convened the House of Representatives Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials. They wound up “suggesting” that a list of 60 paperback titles be banned by communities throughout the country, including works by Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck and Irving Shulman, to name only a few. ... Of particular interest to the Committee was the “pornographic” nature of modern book covers. Oddly, the Book Jacket Designers Guild (yes, they had a union, too) agreed with them. They saw no reason to make jacket illustrations overly provocative, especially if the work itself was not particularly sexual in nature.

This book [Fools Die on Friday] was NOT on anybody’s “bad” list, but somebody obviously thought the original cover illustration had crossed the line between good taste and indecency. And so Stanley was told to change the scene. The cover art is actually very true to the story. You will notice the copywriters also changed the dialog at the top of the scene. While they’re both close, neither of the quotes listed on the covers is taken verbatim from the text.

(In the book, Donald Lam, who unwittingly has a knack for attracting ALL women, has stashed a key witness in his apartment. Sgt. Sellers is on his way to search the place. She’s taking a bath when Lam gets there, just ahead of him. He—ever the honorable hero—turns his back as she gets dressed. Hey, whaddya expect in the early 50’s? That’s as risqué as it was allowed to get!)

I guess American Puritanism comes and goes. Thanks to today’s condemnatory, hyper-religious posturing of U.S. conservatives and the dimwitted complacency of everybody else, it seems, the country is enduring another of its prudish periods. Fortunately, those old paperbacks aren’t yet being burned on the White House lawn, and I live with confidence that these priggish times, too, will pass.

SEE MORE: “Happy April Fool’s Day, Everyone!” (Killer Covers).

Wandering the Web

• I don’t think I have ever held a copy of Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery, but I’ve certainly enjoyed looking over the illustrated fronts of those comic books online. As the Web site Dangerous Minds recalls, “Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery was originally a spin-off from his TV series Thriller. When the series was canceled, publisher Gold Star re-titled the comic as Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery. It continued to be published after Karloff’s death in 1969, and ran into the seventies …” To enjoy the covers yourself, check out that Dangerous Minds link, or visit this cover gallery at Retrospace.

• How might the classic Archie Comics have appeared, had their cover imagery been conceived in the seductive style of artist Robert McGinnis? Well, here’s one possibility.

• The Case of the Buried Clock, Erle Stanley Gardner’s 1943 novel starring L.A. attorney Perry Mason, has gone through a variety of printings and redesigns since its original publication. The blog Noah’s Archives showcases more than a few of those.

• The Seattle Mystery Bookshop blog has some nice things to say about a 2015 book devoted to Tom Adams, the Rhode Island-born artist who is perhaps best known for painting the façades found on a series of Agatha Christie paperbacks.

• Every once in a while I like to choose, at random, a tags category at the fabulous blog Pulp Covers and just see what comes up. When I did that recently with the tag “Drugs,” I found a set of fronts that ranged from the awful to the awesome.

• Flickr boasts a beautiful collection of work by American artist Mitchell Hooks, whose illustrations decorated both book covers and magazines, and who died in 2013. A few additional examples of Hooks’ artistry can be found here.

• Finally, this shows just how overwhelmed I’ve been lately, between my writing responsibilities and my remodeling efforts on two rooms of my house. I actually forgot about Killer Covers’ seventh anniversary on January 19! My thanks go out to the many readers who have stuck with this blog through another year of fine discoveries.

Month of McGinnis: Happy Halloween!

So we have finally come to the end of Killer Covers’ month-long tribute to American artist-illustrator Robert McGinnis.

When I was planning this project, I imagined posting occasional McGinnis paperback fronts in this blog, beginning on October 1 and continuing just past what was supposed to have been the October 28 release of the handsome new work, The Art of Robert E. McGinnis, by Robert E. McGinnis and Art Scott (Titan). However, it quickly became obvious that there were far too many exceptional choices, and that only daily installments in the series would suffice. Had I known a month ago that publisher Titan would, at the last minute, delay the debut of McGinnis and Scott’s book until November, if not December (due to printing and shipping problems), I would have waited to roll out this series. But I didn’t know, and it’s OK. I believe we have all enjoyed the last 31 days worth of McGinnis illustrations--63 paperback façades in total. And this week’s two-part posting of my interview with co-author Scott--Part I here, Part II here--was a challenge, but most satisfying. Even if I never get the opportunity to meet or talk with the now 88-year-old McGinnis, I have at least recognized the value of his life’s artistic endeavors through this effort.

To close out the series, I’ve been holding onto two Halloween-appropriate covers, both taken from Erle Stanley Gardner and starring his best-known protagonist, defense attorney Perry Mason. Enjoy!



Above: The Case of the Glamorous Ghost, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1962). Below: The Case of the Haunted Husband,
by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket, 1962).



Incidentally, if you have favorite Robert McGinnis paperback fronts that I haven’t already written about over the last 31 days, please mention them in the Comments section at the end of this post. And if you can provide links to where scans of those covers might found on the Web, that would be great. Thanks so much.

SEE MORE: “Scaring Up a Finale,” by J. Kingston Pierce
(The Rap Sheet).

Multiple Choice

If you love vintage Erle Stanley Gardner paperback book covers (and, hey, who doesn’t?), you really ought to check out the Seattle Mystery Bookshop--Hard-boiled Tumbler site, which has lately been on quite a Gardner kick. It offers illustrated works by Robert McGinnis, Mitchell Hooks, John Fernie, and others. One of my favorites among its selections, though, is actually a photographic front (shown above), from the 1955 Pocket paperback reissue of The Case of the Borrowed Brunette, with a cover shot by Alfred Gescheidt.

This would have made a good addition to our “peeping tom” set.

If you’d like to enjoy all of the Seattle Mystery Bookshop’s Gardner cover collection, simply click here.