HOLIDAY SIN

Actually, I'd just like a wake-up call and the continental breakfast. Where do I sign for that?

Normal travelers need not stop at the Valhalla Motel—the place is strictly for the sexually adventurous, including a newlywed couple that wants to be filmed having sex, an older woman who likes teen boys, a masochist who gets off on pain inflicted by a masseur, and of course the usual assortment of lesbians and bisexuals. Building a sleaze novel around a motel and the manager’s efforts to discreetly please the customers is a pretty full concept for a book, but author Richard Donalds also saved a little creativity for efforts such as Not Since Eve and Something Special. Those books, as well as Sign Here for Sin, were published in 1963, but only the latter has brilliant Paul Rader cover art. It’s one of his better efforts and it makes the book highly collectible.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1935—Huey Long Assassinated

Governor of Louisiana Huey Long, one of the few truly leftist politicians in American history, is shot by Carl Austin Weiss in Baton Rouge. Long dies after two days in the hospital.

1956—Elvis Shakes Up Ed Sullivan

Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing his hit song “Don’t Be Cruel.” Ironically, a car accident prevented Sullivan from being present that night, and the show was guest-hosted by British actor Charles Laughton.

1966—Star Trek Airs for First Time

Star Trek, an American television series set in the twenty-third century and promoting socialist utopian ideals, premieres on NBC. The series is cancelled after three seasons without much fanfare, but in syndication becomes one of the most beloved television shows of all time.

1974—Ford Pardons Nixon

U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office, which coincidentally happen to include all those associated with the Watergate scandal.

1978—Giorgi Markov Assassinated

Bulgarian dissident Giorgi Markov is assassinated in a scene right out of a spy novel. As he’s waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge in London, he’s jabbed in the calf with an umbrella. The man holding the umbrella apologizes and walks away, but he is in reality a Bulgarian hired killer who has just injected a ricin pellet into Markov, who develops a high fever and dies three days later.

This awesome cover art is by Tommy Shoemaker, a new talent to us, but not to more experienced paperback illustration aficionados.
Ten covers from the popular French thriller series Les aventures de Zodiaque.
Sam Peffer cover art for Jonathan Latimer's Solomon's Vineyard, originally published in 1941.

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