Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: The Letter M

We are chugging, like a fast moving train, along in the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2013 meme. This week we are about half way through with the Letter M. Kerry's Blog is kind enough to sponsor this community meme each and every week. The rules are very simple:  The posts must be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction. This time around I will be featuring a Carter Brown title for each letter of the alphabet. 

Carter Brown: M is for Murder Wears A Mantilla

Mavis Seidlitz is the dizziest blonde who ever ended up in the Tunnel of Love after buying tickets for the Big Dipper. When she is not trying to fix her clothing, either a brazier, stockings, or chemise, she is a partner in Rio Investigations. As the story goes, Mavis is South of the border on vacation. She meets one bull fighter who she thinks is the dreamiest. The next bullfighter has a knife stuck in his back. So she starts investigating up until things get out of hand.  The Black Death, 40 million pesos, The Golden Inca, people with guns. so she sends a cable to her boss, Johnny Rio. HELP.

Robert McGinnis Cover

 Blonde bombshell Mavis hurries to a torrid rendezvous with a timid torero only to find that a killer got there first. Fleeing the murder scene, she runs smack into the waiting arms of Mexico's feared and fearless police chief, the Black Death.He slips away with her to the local police station, where he forces her to surrender her baggage claim check. When the police open Mavis' luggage, up pops....another corpse. OLE!

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1923-1985)

Horwitz Publications Inc.
Sydney Australia

Numbered Series #50 1957
Reprinted By Demand Series #13 1959

International Edition Series #34 1963

New American Library

Signet Books
 S2048 February 1962
T5275 1973

Other Publisher Covers 

Valpas-Mainos 

Finland

1967

Middernacht-Serie

Netherlands  

1963

Hayakawa Pocket Mystery Book  

Tokyo Japan

1963

Gallimard  

Paris

1961,1974

New American Library

USA

1973

Note

This title was originally post on December 30, 2010 in a slightly different form.

Murder Wears A Mantilla