Sin Pit by Paul S. Meskil

 

 May be an image of text that says 'LION ORIGINAL 25c SIN PIT รอรีลด A DEPRAVED WOMAN. AN HONEST COP... A TWISTED HUNGER Paul PaulS.Meskil S. Meskil 198'
 Sin Pit by Paul Meskil Lion Books No. 198 1st and only Lion Edition March 1954
 
Sublimely skanky cover art, uncredited but I believe it is by Lou Marchetti.
 
This very nice copy is probably the greatest one-hit wonder in all of noir. Regarded as a top noir crime/mystery novel and one of my favorite vintage paperbacks. The back cover blurb is so good. 
 
 
 Picture 2 of 4
 

James Reasoner gives it a good go at a review here
 
Some interesting factoids about Meskil's true crime career here
 
This copy came from the Vintage Treasure Chest collection, which was a large collection out of Southern Connecticut that came to market on eBay in 2022-2023. I bought a ton of these mostly high grade books at auction and ended up buying out the remainder from the seller when he got tired of listing individual books.

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