Showing posts with label Harlequin halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harlequin halloween. Show all posts

31 October 2024

This Harlequin Halloween, a Dick in a Box


If the Coffin Fits
Day Keen [Gunard Hjerstedt]
Toronto: Harlequin, 1952
The cover copy lays it straight:
Central City specialized in vice, legal gambling and easy divorces.
   Teen-age "B" girls in low-cut evening gowns drank with the suckers. If the sucker's bank account was substantial enough, he would be drugged and "found" in a hotel room with a scantily clad bit of Jail Bait. This badger game served the dual purpose of enslaving the girl and exacting a considerable income from the victim. Free-lance crime was not tolerated in Central City; all such activities were conducted on a highly organized basis headed by the anonymous "Mr. Big".
   When Tom Doyle, Chicago Investigator, accepted a blind case in Central City, he ran head on into Mr. Big's organization. Doyle was greeted on his arrival by the Karney twins, who pistol-whipped him into a pulpy mass of bruised flesh and gently invited him to leave their fair city...
   Doyle soon learned that the solution depended on getting Mr. Big. Many people were murdered to prevent Doyle from accomplishing this, and before the case was over, Tom had cause to wonder - IF THE COFFIN FITS.
Posted by Brian Busby at 6:30 AM 0 comments
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31 October 2023

Harlequin Halloween Horror: So Much Satan!



Jean Plaidy – not her real name – wrote 191 novels. Daughter of Satan may be number 23, but I expect the authoress herself wouldn't have known for certain. What I know for certain is that it was the 203rd Harlequin Book, but only because the number appears on its cover. 

Daughter of Satan concerns a young woman, Tamar, who is believed to be the spawn of the devil. This has something to do with her mother having attended a midsummer coven of witches. Tamar's conception in no way dissuades her male suiters, not even puritan Humility Brown.

And here I'd thought Humility was a girl's name.

Daughter of Satan was the first Harlequin book to feature Satan in its title. I've found seven others, but I suspect there are more. What I find most interesting is the uptick during the Satanic Panic.

Make of that what you will. 

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31 October 2022

A WTF Harlequin Halloween


Murder — Queen High
Bob Wade and Bill Miller
Toronto: Harlequin, 1951

Over the years, the Dusty Bookcase has shared some very frightening covers from Harlequin's early history. Who can forget The Corpse Came Back, the 2014 Harlequin Halloween selection.


 I expect 2017's Out of the Night caused many a bad dream.

Apologies.

Murder — Queen High rates lower on the terror-inducing index, though I think you'll agree that it's pretty scary. A feline/human form threatens a gun-packing woman in a pink frock. What exactly is going on here?


The back cover only raises more questions:

Is the woman in pink the Queen? Is she Fay Jordan, "she of the sensuous figure and the mind to match"? Could it be "the curvy, swervy girl called Sin"? Whatever the answer, Murder — Queen High may just be the craziest novel Harlequin has ever published.

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31 October 2021

A Harlequin Halloween Hobo



I can't be alone in finding this cover disturbing. Just what is going on? Is this woman terrified or has she lost her mind? Is she the lady hobo? I ask the because that's a pretty nice frock. And doesn't her hair look terrific!

This 1953 Harlequin follows the 1935 Coward-McCann first edition. "Lots of incident but what of it?" sniffed Kirkus.

Lest you think I'm making too much of Harlequin's cover image 1953's, consider the back cover copy: 


"Fear and death... terror-stricken women... an excitedly different story of stark horror."

Amongst Beth Brown's other books are Applause, Ballyhoo, and That's That. For Men Only, the ribald tale of a successful brothel-owner, and the heart-warming, sentimental All Dogs Go to Heaven, suggest that, like Brian Moore, Beth Brown wasn't one to be tied down to a genre.

Though I haven't read Lady Hobo, I have listened to this 1968 recording of Brown's Minnie, the Tired Trolley Car. A children's story, it is he stuff of nightmares.

Listen if you dare!


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31 October 2020

An Unholy Harlequin Halloween



This is the twelfth Dusty Bookcase Harlequin Halloween post. You know the drill by now: I share an old, odd, unsettling cover from the romance publisher's early years, and we all move on.

Here, for example, is the very first Harlequin Halloween post:

That was it. 

Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's Speak of the Devil was my choice for this year. Still is. I mean, really, is there not something unnatural about that woman's index finger?

Published in June 1950, Speak of the Devil was the first Harlequin to feature "Devil" in its title. As far as I've been able to determine, the next was American Charles Stoddard's RCMP adventure Devil's Portage, which followed eight years later.


It isn't until 1975 that we find the third Harlequin to reference the Devil in its title:

The Devil's Darling
Violet Winspear
1975

I don't pretend to know what's going on with Harlequin, but can't help but note that with The Devil's Darling the Evil One came to take a regular place in its titles.
 
Devil in a Silver Room
Violet Winspear
1976

The Devil's Daughter
Marguerite Bell
1978

The Devil's Bride
Margaret Pargeter
1979

The Devil Drives
Jane Arbor
1980

Devil's Gateway
Yvonne Whittal
1980

The four decades since Devil's Gateway have seen:

Devil in Command - Helen Bianchin (1981)
Devil in Disguise - Jessica Steele (1981) 
Devil's Mount - Anne Mather (1981)
The Devil Lover - Carole Mortimer (1981)
The Devil's Mistress - Sarah Holland (1982)
A Touch of the Devil - Anne Weale (1982)
Devil's Causeway - Mary Winnerley (1982)
Sup with the Devil - Sara Craven (1982)
Devil's Gold - Nicola West (1983)
The Devil Within - Catherine George (1984)
The Devil's Price - Carole Mortimer (1985)
Devil's Advocate - Vanessa James (1985)
Devil's Gambit - Lisa Jackson (1986)
The Old Devil Moon - Anne Logan (1986)
The Devil's Own - Sandra Brown (1987)
Devil Moon - Margaret Way (1988)
Devil and the Deep Sea - Sara Craven (1989)
Devil's Shadow - Sally Wentworth (1989)
The Devil's Dare - Jean Reece (1989)
Devil in Paradise - Joanna Mansell (1991)
Devil to Pay - Renee Roszel (1992)
The Devil Has His Due - Diana Hamilton (1992)
Dance with the Devil - Pamela Litton (1992)
Valley of the Devil - Yvonne Whittel (1992)
Dance to the Devil's Tune - Lucy Keane (1994) 
The Devil's Lady - Deborah Simmons (1994)
Devil's Dare - Laurie Grant (1995)
Candle for the Devil - Susanne McCarthy (1995)
Saving the Devil - Sophie Weston (1995)
The Devil Earl - Deborah Simmons (1996)
The Devil's Kiss - Scott DeLoras (1996)
Lucky Devil - Patricia Rosemoor (1996)
Handsome Devil - Joan Hohl (1999)
Defense for the Devil - Kate Wilhem (1999)
The Devil's Due- Rachel Cain (2000)
The Devil's Mark - Joanna Makepiece (2000)
The Devil to Pay - Stephanie James (2000)
The Devil You Know - Laurie Page (2001)
The Devil to Pay - Michele Hauf (2002)
The Devil's Bargain - Robyn Donald (2002)
Date with a Devil (2003)
The Angel of Devil's Camp - Lynne Banning (2003)
Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer (2003)
The Devil You Know - Laurie Page (2004)
The Devil's Hearth - Philip De Poy (2004)
The Devil's Bargain - Rachel Cain (2005)
The Devil's Waltz - Anne Stuart (2006)
The Devil's Footprints - Amanda Stevens (2006)
In Bed with the Devil - Susan Mallery (2007)
The Devil to Pay - Michele Hauf (2008)
The Devil and Drusilla - Paula Marshall (2008)
Devil in a Dark Blue Suit - Robyn Grady (2009)
The Sexy Devil - Kate Hoffman (2010)
Devil in Dress Blues - Karen Foley (2011)
The Devil Wears Kolovsky - Carol Marinelli (2011) 
The Devil's Chord - Alex Archer (2011)
The Devil's Heart - Lynn Rae Harris (2011)
Lady with the Devil's Scar - Sophia James (2012)
The Devil and the Deep - Amy Andrews (2012)
The Devil and Miss Jones - Kate Walker (2012)
The Devil She Knows - Kira Sinclair (2013)
Daughters Unto Devils - Amy Lukavics (2015)
The Devil Takes a Bride - Julia London (2017)
The Devil's Bargain - Kira Sinclair (2020)
Dirty Devil - L.J. Shen (2020)

That I hesitate in sharing this discovery may have something to do with having been traumatized by Race with the Devil as a child.


It didn't end well.

Not to suggest that that a similar fate awaits, but to be safe I've written and scheduled my annual Christmas post.

Happy Halloween, I guess.

Merry Christmas, too.

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31 October 2019

Who Can Deny the Harlequin Halloween Horror!



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31 October 2018

No, Harlequin Halloween Horror Will Never End!


A Killer is Loose Among Us
Robert Terrall
Winnipeg: Harlequin, 1949

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31 October 2017

Will Harlequin Halloween Horror Never End?


Out of the Night [The Black Dark Murders]
Robert O. Saber [pseud. Milton K. Ozaki]
Toronto: Harlequin, 1954
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31 October 2016

Harlequin Halloween Horror Confusion


The Lady Lost Her Head
Manning Lee Stokes
Toronto: Harlequin, 1958
Lady, That's My Skull
Carl Shannon
Toronto: Harlequin, 1951

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31 October 2015

Night of the Living Harlequin Halloween Horror


Night of Terror
Joy Brown
Toronto: Harlequin, 1950

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31 October 2014

The Most Horrifying Harlequin Halloween Ever!


The Corpse Came Back
Amelia R. Long
Toronto: Harlequin, 1950
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31 October 2013

The Harlequin Horror That Just Won't Die!


Vengeance of the Black Donnellys
Thomas P. Kelley
Toronto: Harlequin, 1962


Winnipeg: Greywood, 1969
Toronto: Modern Canadian Library, 1975
Toronto: Firefly, 1995
Canada's most feared family strikes back from the grave!

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31 October 2012

The Horror! The Harlequin Horror!



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31 October 2011

It's Harlequin Halloween Time!



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31 October 2010

Another Harlequin Halloween



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31 October 2009

A Harlequin Halloween



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