Monday 27 February 2017

The Neon Jungle - John D. MacDonald

"Culminates in one of the most explosive scenes in recent fiction." - THE NEW YORK TIMES


GOLD MEDAL s1061
THIRD PRINTING NOVEMBER 1960
GREENWICH, CONN, USA

The smell of stale bedrooms and warm gin hovered over that whole section of town. The women, even the young girls, walked a certain way, looked at men in a certain way.

There was a drifting threat of violence everywhere, and the kids of the neighborhood knew all about knives, garrison belts and bicycle chains long before they were pushed into high school by weary truant officers.

Sunday 26 February 2017

Girls On The Loose (The Go Girls) - Will Laurence

The WILDCATS, a motor-bike girl gang of alluring tramps who got their kicks from speed and love..


STAG MODERN NOVELS SP 32
FIRST EDITION 1964
SYDNEY & MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

THE GO GIRLS

They roamed the highways, working at anything to get enough money to live-and love.
The Wildcats, alluring motor-bike gang girls out for kicks.

Saturday 25 February 2017

Killers Cannot Live - Alvin Kinlay


MICRON BOOKS C4
FIRST PRINTING MAY 1961
MITCHAM, SURREY, UK

Violent death paid twi visits on this warm sunny day in San Francisco. Two murders that were apparently unconnected until police laboratories found the link.

The manhunt was on.

A really thrilling story for lovers of crime fiction.

Friday 24 February 2017

Rusty Desmond - Steve January

SHE GREW UP TOO FAST


AVON BOOKS T-359
SECOND PRINTING NO DATE
NEW YORK, USA

"...better than The Amboy Dukes."

"I congratulate Mr. January. He's written a book about juvenile delinquency in America that is exciting and true, so true it is disturbing, so disturbing it may make people think and do; and if a novel does these things then it succeeds for the author, the reader and society. Read this book. It's good-and important."

...From the introduction by Irving Shulman

Thursday 23 February 2017

Bus Stop - William Inge

The touching and hilarious story of a footloose torch singer who knew too much about men and a cowboy who didn't know enough about women... 
"an uproarious comedy..." - NEW YORK TIMES


BANTAM BOOKS 1518
FIRST PRINTING AUGUST 1956
FIRST PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY RANDOM HOUSE JUNE 1955
FIRESIDE THEATRE SELECTION PUBLISHED MARCH 1956
COVER PHOTO BY MILTON GREENE

cherie and the cowboy

Cherie was a chanteuse. She said, "I call m'self Cherie. Thass all the name ya need-like Hildegarde. I won a amateur contest down in Joplin, Missouri, and that got me a job in a night club in Kanz City. But working in a night club ain't all roses..."

Bo Decker had his picture taken by Life magazine because he was a champion professional rodeo rider. Bo had heard about women only he'd hardly ever seen one. Bo was a large, beautiful hunk of a 
man-but green as new grass when it came to Cherie.

Bo and Cherie got together when they were stranded at a bus stop one night.

Their story is one of high humor-a mixture of brag, heartache, bluster, and the funniest tough love affair ever put on stage, screen, or between the covers of a book. It is filled with comedy, compassion and tenderness-

"A MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENT..."
NEW YORK TIMES

Marilyn Monroe stars in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope Film

Wednesday 22 February 2017

The Promoter - Orrie Hitt

VICE WAS HIS BUSINESS, AND HE LOVED HIS WORK!
A NOVEL OF INNOCENCE AT THE MERCY OF SYNDICATED LUST


BEACON BOOKS BB 142
FIRST PRINTING 1957
NEW YORK, USA

He organized a SYNDICATE OF SIN!

AT FIRST it was just for fun-amateur stuff. It did no harm to anybody, except maybe one or two innocent young kids in a cellar club, kids like Marilyn Wentworth...

But then Al Robbins began to put things on a professional basis. He forced Marilyn to recruit good-looking college debs. He sent his lieutenant, big Tony, after pretty little factory workers and gamins from the garment district. Soon he had everything a man needs to be kingpin of a vice racket. Everything, that is, except a go-ahead from the mob-and from his own tigress of a girl-friend.

SOME HOODS FIGHT THEIR BATTLES WITH KNIVES AND TOMMY GUNS. 
BUT AL WENT THEM ONE BETTER. HIS BEST WEAPONS WERE WOMEN....!

Tuesday 21 February 2017

The Leather Boys - Eliot George


ANTHONY BLOND 1961
FIRST PRINTING
LONDON, UK
COVER ART BY OLIVER CARSON

The leather boys are the boys on the bikes, the boys who do a ton on the by-pass. For their expensive machines, they need expensive leather jackets. They are an aimless, lawless, cowardly and vain lot with a peacock quality to their clothes and hairstyle.

The problem of these working-class boys with big wage packets and nothing to do is the background to The Leather Boys which is the story of two of them, Dick who lives with his widowed grandmother and Reggie who married Dot when he was 17.

After a row with his wife Reggie goes to stay with Dick in his grandmother's house; their friendship develops into love and they break away from their gang to rob a local cinema together.

The author of The Leather Boys does not treat homosexuality as a personal or social problem but takes for granted that the love between these two inarticulate young men could exist between two human beings at any time at any place.

The climax of the story is impelled by the forces of the times and the place in which they move-the psychological pressures and the transient, indefinite air of the south London suburbs.