Mapback Monday: Who's Calling by Helen McCloy

It's been awhile since I've posted for Mapback Monday. Today I'm sharing a Dell Mapback cover and map from 1942. Thanks to Bill Gottfried who inadvertently purchased two copies of Helen McCloy's Who's Calling? at Bouchercon. I'm now the lucky owner of the extra copy! FYI: No severed ears appear in the story. Ah..the problems with covers.

I really like the Helen McCloy books. 
Check out the covers and maps for:
She Walks Alone
The Goblin Market
Through a Glass Darkly

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 more about Who's Calling on The Passing Tramp.

Map Back Monday: Helen McCloy's Through a Glass, Darkly

For today's Map Back Monday I chose Helen McCloy's Through a Glass, Darkly. A classic! We read this in my book group many years ago. I used to collect Helen McCloy's and give them to my psychiatrist father. Helen McCloy (1904-1994) was an American mystery writer, creator of the psychiatrist detective Basil Willing. Read more HERE.

 Dell Map Backs were produced in the 1940s and 50s.

Map Back Monday!

Today,  I'm starting a new feature on Mystery Fanfare: Map Back Monday! I've been collecting the iconic Dell Map Backs for years, and recently my sister in law sent me my late brother-in-law's collection. Stan always said he was going to send them to me, but never got around to it. Well, he was a collector like me, so I'm sure it was hard to part with any books. I sent him some of my dupes, so maybe they've come to roost. My postings will be in no particular order.

Dell Map Books were printed in the 1940s and 50s, and they were something really special! They were great paperbacks, not only for the books themselves, but for the sturdy laminated covers that also had maps of the scene of the crime on the back! How cool is that? Most of my Dell Map Backs are mysteries, but I think I saw a romance in Stan's collection, so I may post that cover at some time. This will be a discovery for me, as well.

So to begin my Map Back Mondays, here's the cover and map back from Leslie Ford's The Philadelphia Murder Story! I'm from Philadelphia, after all, and I'm drawn to anything Philly! The Map Back features lots of my haunts--well maybe not the Police Station. And the mystery is a'bibliomystery"...the theme of the next issue of Mystery Readers Journal. Perfect timing!

"The Death of an Author Upsets Society and The SatEvePost in "the Philadelphia Murder Story"