I just bought this book for $.50. Wake of the Red Witch, 1946 by Garland Roark. There's a photo of him on the back cover in a suit and tie, cigarette holder in hand and an open dictionary beside him.

This *book* is cinematic even without reading it. On the jacket is a drawing with a sailor in the foreground in a jungle setting with a schooner anchored in the background. There is a topless native girl and men in different poses of conflict and a woman with a flower behind her ear in an embrace with a sailor.

Then on the front flap there are phrases like "ruthless story," "revenge, money and power from the sea," "power sucks in all, even those who are themselves possessed of the devil," "no thin thread but many tough strands rolled in a richly colored whole," "tropical romance," and "furious conflict."

Then leafing through this I find random dialogue like:

"Get Carter up. One slug of gin and no more. And slap him around a bit if he starts that damned jabbering again."

and

"A duel of wits was a dessert he seldom tasted."

and

"She was not fat in the head like you."

and

"Do you gaze at a weather clew that's furled?"

and

"I should feed that damned squid a pig."

and

"A man who has spent ten years over a stinking hobby like leprosy doesn't deserve to smile."

and these discriptions:

"Every sailor there, most of them from the Red Witch, struck various and bemused poses in assuming outward stupidity; jaws dropped, frog eyes bulged, and faces craned forward on their necks in the manner of a flock of inquisitive fowls."

and

"He cut a ludicrous figure, with a salmon hibiscus against his bald head, but for all that he offered her his world."

and

"He sent her a glance that Desaix intercepted; he grinned as if to say: 'Flirt on - while he lives.'"

and

"His hair was salt-and-peppered, and it gave his big eyes a godly glow, only his big mushroom nose took it away."

(I'm not going to be able to quit talking like this all day.)