Joker in the Deck

Shell Scott #27

by Richard S. Prather

Shell Scott has been dealt a really lousy hand and the stakes are somebody's life-probably his. What will the luck of the draw bring to our hard-boiled hero? Will Shell find the culprit in this full house of crooks and cons or will the queen of hearts call his bluff? A four of a kind is no match for a .44 slug in this all-hours game of guns and girls, guts and grit, life and death. Here the women are crazy and the joker's wild, but so is Shell Scott!

Genres: Crime, Mystery

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Richard Scott Prather was an American mystery novelist, best known for creating the "Shell Scott" series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms David Knight and Douglas Ring.

Prather was born in Santa Ana, California. He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. In 1945 year he married Tina Hager and began working as a civilian chief clerk of surplus property at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. He left that job to become a full-time writer in 1949. The first Shell Scott mystery, 'Case of the Vanishing Beauty' was published in 1950. It would be the start of a long series that numbered more than three dozen titles featuring the Shell Scott character.

Prather had a disagreement with his publisher in the 1970s and sued them in 1975. He gave up writing for several years and grew avocados. However in 1986 he returned with 'The Amber Effect'. Prather's final book, 'Shellshock', was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor Books.

At the time of his death in 2007, he had completed his final Shell Scott Mystery novel, 'The Death Gods'. It was published October 2011 by Pendleton Artists.

Prather served twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. Additionally Prather received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1986.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joker in the Deck (1964) is set in Southern California, particularly a new housing development in the Laguna Beach area, Scott’s familiar Hollywood, and an island off the California coast: Brea. The Laguna Beach development shows Prather’s eyes are open to the rapidly urbanizing suburban Los Angeles and all the conmen and hucksters who showed up to reap the rewards of the gravy train. The island off the coast is an odd bit of fiction as there are few such islands in the area and none prone to development other than the tiny square corner of Avalon on Santa Catalina.

The story starts off with a grand opening of a friend’s new development- complete with six scantily clad models to tout the new features of each Amana appliance. Soon the party with two of the models — Eve and Laurie— moves back up to Hollywood where they play none other than strip poker. And the party is in full swing until a nearby shooting cools things down.

Scott, without really the traditional burden of having a paying client, is hip-deep in investigating a complicated tax evasion scheme, a drug smuggling scheme, and other con games. It all seems like a bit of normal financial chicanery except that known hoods keep showing up and threatening Scott at every turn.

Scott only figures out what’s really going on when it’s almost too late for him, but once the blinders come off, it’s all too clear.

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought more than a dozen of the Shell Scott series about a dozen years ago. I picked them up mostly for the covers. i read one shortly after and well recall I didn't care for it and never went back to the series until now. Whatever i didn't connect to then, i connect to now. This was a fun and very cleverly plotted mystery. Having spun out of a Dorothy Sayers over convoluted, stuffy mess to a succinct and focused book was a breath of fresh air.

This story seems simple enough and would seem to have a simple ending. Nope. Neat little and big twists and turns occur and make this a solid mystery. Scott, Sampson and other characters are very well described and even the settings are well laid out.

A drawback is the unneeded "sex" scenes. Though true, they are an important part of the story and nothing really is written as happening, the ladies descriptions in various forms of dress and undress could have been edited out.

Despite that this is a finely tuned novel and lots of fun!

Bottom line: 8 out of ten points.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining Shell Scott "caper" from 1964, stocked with hoods, tomatoes, babes and cons. Passages like: "It was a kiss to make monks say the hell with the monastery; to make hermits bomb their caves and start shaving. And I am not a monk, I am not a hermit. I am something else entirely; and this gal had enough electricity in her to turn on all the lights in Carson City, Nevada. She sure turned me on anyway." Fun, in the way smoking stolen cigarettes behind the 7-11 was when you were a kid.

[Adam Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written hard boiled detective story even if the author halts the story a few times to rant about taxes. Recommend.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 3 out of 5]

Myslím, že jeden z důvodů, proč tak hodně čtu Prathera, spočívá i v tom, že to jsou knížky, které se dají lehko strčit do jakékoliv kapsy… vlastně bych si mohl nacpat do zimníku polovinu jeho díla. Jasně, vím, že je dnes nutné dodávat brakovému čtivu hodnotu pomocí vazby, obálky s nahnědlou koláží, záložkovou stužkou a obrovitostí knihy, ale obsahu to fakt nijak nepomůže, jen musíte knihu nosit v nůši. Staré časy byly v tomhle férovější. Nehledě na to, že ty knížky byly mnohem zábavnější.

„Byl to polibek, který by přinutil poustevník vyhodit svou jeskyni do povětří a začít se holit.“

Tohle je v pořadí už sedmadvacátá kniha se soukromým očkem Shellem Scottem, chlápkem, jehož hlavní cílem je přesvědčit dvě krásné dívky k partičce svlékacího pokeru. Ovšem tyhle ušlechtilé plány mu nabourá vražda. A brzy k tomu přibudou i další problémy, včetně podvodů, daňových úniků, obchodů s pozemky a továrny na dětskou stravu. I když tady jsou taky hlášky a humor, základem je přece jen detektivní zápletka a postupné odhalování důvodů vraždy. Je tu víc překvápek, než bývá u Prathera obvyklé… a stejně tak neobvyklá je skutečnost, že tady snad poprvé Prather odmítne přízeň krasavice. Jasně, těsně předtím se muchloval s jinou, ale to v jeho případě zase tak moc neznamená.

Ale i přes tohle selhání je to opět sympatické, lehké a fajn čtení.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.I. Shell Scott is lured into a game of strip poker in which the revelations get deadly. A real estate deal leads to death, people aren't what they appear to be and it's secrets that get laid bare. A light, fun read with a plot that gets more complicated the further you travel. Nicely done, and quite satisfying.