The Craghold Curse by Edwina Noone (Belmont Tower Books, 1972)

This book is a weird mashup--combining ghosts, gangsters, G-men and some kind of demonic desk clerk!  When I saw it in the Green Shed I just had to buy it:

 

A "holiday of horror" --well, we've all had those.  You flight is delayed.  The airline loses your luggage.  The air-conditioning in your hotel room fails, and it rains the whole time you're away...

Oh.  Not that kind of Horror Holiday?

HORROR HOTEL

Craghold House had much to offer as a resort.  It was a picturesque area surrounded by Craghold Lake, Goblin Wood, and the Caves of Hex.  It was an area rich in legends of doomed families, curses and ghosts.  Theresa Galliani and her father would take a vacation here like no other--a vacation at Craghold House.

How could anyone resist a resort like that?

The Time Masters by Wilson Tucker (Lancer, 1971)

Wilson Tucker is another one of my "forgotten favourites" --a science fiction author whose work I relish, but is barely remembered today.

THE YEAR THE FUTURE BEGAN

Was it 1940--when the United States made the fateful decision to proceed with the construction of an atomic bomb?  Was it 1957--when Sputnik finally cracked the door that led into space?  Or will it be that day in the very near future when the first starship probe seeks the nearest stars, in hope of finding intelligent life other than man?  The question is of the utmost importance to one man and one woman, castaway on this alien planet, Earth, by an unimaginable disaster--10,000 years ago!

  "An unimaginable disaster".  Oh please.  That's almost the same as telling us that the author couldn't think of a reason to strand his characters on Earth, so he fudged it.

In any case, it doesn't really matter, because the emphasis in this book is on what our 10,000 year old castaways are doing in the here and now--"now" being the near future the author has imagined.   The original publication date was 1953, so in some ways it's a very 1950s future filled with secrets and Cold War paranoia.

Of course, the 1953 copyright date makes complete nonsense of the reference to Sputnik on the back cover, because for obvious reasons Sputnik doesn't appear in the book!

The front cover on the other hand... it's a beautiful example of late sixties/early seventies design.  It depicts our ancient castaways falling to Earth in transparent spacesuits--or maybe they're indulging in a bit of nude free-falling disco instead.  Either way, I love it! 

Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1957)

Another book I bought for its cover!

 

"You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?"

These startling words overheard by Hercule Poirot in a Jerusalem hotel, open

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH

by Agatha Christie

 The speaker is a young American, Raymond Boynton; he is talking to his sister Carol about their stepmother.  Old Mrs. Boynton, it appears, was a prison wardress before her marriage, and her ingrained lust for power and cruelty has gradually driven her family to desperation.  While she lives, there can be no happiness for any of them.  Soon an expedition is arranged to Petra, "the rose-red city"; and there a death occurs.  The problem is taken up by Colonel Carbury in Amman just as Poirot arrives with a letter of introduction to him.  And so the little Belgian detective becomes involved in one of the most extraordinary cases of his career.

Trust me on this: in his entire career, Hercule Poirot has never become involved in an ordinary case.

(The back cover blurb is a strangely unexciting summary of the first half of the book.  And it's in the passive voice too--an expedition "is arranged" and a death "occurs".  No, a death didn't "occur"--this is Agatha Christie.  Someone was murdered!)

The Case of the Backward Mule by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pan, 1957)

I got this one from a bookshop in Tasmania via eBay:

 

Chase in San Francisco's Chinatown

To baffle the lie-detector clamped on his arm, Terry Clane practises the intense concentration he learned in the Orient.  But the sight of a little Chinese figure--an old man riding backward on a mule--sends the indicator-needle leaping; for he'd given it once to Cynthia, his former fiancee and close friend of a man convicted of murder who has escaped.  Says the police examiner: "Either there's something I haven't accurately diagnosed or else ... you murdered Horace Farnsworth."  Then begins a grim game of hide-and-seek through Chinatown.

Erle Stanley Gardner--a prolific mystery writer, best known as the author of 82 (!) Perry Mason books.  None of his works could be described as great literature (not surprisingly, given his output) but they are mostly entertaining light reading.  I find them great reading for the daily commute.

The Case of the Backward Mule is one of the (many) books Gardner managed to write when he was not churning out Perry Mason mysteries.  The book has many "Chinese" elements, as you can see from the cover of this edition and the blurb.   It's interesting to note that Gardner probably drew upon his own experiences in writing this.  As a young lawyer he had many clients (and made some lifelong friends) among California's Chinese community.  Being the writer he was, you can't expect any deep insight into China or the Chinese from this book, nor is it entirely free of cliches, but it is surprisingly sympathetic and lacking in the racism of its era!

Swing, Brother, Swing by Ngaio Marsh (Fontana, 1974)

 

Rivera had advanced in the spotlight.  He seemed rapt; at once tormented and exalted.  He swayed and jerked and ogled, a puppet of his own music.  As the performance rocketed up to its climax, he swayed backwards at a preposterous angle.  Then a screaming dissonance abruptly tore loose from the general din as the spotlight switched to the tympani.  Lord Pastern, wearing his sombrero, had risen.  Advancing to within five feet of Rivera, he pointed his revolver at him and fired...

Oh my!  Hot jazz, aristocrats (common people seldom star in Ngaio Marsh's mysteries where even policemen are pedigreed) and murder all mixed up together.  And bound within one of Fontana's better photo-covers.  I love the dramatic foreshortening of the murder victim, lying there with some kind of spike sticking out of his white dress shirt.  The image just draws you in and makes you want to find out what's going on.

Adam Link Robot by Eando Binder (Paperback Library, 1965)

Another find from the Lifeline Bookfair:

ADAM LINK

- THE FIRST OF THE ROBOT RACE - HAD PHOTO-ELECTRIC EYES, AN IRIDIUM-SPONGE BRAIN AND THE SOUL OF A MAN!

An electronic marvel gifted with incredible skills, Adam Link faces a series of challenges that would stagger a mere mortal, culminating in a fierce struggle to save Earth from destruction at the hands of an alien race.

ADAM LINK ROBOT

Since Eando Binder first wrote about him, Adam Link--Robot has become on of the most famous characters in science-fiction.

Now, for the first time, here is a novel incorporating the startling adventures of Adam Link--a robot battling for existence in a world that misunderstands him, fears him and exploits him.

Adam Link - Robot began life as a series of short stories appearing in Amazing Stories between 1939 and 1942. Not surprisingly, as a novel it is somewhat old-fashioned for 1965 and very episodic. Adam Link is tried for murder, sets himself up as a scientific consultant, falls in love, builds himself a mate, is enslaved by a mad scientist, breaks up a ring of gangsters, becomes a champion athlete and saves the world from an alien invasion--and all in a book only 174 pages long!

 

Ravens' Blood by E.F. Benson (Popular Library, 1961)

Found on a charity bookstall at the markets:

 

THE CURSE OF THE PENTREATHS

Lovely young Nell Robson had heard fearful stories about the old mansion of the Pentreaths ever since she was a little girl in the isolated English village of St. Columb's.  Some said the very ground the house stood on was accursed.  Others whispered of horrifying rites performed in the meadowland under the moon.

Now Nell had come to live within the mansion's walls, and all rumors paled beside the truth.  The master of the house called himself a man of God, but minister of Satan would have been a better name.  The Pentreath women seemed puppets of the shameless sensuality and sinister evil that poisoned the air.  And even as Nell desperately sought to escape, she felt herself falling under the spell of handsome, powerful Dennis Pentreath, heir to the Pentreath curse, who spoke of love even as he drew Nell toward the abyss...

  Ravens' Blood is most definitely NOT a gothic romance, and anyone anticipating one will be disappointed upon opening the book.  What on Earth possessed Popular Books to market it this way?