Originally published in 1956 if the copyright page is to be believed and apparently deemed worthy of another outing in the '70s, "Morgue For Venus" begins with an incredibly sleazy, sexualised description of a murdered teenage girl and heads steadily downhill from there, mixing tantalising invocations of Greenwich Village's beatnik-era "weirdos" with interminable stretches of what the Columbus Dispatch so rightly calls "an admirable yarn of straight police work". A pretty early example of 'beatsploitation' I suppose, although both author and cops seem to regard the presumed hep-cats as little more than particularly hare-brained new variety of miscreant. Much "Yeah, we get to see all kindsa freaks in this business mister, now tell me who killed her or I'll punch yer face off" type action ensues.
There's a full colour ad for Kent menthol cigarettes in the middle to relieve the monotony.
Oddly, I've seen this one a whole bunch of times in bookshops, but have never encountered any other "Sixth Precinct Thrillers".
I liked this bit from the ads in the back:
..the New York Times correspondent typed out before absent-mindedly lunging at the Sports Editor with a letter-opener.
No comments:
Post a Comment