Clean Break into The Killing

New York: E.P. Dutton, 1955. First Edition. In publisher’s trial dust jacket, date stamped March 1, 1955, on the bottom of the front flap.

Basis for Stanley Kubrick’s breakthrough 1956 film “The Killing,” starring Sterling Hayden in one of his defining roles.

1956 Signet reissue – cover art by Robert Maguire

1988 Black Lizard reissue – cover art by Kirwin

1956 United Artists – written and directed by Stanley Kubrick

Me, Hood! x 4

1963 Corgi UK paperback original

cover art by Renato Fratini

1967 Corgi reissue

1969 Signet edition – 1st US edition

cover art by Robert McGinnis

better image than previously posted

1971 Corgi reissue

cover art by Terry Gilbert

Nightmare Alley x 4

Nightmare Alley. William Lindsay Gresham. New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc. 1946. First edition. Original dust jacket; art by A. F. Arnold.

Scarce macabre carnival themed thriller. “Loneliness came over him, like an avalanche of snow. He was alone. Where he had always wanted to be. You can only trust yourself. There’s a rat buried deep in everybody and they’ll rat on you if they get pushed far enough.”

1949 Signet reissue

cover art by James Avati

first film adaptation in 1947

second in 2021

Kiss Her Goodbye x 2

1956 Lion paperback original

pseudonym of Bill Miller and Robert Wade. they also wrote as Will Daemer, Dale Wilmer and White Masterson

cover art by Charles Copeland

1962 Signet reissue

cover art by Jerry Allison

better image than previously posted

1962 Signet paperback original – cover art by Robert McGinniks

cover art by Robert McGinnis

first published in Australia by Horowitz, 1962, then in the US by Signet, a paperback original

cover art repurposed for 1967 Signet by James Dark