Paperback 1147: Lord Edgware Dies / Agatha Christie (Fontana Books 719)

Paperback 1147: Fontana 719 (5th ptg, 1962)

Title: Lord Edgware Dies

Author: Agatha Christie

Cover artist: Uncredited

Condition: 8/10

Value: $20

[Autumn Leaves, Ithaca, NY, August 2025]

Best things about this cover: 

• OK so I have a theory about how Lord Edgware dies
• I love this woman. I love her hat and her veil and her refusal to let anything (anything!) else be in the picture except her. I want to marry this woman, I'm sure it would be fine
• If I see British vintage paperbacks, or any non-US vintage paperbacks, and they're in any kind of condition, I buy them. This one was part of a massive Christie haul that I took out of Autumn Leaves a couple months back. So, yeah, prepare for a Christie onslaught!

Best things about this back cover: 

• "Was it really she who committed the murder?" Me, looking at front cover: "Yeah, pretty sure."
• Actually, if you ask "was it really she who committed the murder?" on the damned back cover, I'm gonna rule out precisely one person as the murderer. Thanks a lot.
• Shoulda called it Poirot Probes Industriously. Everybody dies, but how many probe industriously? Bloody few, I'd say.
• The layout here is inexcusably messy. Non-indented, non-separated paragraphs, all crammed down low on the page. And "effects a startling denouement"?! Were Brits just not fluent in pulp patter? You're selling murder mysteries here, not reviewing Chekhov, come on!

Page 123~

"I do not play games. You know that. Murder is not a game. It is serious. And anyway, Hastings, you should not use that phrase—playing the game. It is not said anymore. I have discovered that. It is dead. Young people laugh when they hear it. Mais oui, young beautiful girls will laugh at you if you say 'playing the game' and 'not cricket.'"

Wait, you mean 'not cricket' is out of style!? Since 1933!? No wonder young beautiful girls are always laughing at me!

~RP

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Paperback 928: Murder Up My Sleeve / Erle Stanley Gardner (Pocket Books 4503)

Paperback 928: Pocket Books 4503 (1st ptg, 1962)

Title: Murder Up My Sleeve
Author: Erle Stanley Gardner
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $10-12 (condition = perfect)

Best things about this cover:

• The best-selling follow-up to "Larceny Down My Pants"
• Wow, that dude's magic carpet ride appears to have gone terribly, horribly wrong
• "Hi, I'm here for the 'Yoga for Mourners' class ... my, that's quite a convincing Corpse Pose you've got there."
• This cover is terrible. It has two good things about it: orange, and title font. The rest is a sketchbook, at best.

Best things about this back cover:

• "Hey, what if, instead of an orange rectangle, we go with, like, a jagged ... orange rectangle?" "Brilliant!"
• More great font action.
• Sleeve gun? Ohhhhhhh, now I get it. Murder up my SLEEVE. Good one. Much better than "Dartgun up My Sleeve." Wordplay!

Page 123~

"Mix the highballs, stupid."

~RP

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