Mon 30 Jan 2017
A GOLD MEDAL Mystery Review by Dan Stumpf: JOHN TOMERLIN – Return to Vikki.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
JOHN TOMERLIN – Return to Vikki. Gold Medal #900, paperback original; 1st printing, 1959.
I’d better review this one quick before I forget it. It’s not bad, but somehow it’s not terribly memorable either.
The plot lifts just a bit from Out of the Past (RKO, 1947) as Frank Selby, suburban husband, finds his 9-to-5 routine disrupted by a visit from an old “friend†who summons him back to his previous life as a meticulous planner of successful heists. And the borrowing continues as Frank finds he’s wanted by his previous employer, a sadistic and wealthy mega-crook with a legitimate “front†— for that iconic plot device: One Last Job.
Out of the Past echoes keep resounding as we learn Frank’s old love Vikki is still hooked up with the bad guys, and before long Frank finds himself framed for murder and scrambling for the pieces of his old life, in between passionate clichés with Vikki and brutal run-ins with her new and very deadly beau.
All of which makes Return to Vikki sound much worse than it is. In point of fact, it’s a tightly-written, fast-moving piece, with well-developed minor characters and a tense, timed-to-the-second caper told in gritty, real-sounding prose — the sort of thing you’d expect from Gold Medal, and a fun way to pass an hour or two.
Don’t expect anything spectacular, but it’s pleasant to be reminded just how taut and enjoyable these two-bit paperbacks could be.
January 30th, 2017 at 6:47 pm
There’s no such thing as a bad Gold Medal paperback from the 50s.
January 30th, 2017 at 7:06 pm
Sorry, but the Socrates quote is slightly incorrect. What he really said was “Just about all Gold Medals are cheap, so buy them and give them a try.”
I have a paperback room full of the things. At one time I thought they might be worth money but not after attending many NYC Paperback shows, Windy City Pulp and Paperback Conventions, and Pulpfests. The standard price is two or three for 5 bucks and often they are available for only $1.00 each.
They are great reading but not worth much money. I also have a complete set of Dell Mapbacks; they are worth even less.
January 30th, 2017 at 8:27 pm
I agree with you, Walker. As far as I can tell, collecting vintage paperbacks is a hobby that’s fast fading away. The goal of collecting all of a publisher’s output of books, such as Gold Medal’s or the Dell mapbacks, no longer exists.
I belong to a Yahoo group especially for collectors of vintage paperbacks — you may be a member also — and for years there has been virtually no postings there; one bookseller posts a link to a cover every day, and once in a while someone responds to it, but that’s it as far as activity is concerned.
No Gold Medal paperbacks were ever very pricey — the only exceptions I can think of are those by certain authors: David Goodis being the primary one, and John D. MacDonald; perhaps one or two others who aren’t coming to mind right now.
This one that Dan just reviewed can be had on abebooks in VG plus condition for $8.50, including postage. You’d pay more on Amazon, but the sales ranking there is #10,048,043. There’s no demand for it.
They weren’t called mass market paperbacks for nothing. Once the Internet came along and showed everyone how common they were, ordinary mail order dealers could not get away by asking artificially constructed prices.
And once collectors of a certain age filled their runs of Dell mapbacks, they stopped looking. They don’t need yours, Walker, nor mine either.
January 31st, 2017 at 5:25 am
HEY
Cheap?
$8.50 is cheap?
Back in the early 1970s when I started seriously collecting, Gold Medals, Ace Doubles and Dell Mapbacks were all to be had at the local used book store stacked out on what was labeled “The Cheap-O Table” at 2-for-a-quarter.
Nowadays if I can find them for a buck at Pulpfest, I count myself a shrewd buyer and prepare for a few hours of light, fun reading.
January 31st, 2017 at 7:27 am
Is $8.50 cheap? Depends on the context. The asking price for the book is $4.50 plus $4.00 for postage. $4.50 in today’s terms the equivalent of maybe 45 cents in 1970, or barely nothing. From the seller’s point of view, he’s getting $4.50 less 20% or so for Abebooks fees and whatever they charge for processing credit cards. Postage and proper packaging adds up to most of the $4.00 shipping charge (but not all).
If you went to PulpFest looking for this specific book, you probably wouldn’t find it, but if you did, and it was a dollar, most people would have to add in the cost of airfare, the hotel stay, and the PulpFest registration fee, divided by how many books and magazines you ended up buying.
The fun is still in the hunt, but a larger point is that a whole lot fewer people are hunting than there used to be.