Edna Sherry’s 1959 crime novel She Asked for Murder, originally published a year earlier as Tears for Jessie Hewitt, has rear cover text that gives away the show. We had no idea about that until the book arrived and we looked at it more carefully. We simply liked the cover (obviously Robert McGinnis, and a nice example) and could see that the genre was a fit for us. But okay, Dell Publications flubbed their editorial responsibilities. Let’s talk about the book anyway.
It follows the criminal activities of a thief, killer, and narcissist named Victor Clyde who, looking to throw off cops searching for a lone man, gives unsuspecting young Jessie Hewitt a ride crosscountry so they’ll appear to be a couple. By the end of the journey she’s grown so attached to Victor and so fearful he’ll leave her that he’s able to convert her to a life of crime. This toxic emotional bond is the beginning of Jessie’s downward spiral, as love mixes inextricably with fear of abandonment in Jessie’s scattered mind.
The book has a characteristic we enjoy, which is that of a criminal who thinks he’s smart but really isn’t. Because the early chapters are told mainly from Victor’s point of view, you have no evidence that he isn’t as brilliant as he describes himself. When other characters are folded into the story you see him for who he really is—a walking study for the Dunning–Kruger effect. Ultimately, he can’t even outsmart a child (but we bet he could outsmart a Dell editor). Since you can’t avoid seeing the rear anyway if you buy the book, it appears below.
