Judging a book by its cover (and why not?)

It used to be a "tradition" I tried to follow when I started this blog: to upload the picture of an old pulp magazine (Detective Tales) every month and comment on it.It was a picture from a magazine published at the same month of my  I don't know why I stopped it. I guess I started working. I was unemployed for most of 2008, when I first started this blog, so I had more time to waste thinking about topics like this one. But I barely had any readership to speak of and I think those posts about those book covers were interesting for me mainly. But now I decided to upload one again, mainly, I love the aesthetic of old pulp magazines and because I read a lot of crime fiction these days.

So here is the cover from November 1936. I wonder if there was any story attached to this cover. I hope so, as it was a good one. Maybe not as melodramatic as this one, but still very good. When I want to read, I don't often judge a book by its cover. By its title, yes, absolutely, but not its cover. Except for pulp fiction and comic books. Covers are an art form by themselves. You need for the crime genre a specific sense of drama, atmosphere and character, the book cover has to show it. Here, you have the squared jaw, sharp eyed hero, probably a private eye, the blonde femme fatale next to him, fighting for their lives an unseen adversary, who already made one victim. Was it intentional? Was it accidental killing? It doesn't matter, we know the protagonists are in danger. And there is the setting, the dark smoky casino den, the roulette that reminds us that what is gambled here is life even more than money. I just love it. If there is no story about this image, there should be one written.