Paul Rader was tapped by Midwood books so often he like a house artist. Paperbacks with very nice Rader covers can get expensive, but not in this case. We got lucky and found Richard Mezatesta’s 1963 sleaze tale One of the Girls for twelve bucks. It deals with the lovely Barbara Sellers, nineteen and horny as hell in New York City, paired up with a jealous, violent lover, but who wants to find a worthwhile replacement and expand her social horizons. Instead, an eely smooth pimp first gives Barbara some serious bedwork, then turns her out for rich customers.
As always with the call girl sub-genre of sleaze, the lead’s rationale for turning to prostitution is unconvincing, but it isn’t the point anyway. The point is titillation, and Mezatesta is pretty good on that front. Barbara satisfies numerous clients, wrestles with feelings of love for one man, and takes the requisite journey into self-loathing, yet finds quitting the sex-for-pay life difficult. Will she be a prostitute forever? Will she get married and live happily ever after? A gamut of endings are always in play in these novels, which means you can never guess until the final chapter. In all, this particular effort was pretty good.
