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False Colors
What you’re starting to read now is called a jacket blurb. Its purpose is to tell you enough about the book to steam you up into reading it. Jacket blurbs are usually written by publishers, and sometimes they fib a little about how wonderful the book is.But this time the publisher asked me, the author, to write the blurb. I suppose that, after publishing nine other Powell novels, Simon and Schuster feel I ought to do my own exaggerating for a change. So let’s get that over “This is a magnificent book and you’ll love every word of it.” Now we can relax.This is a mystery novel. The hero is a young Philadelphia art dealer who gets mixed up in dirty work in the field of art collecting. Maybe I shouldn’t call him a hero. If he ever did have the usual mystery story hero’s nerves of steel and muscles of iron, they certainly got badly rusted. He’s slow and cautious. In fact the guy admits that, in the great race of life, he’s just along for the walk. He gets scared in tough spots. I felt sorry about shoving him into so much trouble, even though I did give him a jet-propelled blonde heroine as a sort of workmen’s compensation for his injuries. Still and all, there are easier ways of winning a pretty blonde than by battling strong-arm guys, gunmen and a murderer, and I think my hero would have preferred them. I know I would.This story took a lot of research. I read stacks of art books, and talked to artists and dealers. I prowled through museums peering at famous paintings through a magnifying glass. My new knowledge even impresses my artist friends, and it’s mighty hard for a writer to impress an artist. To most artists, a writer is a vandal who takes white space that could be used for pictures and clutters it up with words.I’ve tried to get some of the flavor of Philadelphia into the book. That’s an elusive thing to pin down in words, but here’s an example of what Philadelphia is like. In most cities, if you owned a valuable old Chippendale chair, you would call everyone’s attention to your prize. In Philadelphia, you would sit in it.I hope you like the book. Don’t try to please me by saying you stayed up after midnight finishing it, though. It never seems fair to me that people can read in just a few hours something that took me a year to write.--Richard Powell
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Richard Pitts Powell
35 books16 followersRichard P. Powell, a graduate of Princeton University, was a journalist and worked in advertising before becoming a full time writer. Two of his books, 'the Philadelphian' and 'Pioneer, Go Home!' were best-sellers in the '50s and were both adapted into movies.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 14, 2022
Powell is at it again with this screwball mystery featuring the usual banter and the gangly, cowardly hero. This time he's an art studio owner who, as a favor to the rich and beautiful heiress, gives a show for a struggling artist, and a certain panting brings all kinds of trouble.
Powell's high point was Shell Game, but this is a close second. I would have gone with a different ending.
Powell's high point was Shell Game, but this is a close second. I would have gone with a different ending.
July 1, 2018
Ritengo doveroso andare ogni tanto a riscoprire un buon giallo scritto da un bravo scrittore. Uno di quei libri che l'etichetta di "genere" aveva forse fatto omettere da chi aveva curato le note su wikipedia delle opere di questo autore.
Altre storie concepite da Powell hanno trovato posto nel nostro immaginario attraverso alcuni film. Lasciando perdere quello con Elvis, rimangono a imperitura memoria quello con Paul Newman, "L'uomo di Filadelfia", che valse la nomination a tre oscar, e uno dei miei favoriti di Woody Allen, "Il dittatore dello Stato Libero di Bananas".
Di questa storia "dimenticata" mi hanno attratto fin da subito l'ambientazione, il mondo dell'arte. Dei falsi in particolare, che il titolo originale dichiarava esplicitamente e che quello della versione italiana ovviamente ignora. Mi hanno subito destato simpatia i personaggi, in particolare il brillante io narrante. Mi ha poi sedotto il ritmo, in continuo crescendo pagina dopo pagina.
La soluzione finale... se dicessi che mi ha sorpreso mentirei, in particolare dopo millanta gialli già letti , in cui tutto è già stato declinato in tutte le sfumature possibili. Però ci si arriva con quel bell'impeto al quale ho accennato prima e non c'è modo di non esserne comunque soddisfatti.
Altre storie concepite da Powell hanno trovato posto nel nostro immaginario attraverso alcuni film. Lasciando perdere quello con Elvis, rimangono a imperitura memoria quello con Paul Newman, "L'uomo di Filadelfia", che valse la nomination a tre oscar, e uno dei miei favoriti di Woody Allen, "Il dittatore dello Stato Libero di Bananas".
Di questa storia "dimenticata" mi hanno attratto fin da subito l'ambientazione, il mondo dell'arte. Dei falsi in particolare, che il titolo originale dichiarava esplicitamente e che quello della versione italiana ovviamente ignora. Mi hanno subito destato simpatia i personaggi, in particolare il brillante io narrante. Mi ha poi sedotto il ritmo, in continuo crescendo pagina dopo pagina.
La soluzione finale... se dicessi che mi ha sorpreso mentirei, in particolare dopo millanta gialli già letti , in cui tutto è già stato declinato in tutte le sfumature possibili. Però ci si arriva con quel bell'impeto al quale ho accennato prima e non c'è modo di non esserne comunque soddisfatti.
June 15, 2016
An artistic mystery set in 1955 Phialdelphia, centered in Rittenhouse Square. Fast, intriguing, and filled with local period color.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews