I like how casually this woman is aiming the gun. The illustrator caught her right at the moment before she pulls the trigger. How cold-blooded and hard looking she is! This is one tough cookie. Usually crime pulp cover women are plumper-cheeked and younger: Dames. This woman is firmly in Broad territory.
Incidentally, I’ve noticed how many female bulldogs are given names that sound like they belong to gangster’s molls, like Zelda or Sophie, while male bulldogs have short, macho-sounding names like Chunk, Tank, or Diesel.
Anyway, nothing makes one want to pick up a crime novel more than the title. The author, blurb, and cover are secondary … even, sadly, the cover above. If the main story was “The Broad Aimed for Death” and not “House of Scarlet Sin” I’d be more likely to read it.
Here’s a selection of randomly generated crime novels that appeared in my Twitter feed 2017 – 2020.
Crime and Detective Novels
| The Dame in the Coney Island Ticket Booth
Farewell and Bang Bang Murder at the National Aquarium Ballad of the Badge Recipe for Deceit Small Detective in the Big City Murder of a Texas Temptress Murder in a Silk Shirt The Tai Chi Murders The Pizza Gambit |
