Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: The Letter E

We rolling along with the community meme Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013 sponsored by Kerry's Blog. We currently up to the Letter E. The posts are simple enough. 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 doing a post on a Carter Brown title for each letter of the alphabet.

Carter Brown: E is for The Ever-Loving Blues

Requiem For A Bikini

It was an itsy-bitsy white polka-dot bikini.

She was a beautiful brunette, curvy, kissable, cuddly. 

Too bad they had come together, in death.

Barye Phillips Cover

Danny Boyd, the private eye with the profile no gal can resist, accepts a movie mogul's bid to track down a wandering, wanton star. He winds up playing fast with a loose redhead, and footy with a couple of thugs on a fifteenth-century Spanish galleon in sunny Florida, where the climate is perfect for murder.

Ron Lesser Cover

Various Other Covers

Originally titled
Death of a Doll

Second Collectors' Series

International Edition 1962

Numbered Series 1956

Reprint By Demand Series 1960

International Edition 1971 (2nd Printing)

Horwitz/Signet Double Edition Series

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1923-1985)

Horwitz Publications

Numbered Series 1956 (#11)

Second Collectors' Series Oct 1958 (v1 n20)

w/Black-mail Beauty

Reprint By Demand Series July 1960 (#20)

Long Story Magazine April 1961 (#21)

International Edition Nov 1962 (IE21) 1971 (IE70)

New American Library

Signet Books

Signet Edition March 1961 (S1919)

Signet Edition Canada 2nd Printing January 1969 (D3722)

Signet Edition US 3rd Printing January 1969 (D3722)

Horwitz/Signet Double May 1982 (#11a) (AE1520)

w/The Sad-Eyed Seductress

Trivia
Death Of A Doll was written with the main character Barney Slade and then rewritten with the character Danny Boyd when the title was revised.

Death Of A Doll by Carter Brown

Death Of A Doll is interesting in that this title was written with the main character Barney Slade and then rewritten with another character by the name of Danny Boyd in 1960. Danny Boyd appears frequently through the Carter Brown Mystery Series. Anyways, the main plot of the title is that the main character accepts a movie mogul's bid to track down a wandering wanton star in Florida. Her name was Gloria Van Raven and she preferred to party on a yacht of Edward Woolrich II. Until the party got too wild with a dixieland horn player sounding a lament in a polka dotted bikini lying dead at his feet. Death Of A Doll originally was published by Horwitz in 1956 and was the 11th entry in the Numbered Series. It was republished under a slightly different form (different character) by Horwitz in 1960 in the International Edition Series with the number 21.Published as The Ever-Loving Blues in US and Canada.

1956 Edition Cover by Bernard Blackburn

International Edition 2nd Printing 1962

US/Canada Edition 1969

1st Us Edition 1961

US/Australian Double 1982

 Printing History

 Numbered Series 1956 (#11)

Reprint By Demand Series 1960 (#20)

Long Story Magazine April 1961 (#21)

International Edition 1962 (IE21) 1971 (IE70)

Signet Edition March 1961 (S1919)

Signet Edition Canada 2nd Printing January 1969 (D3722)

Signet Edition US 3rd Printing January 1969 (D3722)

Horwitz/Signet Double May 1982 (#11a) (AE1520)

Notes: The International Edition is one of a few covers layouts that were different. Horizontal vs Vertically. The Girl Who Was Possessed is another example of a different cover layout. A wrap around instead of horizontal cover. Barye Phillips painted the first Signet cover while Ron Lesser painted the latter Signet cover.