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Gary Lovisi has long been one of the key authorities on the gloriously lurid art of pulp paperbacks, with their parade of alluring half-dressed temptresses/murderesses/victims, and this handsomely illustrated volume is perhaps his most entertaining contribution to the burgeoning field of reprints of such material. Interestingly, many of the authors of the crime and thriller novels whose covers are so lovingly reproduced here are now totally forgotten (though such stellar names as Cornell Woolrich make an appearance). A commendable touch here is Lovisi spreading his net wider than the heady eroticism of American pulp illustrators; such British talents as Denis McLoughlin are showcased in Dames, Dolls and Delinquents.

For all aficionados of this magnificently non-PC field, this is an essential purchase.

Barry Forshaw

Krause Publications