The Sure Thing

Shell Scott #39

by Richard S. Prather

A missing person who threatened to murder gets Shell Scott into one of the wildest cases of his career!

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

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]

After the Sure Thing (1975), Prather took an eleven-year breather from writing (after fighting with his publisher). The Sure Thing opens with a woman (Audrey Willifer) knocking on Scott’s door, complaining that her dear husband (one Gippy Willifer) is missing following an investment in oil drilling, an investment made on the advice of an astrologist (Cynara Lane), an investment made the same day they married. “He wasn’t dead, either. He was about three-fourths alive, which was near normal for him, only slightly hungover, and mentally down to approximately one tick from zero on that scale where zero is the point foul-ups reach at the moment when they jump from cliffs, or walk in front of buses, or blow their brains out. Or just die.” When Scott finds Gippy, he explains: “It was a shabby little bar, and, if it must be said, Gippy Willifer was a shabby little man.”

When the dear husband is shot after being found on a three-day bender, the case starts to look interesting to Scott. There’s also a Sheik as in Sheik Faisuli involved at the beginning as in he lost his harem of six wives, but that soon becomes less important. Scott smells “doodlebug,” a con artist’s toy to pretend to find oil sort of like a divining rod with all kinds of bells and whistles.

[John Grace]

Not as fun as earlier Shell Scott books. Either the humor didn't kick in until the second half or all the jokes about astrology have aged poorly since the 1970s.