Anyway, it's gotten me excited about the old ACE line, particularly the mysteries. So in my enthusiasm here are the cover scans of the Robert Bloch novels--two novels and one short story collection actually--published by ACE.
It's worth noting that many are of the opinion that the ACE crime line is inferior to many of its contemporaries, which is probably true, but if Robert Bloch's name is on the book; buy it!
Spiderweb was published in 1954
Shooting Star was published in 1958.
Terror in the Night was the second book published with Shooting Star in 1958.
Robert Bloch is best known as a horror writer, but in his early career he wrote some terrific crime novels, including the titles above. His work is tight, thrilling, vivid, and very fun. Hard Case Crime republished Spiderweb and Shooting Star in a double format a few years ago--pick it up, it's very much worth the $7.99. Now if HCC would republish Terror in the Night with, say, a collection of David Goodis short stories; or maybe John D. shorts.
Good memories of all those. That must be one hell of a bookstore.
ReplyDeleteIt's a surprisingly good bookshop. It's in an old house on the edge of old downtown St. George, Utah. There are the expected rooms of Mormon stuff, a room of fairly modern paperbacks, and then you hit the stairs to the second story. Piled against the wall of the stairwell are hundreds--maybe a few thousand--old westerns from Gold Medal, ACE, Signet, etc.
ReplyDeleteThere are also several rooms upstairs that have another batch of old paperbacks in piles on the floor and on bookshelves. The last time I was there--a month ago, maybe--I noticed Harry Whittington, Robert Colby, etc. I'm hoping to make a trip down this Friday for another foraging party.
I do think that Gold Medal and Lion probably had better novels, but Ace may have had the loudest, most dramatic, and most enjoyable cover art of the bunch.
ReplyDeleteI hope you take advantage of your suprisingly good bookshop. Far too many of my favorite haunts have closed over the past few years.
Great to hear your enthusiasm over these books. Bloch was fabulous. I was in St George from Australia in 05. Incidentally, do you have any idea who the cover artists were to these covers? Keep up the scintillating work! Danny
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