This awesome cover in comic book style goes in the uncredited catgory, another egregious miscarriage of attribution justice. It was painted for the 1959 Red Seal edition of Harry Whittington’s mistaken identity thriller You’ll Die Next!, one of the lightning quick tales at which he was especially good. In this one a man who can barely believe the perfection of his existence—he’s married to a stunning beauty who loves him, is an inexperienced but eager sex partner, and is content to make him popovers* for breakfast—comes to think she has a dark past when gangsters show up to violently upend his existence. It seems to derive from something that happened in San Francisco. He’s never been there—but his wife has. He’s soon on the run from both gangsters and cops, blamed for things he never did, wondering if he enitre life has been a lie. Whittington goes full bore with the villains here. One of them had his eyes burned out with acid and doesn’t bother covering them. He just goes around aiming his vacant sockets at people. You’ll Die Next! isn’t perfect, but considering Whittington at one point produced eighty-five novels in twelve years, we’ll forgive him his flaws. A fun, fast read, this one.
*Crispy biscuits made from eggs, butter, and sugar, kind of like Americanized Yorkshire puddings. Never heard of them before, but they sound yummy.