Monday, October 17, 2022

Mapback Monday: Helen McCloy's Do Not Disturb

MapBack Monday. I love these old books.. great stories and great graphics. The perfect match. Today's Mapback is Helen McCloy's Do Not Disturb (1943). The book also has a cast of characters with descriptions. The Hotel Majestic is another hotel I won't be checking into any time soon. I really enjoy the writing, too, in the McCloy books.

Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action. Dell books were numbered in series.




Helen McCloy
(June 6, 1904 – December 1, 1994), is the pseudonym of Helen Clarkson. She was an American mystery writer, whose series character Dr. Basil Willing debuted in Dance of Death (1938). Willing believes, that "every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints, and he can't wear gloves to hide them." He appeared in 13 of McCloy's novels and in several of her short stories. McCloy often used the theme of doppelganger, but in the end of the story she showed a psychological or realistic explanation for the seemingly supernatural events. 


Read J F Norris's review of Do Not Disturb on Pretty Sinister Books.


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