Mystery Map Backs

We love it when architecture crosses over into the most unexpected places. The American series of pulp fiction books by Dell Books carried out an exceptional line of detective story books featuring maps of murder-mystery crime scenes, illustrated as floor plans, building diagrams and city layouts on the back covers. A total of 577 ‘Map Backs’ were published during the lifespan of the series, from 1943 to 1952. Marble River’s Ephemera has a great collection of them in its January archive, here’s a selection of our favorites:

Pretty sweet, huh.

Strange Maps via Boing Boing