The cover of Ray Damon’s 1961 novel Sinful Wife is dynamic, but uncredited. We suspect it’s culled, like yesterday’s cover, from another piece, particularly because nothing like this pistol-whipping moment occurs in the book. There isn’t even a gun in the tale. But we can’t track down any clarifying info, so uncredited this artist shall remain. The novel is a Double Indemnity scenario in which a door-to-door salesman gets involved with a supposedly lonely wife, and is enticed to knock off her husband—literally, with a hammer. Damon brings nothing innovative to the concept but writes competently, and we liked that the main character Joe Lang is an inexperienced guy who’s never been loved, or even properly laid. He knows he’s risking the death chair but feels that his life without femme fatale Stella Norwood would be worse than dying. The moron. There’s minimalist characterization within a constrained narrative, and it works. The book is an improvement over Damon’s 1959 novel Broadway Bait, so it’s also a nice example of authorial growth. We’d read him again if we came across another book on sale cheap. That’s a sound endorsement.
