Checklist of Five Star paperbacks

[ghost]

Alarming, frankly.

[sara]

and some more!


THE BRAT

She looked at the rotting, sun-blasted shack, the one room where they all lived, slept, made love, died. Looked at the dusty lawn where no grass grew. At the steaming swamp, at her tobacco-spitting mother. Saw the sly lustful eyes of her father’s friends. Then she looked at her own lush beauty.

Get me out of here, she prayed. Oh, please get me out of here! I’ll pay any price.


Qurval,the Wizard of Storms, took pride in his madness, exquisite pleasure in the pain of his prisoners. Beautiful Laishalla and her friends, Konarr and The Bowman, knew every day brought them closer to a terrible death, yet they were helpless. Evil and insane, Qurval tormented the universe with catastrophes and howling storms. Through the thunder and lightning called forth to do his bidding, the Wizard's malevolent laughter rang out, defying anyone or anything to challenge his limitless wickedness.

[ghost]

TAKE DEATH FOR A LOVER
"Gail Turner was a name in the papers. She was news. She was a tall, curved honey-blonde with the most innocent face you ever saw. But by the time I got to her she was dead and the way things had been arranged everyone was going to believe me guilty."

[severance]

Lovely Robert McGinnis artwork - originally appeared on 'The Flesh Merchants by Bob Thomas - Dell, 1959.

[junkmonkey]

The Nets of Space by Emil Petaja by the_junk_monkey, on Flickr

and here's where they got the cover painting:

Space Lash by Hal Clement by the_junk_monkey, on Flickr

[Jojo Lapin X]

I have actually read THE NETS OF SPACE. It was a long time ago, though, and it was the US edition.

[ghost]

MURDER AT THE MOTEL
Victor Gunn

[pulphack]

Victor Gunn was Edwy Searles Brooks, ex-fleetway hack. As Berkely Grey he wrote Norman Conquest novels (at least one of which was a Five Star), and as Gunn he wrote about Ironsides of the Yard. He died in 1964, so these must have come to Five Star via Bill Baker, as Brooks had also been a Sexton Blake writer, and some of his St Franks/Nelson Lee stuff had been repro'd by Baker to go with the Magnet & Gem reprints he was doing.

[pulphack]

Y'know we was always wondering, like, what the relationship between Five Star and Bill Baker really was? Well, I was, while everyone else looked away humming and waiting for the interesting stuff to start...

Anyway, I noticed something this morning that's been right under my nose for the last 20 years. Found a clutch of Fleetway 4th series Sexton Blakes that I thought I'd read but had been mixed up with other Blakes, and have been working my way through them. And there it is, on the copyright page: 'For the guarantee of a good actionful (sic) detective mystery thriller - choose an SBL Five Star Detection Pocket Book. All original stories.' And blow me down if the crest at the top of the page isn't a shield with SBL in it, and Five Star Detection written above with a crown of five stars on it.

So... World Distributors already have Consul for whom Baker has worked, and have Triphammer. Baker is looking for a post-Mayflower outifit. A deal is struck for Baker to operate an imprint through WDL and so Five Star is born.

It's only a theory as I have no evidence and everyone's dead and gone now, but it makes sense. Just a bit annoyed I didn't notice it a lot earlier.

[dem bones]

Feb 25, 2015 9:44:18 GMT pulphack said:

So... World Distributors already have Consul for whom Baker has worked, and have Triphammer. Baker is looking for a post-Mayflower outifit. A deal is struck for Baker to operate an imprint through WDL and so Five Star is born.

It's only a theory as I have no evidence and everyone's dead and gone now, but it makes sense. Just a bit annoyed I didn't notice it a lot earlier.

I commend your caution, pulps, but surely you've discovered the missing link in the Baker chain!

I've only three pre-Mayflower SBL's (courtesy of Sev) so what are the chances that one of them would bear the tell-tale crest?

Martin Thomas - Date With Danger [SBL 459] (Fleetway, Sept. 1960)