0669 The Drowner

Title: The Drowner Language: English Country: USA Format: Paperback Year: 1976/77 Publisher: Fawcett Collection: Gold Medal Collection #: 1-3582-9 ISBN-10: 0449135829 Cover Price: $1.50 Cover Artist: Stanley Zuckerberg Author of: The Dreadful Lemon Sky

Sometimes I whine about cover art. Sometimes I whine about plot inconsistencies. And sometimes I whine about life in general. But not today.

This is one of the finest covers out there. The composition, the angles of her limbs, the monochrome color scheme, the almost invisible hands grabbing her ankle (and what a nicely lathed ankle it is), the expression on the girl’s face, and … oh yeah … the white bikini. And as a Florida native, I can verify that Florida lakes look just like that underwater: green, filthy, algae-laden, green, and … ok, maybe Zuckerberg missed this part … alligator infested.

And the story is solid. MacDonald really hit his stride around 1960 or so: The Executioners, The Drowner, The Empty Trap, A Flash of Green, The Empty Trap, Murder in the Wind, Where is Janice Gantry?.  These are the books I keep going back to. And so should you.