To Find Cora / Like Mink Like Murder / Body and Passion [Paperback]

Harry Whittington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2009

TO FIND CORA Cora has run off with another man, and Joe Byars is sick with the loss. It makes him so crazy, he starts searching everywhere for Cora. The memory of her long, flowing black hair and alabaster skin haunts him. Eventually Joe gets a lead in Frigate, Oklahoma. A couple, the woman matching Cora's description, has been seen occasionally coming into town. Joe drives out to a barren, desolate farmhouse, and is convinced at first that the woman coming to the door is his Cora. But Joe has found Viola instead, and a wreck of a man named Hall. They inhabit their own particular hell, and have no intention of letting Joe leave them. But Joe doesn't care all he wants is his Cora. LIKE MINK, LIKE MURDER Sam Baynard has been out of prison for over a year, clean of his former crime partners. He's a milkman now, working for the Gorten Milk Company, in love with a sweet girl named Lois, but still dogged by the cynical Lt. Lantis. Then Elva shows up. Sam had been obsessed with Elva, but she'd been Collie's girl, and Collie was the boss. Oh sure, she'd tempted him, but she'd never delivered. And now she is back, back with new promises. But so is Collie, back with a new plan. Sam thought he could go straight, but between Elva's charms, Collie's threats and the heat from Lantis, Lois and her safe world just haven't got a chance. BODY AND PASSION Jeff Taylor is being framed for murder by ambitious Assistant D.A. Ben Young, when all he really wants to do is get out of the rackets. One night he takes Young up to his cabin for a showdown. But in the ensuing fight, fire breaks out. Only one man gets out alive, and he is so badly burned as to be unrecognizable. Worse, when he finally regains consciousness, he no longer has any memory of who he is. Ben Young's powerful parents and cold-hearted wife are convinced he is Ben. Taylor's conniving wife and shifty partner are convinced he's Jeff. Both sides want more from him than he can give. And the answer to his identity may just end in murder.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Harry Whittington was one of the half-dozen most consistently inventive and entertaining of all the writers who specialized in paperback originals during the 1950s and 1960s." --Bill Pronzini

"Harry Whittington was the king of plot and pace, and he could write anything well. He's 100 percent perfect entertainment." --Joe R. Lansdale

Whittington weaves a story so well with such characters, they just pop off the page. --Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm

About the Author

Harry Whittington was born in Occala, Florida, in 1915. When his family moved to a nearby farm, Harry survived his family s rural poverty by reading books and sneaking into the local movie theater. Another escape was his writing. Ultimately the versatile Whittington would become known as King of the Paperbacks, publishing over 170 original paperback novels, using nearly 20 different names. Before his death in 1989, Whittington also carved out a second career writing Southern historical novels as Ashley Carter. Today he is best known for the lurid and brisk noir novels he wrote between 1950 and 1960.

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Stark House Press; 1st edition (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933586257
• ISBN-13: 978-1933586250
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A top pick for mystery fans, November 13, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Find Cora / Like Mink Like Murder / Body and Passion (Paperback)

The early days of the pulp novel were one often distinguished by deliberate author anonymity. "To Find Cora/Like Mink, Like Murder/Body and Passion" is a collection of three mysteries with a particularly strong noir influence. Originally published under pseudonyms, Whittington's work is now published under his own name, many years after his death. A choice pick of his hundreds of novels of work, "To Find Cora/Like Mink, Like Murder/Body and Passion" is a top pick for mystery fans which should not be passed up.