Bob Larkin: Crockett: The Perdition Express (1976)

Brad Lang’s tough-as-nails private investigator Fred Crockett brings the heat in this cover painting for the second of three Crockett mysteries published by the (now late) Leisure Books. The novel gets its title from the name of a rock band that hires Crockett. As the Web site Mystery*File explains:

“Late one night at the Asylum nightclub, as the music of the rock band The Perdition Express crashes to its conclusion, two shots fell Jimmy Nelson, the bass player...  When the police seem indifferent to solving the murder, the band’s drummer, Bill Frazier, asks Crockett to investigate.” 

And who better to depict this mash-up of rock-n-roll and hard-boiled detective fiction than the artist who painted the cover of Marvel’s Dazzler #1? Because when you think of 1970s glam rock, you always think of Bob Larkin…  ;-)

Steve Roman