THIS MIGHT HURT A BIT

Thinking back, I probably phrased the request wrong. I should have said I wanted a big juicy part in a show.

This is nice cover work for Nick Quarry’s 1960 crime caper Till It Hurts. It was painted by Barye Phillips, and clues in readers that there’s a show business backdrop to the tale. It’s not Hollywood, though—it’s New York City’s television industry, with a double dip into the jazz music scene. The story follows private eye Jake Barrow as he wanders into an alley where a man is being brutally beaten by three organized crime thugs. It turns out the victim is a private eye too, and he was being warned off a case. He takes the message to heart, and basically leaves his client in Barrow’s lap.

The client is Loretta Smith, who wants to prove that her musician husband was framed for murder, then in turn murdered by cops to cover up the frame. Despite the professional beating he witnessed, Barrow gets talked into the case and immediately focuses his attention on one cop in particular who lives in implausible luxury on a yacht. It’s a dangerous gambit to try to prove a cop is a killer, and those perils quickly mount to untenable levels. Barrow has a little help though—his pal and sometime lover is an undercover cop named Sandy, who’s separately investigatng drug connections in the Manhattan jazz scene. Maybe there’s a link between her case and Barrow’s.

This was a good book. It moves fast and has a nice cast of characters, including a now-grown child actress Barrow was in love with when he was a kid. It becomes clear early that the bad cop angle isn’t a red herring, but that’s fine. The yacht-ensconced villain is so mean and deadly that no subterfuge is needed to keep reader interest, as strategic maneuvering between opposite sides and bursts of action lead up to a kinetic climax. We learned that Till It Hurts is entry four in a Jake Barrow series, so we’ve got the first book winging its way here via international mail. But this one stood alone just fine.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,300 stars.

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.

1969—Allende Meteorite Falls in Mexico

The Allende Meteorite, the largest object of its type ever found, falls in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone, traveling at more than ten miles per second and leaving a brilliant streak across the sky, is believed to have been approximately the size of an automobile. But by the time it hit the Earth it had broken into hundreds of fragments.

1985—Matt Munro Dies

English singer Matt Munro, who was one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s and sang numerous hits, including the James Bond theme “From Russia with Love,” dies from liver cancer at Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London.

1958—Plane Crash Kills 8 Man U Players

British European Airways Flight 609 crashes attempting to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane is the Manchester United football team, along with a number of supporters and journalists. 20 of the 44 people on board die in the crash.

Five covers for football pulp magazines illustrated by George Gross.
Rare Argentinian cover art for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

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