Above you see a cover for Mack Reynolds’ Episode on the Riviera, published in 1961 by Monarch Books. If you check Reynolds’ Wikipedia profile it tells you that he wrote five sex novels from 1961 to 1964, and that this is one of them. Everyone’s got bills to pay, right? Well, we don’t know about the other four, but this one isn’t a sex novel, or even a sleaze novel. While the language is bit more frank than usual and a couple of then-esoteric acts are implied, it’s actually a David Dodge influenced lightweight drama, and it’s as confidently put across as anything Dodge ever wrote.
Most of the action takes place at French Riviera casinos, beaches, and parties, and in main character Steve Cogswell’s travel agency, one of whose customers a particular summer week is Nadine Whiteley, a woman determined to solve what she perceives as her own sexual problem by having an anonymous affair with any suitable swinging dick she stumbles across. Cogswell seems to fit the bill, has his own sexual quirks. Just when these two look set to get together, both their exes arrive from the U.S—Nadine’s to blackmail her into marriage so he can get his mitts on her money, and Steve’s to win him back after she’s betrayed him with his best friend. While the sexual problems of both characters are imperfectly handled, overall this one is a winner, an easy and effervescent summer read.
