[3] Brett Halliday (1)

* The top row includes:

• MARKED FOR MURDER / 1 (blonde on stool with playing card)
• MICHAEL SHAYNE'S LONG CHANCE (raven in bikini, back view)
• WHEN DORINDA DANCES (blonde in stage outfit with drums)
• A REDHEAD FOR MIKE SHAYNE (redhead in evening dress on desk)
• DIE LIKE A DOG / 1 (blonde kneeling with hands tied behind back)

* The second row includes:

• DEAD MAN'S DIARY & A TASTE FOR COGNAC (platinum blonde in evening dress)
• GUILTY AS HELL (sitting girl in GoGo boots disrobing)
• ARMED ... DANGEROUS (nude brunette, back view)
• BLOOD ON BISCAYNE BAY (blonde on sailboat in sweater)

Brett Halliday was primarily the penname of Davis Dresser, who died in 1977. However, literally dozens of writers also put out mysteries under the Brett Halliday handle, particularly for the long-running pulp MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE. In any case, hard-boiled detective Mike Shayne was fairly popular, and I think there was even a TV series made about him in the 1950s or early 1960s.

McGinnis often took a more muted and sophisticated approach to the Brett Halliday covers than the strictly racy Carter Brown novels, sometimes pushing suspense instead of sex. As the index page said, he wasn't strictly a girlie artist by any means, and though he certainly loved to paint femmes he did so in a range of styles, to the extent that I only realized that all these paperback covers were painted by the same guy long after they had been printed.