Here's a great Mapback paperback-- Helen McCloy's The Goblin Market. The title and quotation are from Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market." The novel was first published in 1942, but by Dell as a Mapback paperback in 1943.
I'm a big fan of Helen McCloy and her Dr. Basil Willing. The Goblin Market is set during WWII (1942) on the island of Santa Teresa in the Caribbean. This is a spy novel and involves codes and ciphers (cablese), as the foreign correspondents send cables to the home office. And, McCloy adds a good chapter on howcablese works. Helen McCloy was herself a newspaper correspondent in Paris, so she knows whereof she writes. I like the feminist and psychological elements of this novel. I also like that The Goblin Market foreshadows my favorite McCloy, Through a Glass, Darkly.
Love it. Did you see this Rex Stout one on my blog yesterday? I really like it. http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2015/05/paperback_17.html
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this, Janet. I had never heard of her but have begun reading the lesser known Golden Agers because the plots are so well done and the prose is so good. For others as benighted about McCloy as I am and equally space-challenged, they are available on Kindle. Just bought this one! Is there merit in beginning at start of her work?
ReplyDeleteI like to read series in order, but in this case, I read McCloy's books when I found them, and I don't think it hampered me in any way.
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