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Shell Scott #34
The Cheim Manuscript
Wilfred Jefferson Jellicoe is nowhere to be found. And the person missing him most, his ex-wife, hires Shell Scott to find him. Though alimony payments may be her motive to pursue his trail, Hollywood producer, Gideon Cheim, has another reason for calling on Scott to track this man down. For Cheim has entrusted Jellicoe with his autobiography only to be published post- mortem. Is it coincidental that the Cheim manuscript has disappeared with the man responsible for it while Cheim lies in his hospital bed nearing death? Scott doubts that - and is determined to discover what it is that his clients are really in search of -- the man, or.
- GenresMystery
216 pages, ebook
First published January 30, 1969
About the author
Richard S. Prather
96 books43 followersRichard 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 18, 2023
The Cheim Manuscript (1969) (34th in the series) is set in Hollywood as are many of the novels in Prather’s Shell Scott series. At its root, this one is all about the machinations and blackmails and dirty dealings of the Hollywood elite. It begins with Scott taking on a case from a bereaved ex-wife who is suddenly missing two months of alimony payments and worries that her ex-husband met with some kind of unpleasantness, particularly since his wallet chock full of cash was found in a bar and the ex-husband is nowhere to be found. It happens that the ex-husband, one Mr. Wilifred Jellicoe, is the assistant to a famous Hollywood producer (Mr. Gideon Cheim- thus the name of the novel), laid up in a hospital. That Hollywood producer, in turn, wants to hire Scott to chase down Jellicoe as well because Jellicoe absconded with a tell-all autobiography that sheds dirt on just so many across Hollywood. In other words, that manuscript, which is only to be opened in the case of the producer’s death, contains loads and loads of blackmail material. The producer is somewhat of a Harvey Weinstein type so not exactly an innocent. Somewhere Jellicoe has run off to with the case containing the manuscript and suddenly there are loads and loads of hoodlums involved, all after the blackmail material.
The story opens with quite a humorous description of Shell’s client: “They say time will tell, and on Mrs. Gladys Jellicoe it had spilled everything. She was about fifty years old and quite well preserved; she looked like a mummy. Her eyes were the color of coffee with the grounds still in it, and her hair was the same interesting shade as her eyes; she had a face to unwind cuckoo clocks and a shape like an old girdle.” He explains that dear old Gladys “didn’t exactly turn [him] on since it is [his] habit to dally whenever possible in the company of lasses crammed with zip and sizzle, gals with flashing eyes and flaming hair, lovelies who pooch and pout and sway and wiggle. Among other things.” Indeed, when Shell gets to the Jellicoe residence, he tells us that “She flung the door open and gawked at me like Dracula’s mother taking her first peek into the crib.” Prather’s writing must be given praise for its uniquely humorous descriptions.
She tells him Mr. Jellicoe, who she fondly refers to as “Jelly,” could not have been at the bar where his wallet was found because “they have waitresses and cigarette girls, that sort of thing, who go about practically naked.” And what’s more, she explains, that it could not have been her dear Jelly because the bartender who turned over the lost wallet described the man who lost it as quite drunk, extremely lavish with his money, and escorting a notorious actress Sylvia Ardent, who Shell remembers as “a gal of creamy skin and emerald-green eyes, of jungle-lush red hair, of voluptuous….” Indeed, when Gladys hands Shell a photograph of her Jelly, Scott notes that Jelly is “Tall and thin, dressed in black, he had the sparkle and dash of a disinherited undertaker at his daddy’s funeral.” What a description!
Of course, Shell Scott’s version of Los Angeles has always been filled with one gang of hoodlums or another and it seems that every book gives birth to a new gang with a new boss in charge. There’s simply no repeat of hoodlums. The last novel, he tells us readers, that he cleaned up the Jimmy Violet Gang and now the two remaining gangs of thugs and heavies included one headed by Eddy Lash, a cold-eyed creep, and on headed by no less a cold-blooded killer named Mac Kiffer.
Interestingly, Scott tells the reader in this volume and a couple of proceeding volumes that he has a car-phone. This is quite amazing and James Bond-esque. If you research whether they had Motorola MTS Mobile Telephone Systems in 1969, you might be surprised to find out that it was actually a real thing and not something added in by publishers years later. They were expensive and limited in circulation, but they existed.
The other interesting point in this novel, at least for readers of the Shell Scott series, is that Hazel, the switchboard operator in the Hamilton Building where Scott has his office has a few actual lines, takes messages for Scott, and has friends (Lucille, “a soft-mouthed little Mexican sweetie with eyes like burning coals”) who provide helpful information for him. Hazel has been a recurring character in the series almost since the beginning, but has almost never garnered a line of dialogue or even a description.
Other characters featured here include actor and ladies’ man Warren Barr, “tall, broad, magnetic, hard-bodied, and hard-eyed. It was alleged he gave women goose bumps in the most unlikely places.” There’s again “sparkling-eyed, effervescent, swinging” Sylvia Ardent, who thinks upon meeting Shell that he is one of the blackmailers and is ready and willing to pay him off in whatever way it takes to keep her dirty laundry out of the public eye. Other hoodlums involved include Putrid Stanley (great name!), Clarence Ludlow (Luddy), a “large, bumbling oaf of enormous physical strength but with very little juice flowing through his gray matter,” and Burper. And, of course, Prather’s stand-in for Zsa Zsa Gabor: Zena Tabour, who pronounced all her s’s like z’s. Every scene with Zena in it is humorous as Scott tries to over and over again decipher what on earth she is saying.
Beyond the humorous asides that make up nearly every Shell Scott novel, the plot goes from Hollywood blackmail corruption to facing off against various hoodlums and trying to flip them before their time expires.
The story opens with quite a humorous description of Shell’s client: “They say time will tell, and on Mrs. Gladys Jellicoe it had spilled everything. She was about fifty years old and quite well preserved; she looked like a mummy. Her eyes were the color of coffee with the grounds still in it, and her hair was the same interesting shade as her eyes; she had a face to unwind cuckoo clocks and a shape like an old girdle.” He explains that dear old Gladys “didn’t exactly turn [him] on since it is [his] habit to dally whenever possible in the company of lasses crammed with zip and sizzle, gals with flashing eyes and flaming hair, lovelies who pooch and pout and sway and wiggle. Among other things.” Indeed, when Shell gets to the Jellicoe residence, he tells us that “She flung the door open and gawked at me like Dracula’s mother taking her first peek into the crib.” Prather’s writing must be given praise for its uniquely humorous descriptions.
She tells him Mr. Jellicoe, who she fondly refers to as “Jelly,” could not have been at the bar where his wallet was found because “they have waitresses and cigarette girls, that sort of thing, who go about practically naked.” And what’s more, she explains, that it could not have been her dear Jelly because the bartender who turned over the lost wallet described the man who lost it as quite drunk, extremely lavish with his money, and escorting a notorious actress Sylvia Ardent, who Shell remembers as “a gal of creamy skin and emerald-green eyes, of jungle-lush red hair, of voluptuous….” Indeed, when Gladys hands Shell a photograph of her Jelly, Scott notes that Jelly is “Tall and thin, dressed in black, he had the sparkle and dash of a disinherited undertaker at his daddy’s funeral.” What a description!
Of course, Shell Scott’s version of Los Angeles has always been filled with one gang of hoodlums or another and it seems that every book gives birth to a new gang with a new boss in charge. There’s simply no repeat of hoodlums. The last novel, he tells us readers, that he cleaned up the Jimmy Violet Gang and now the two remaining gangs of thugs and heavies included one headed by Eddy Lash, a cold-eyed creep, and on headed by no less a cold-blooded killer named Mac Kiffer.
Interestingly, Scott tells the reader in this volume and a couple of proceeding volumes that he has a car-phone. This is quite amazing and James Bond-esque. If you research whether they had Motorola MTS Mobile Telephone Systems in 1969, you might be surprised to find out that it was actually a real thing and not something added in by publishers years later. They were expensive and limited in circulation, but they existed.
The other interesting point in this novel, at least for readers of the Shell Scott series, is that Hazel, the switchboard operator in the Hamilton Building where Scott has his office has a few actual lines, takes messages for Scott, and has friends (Lucille, “a soft-mouthed little Mexican sweetie with eyes like burning coals”) who provide helpful information for him. Hazel has been a recurring character in the series almost since the beginning, but has almost never garnered a line of dialogue or even a description.
Other characters featured here include actor and ladies’ man Warren Barr, “tall, broad, magnetic, hard-bodied, and hard-eyed. It was alleged he gave women goose bumps in the most unlikely places.” There’s again “sparkling-eyed, effervescent, swinging” Sylvia Ardent, who thinks upon meeting Shell that he is one of the blackmailers and is ready and willing to pay him off in whatever way it takes to keep her dirty laundry out of the public eye. Other hoodlums involved include Putrid Stanley (great name!), Clarence Ludlow (Luddy), a “large, bumbling oaf of enormous physical strength but with very little juice flowing through his gray matter,” and Burper. And, of course, Prather’s stand-in for Zsa Zsa Gabor: Zena Tabour, who pronounced all her s’s like z’s. Every scene with Zena in it is humorous as Scott tries to over and over again decipher what on earth she is saying.
Beyond the humorous asides that make up nearly every Shell Scott novel, the plot goes from Hollywood blackmail corruption to facing off against various hoodlums and trying to flip them before their time expires.
October 25, 2023
Picked this nice paperback copy up today at a second hand store for $2. I'm going to give it a shot. I didn't know it was book 34 in the series, however, very easily read as a quick stand alone. I will definitely check out the earlier books in this series.
September 6, 2020
The first Shell Scott I read ended with him in jail and his cop friend bemoaning that he'd finally gone too far. Although I didn't have much context for that mid-series entry, it felt like it might be a major turning point in the series' status quo. I was very curious to check out the next entry, which happened to be this book. Two years or so later I finally got around to it, and.... there's no change. There's a reference in passing to him being in jail recently, and having some heat with the local mob due to the adventures in the last book, but that's basically it. Oh well. Probably not surprising given the nature of the series. In any event, this was a solid Shell. I like this sort of "sheltered inhibited nobody finally breaks bad and bites off WAY more than he can chew" plot. Here an accountant type gets ahold of his powerful boss' tell-all memoir draft and decides to use it to blackmail some powerful types, only to find out after it's too late that some of the secrets he's waving about are ones the mob wants to keep quiet. Nothing too wild in this book, but solid like most Shells.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2021
Shell Scott is great fun. He's always in trouble as he investigates the underbelly of greater Los Angeles on his latest case. Now he must find the manuscript of Gideon Cheim, studio head and movie mongol. Cheim's autobiography threatens to name names and tell many a dirty secret that, if told, puts lives in danger. Can Scott find the manuscript before the body count goes sky high? That's the fun of this story as he deals with gangster's, blackmailers, and beautiful movie starlet's.
January 31, 2016
Mrs. Gladys Jellicoe has a serious problem and needs the help of private detective Shell Scott. He has come to her home in the Hollywood Hills from his office in the Hamilton Building on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles this warm September morning in response to her phone call. While she may have called him because she appears to be extremely well preserved--- much like a mummy-- apparently the real reason she called is the fact that her ex-husband is missing.
She believes him to be dead. Wilfred Jefferson Jellicoe is supposed to send her a monthly alimony check of three thousand dollars on or before the first of the month. “Jelly” as she calls him has now missed two payments. She has done some checking around of her own and has determined that he has not been seen at the Cavendish House in Hollywood for several days now. That is where he has been staying recently and he has not checked out. She has no idea where her ex-husband, at one time the assistant to legendary Hollywood movie mogul Gideon Cheim is, or why Jelly’s wallet was found in a seedy nightclub known as “The Panther Room.”
While she thinks Shell Scott’s going rate of one hundred dollars a day is rather expensive, she wants her missing alimony money as well as to find Jelly. She grudgingly agrees to pay and Shell Scott is on the case. One that will take him all across the Los Angeles area, into some adult activities with certain beautiful ladies, and a number of violent confrontations with several less than savory characters. That is when he isn’t smoking, drinking, or discussing things with the local cops.
Set in the 60’s, Shell Scott is the classic “man’s man.” He does it all and then some while making sure to be one step ahead of the bad and good guys alike. A fun read, The Cheim Manuscript: A Shell Scott Novel, twists and turns its way through 200 pages plus of mayhem and chaos all done with a slightly sarcastic tone. My first experience with a Shell Scott novel was highly entertaining and well worth the read.
The Cheim Manuscript: A Shell Scott Novel
Richard S. Prather
Pocket Books
February 1969
Paperback
215 Pages
This paperback was supplied by Barry Ergang years ago for me to read and review. He has been hounding me every so often about it ever since.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2016
She believes him to be dead. Wilfred Jefferson Jellicoe is supposed to send her a monthly alimony check of three thousand dollars on or before the first of the month. “Jelly” as she calls him has now missed two payments. She has done some checking around of her own and has determined that he has not been seen at the Cavendish House in Hollywood for several days now. That is where he has been staying recently and he has not checked out. She has no idea where her ex-husband, at one time the assistant to legendary Hollywood movie mogul Gideon Cheim is, or why Jelly’s wallet was found in a seedy nightclub known as “The Panther Room.”
While she thinks Shell Scott’s going rate of one hundred dollars a day is rather expensive, she wants her missing alimony money as well as to find Jelly. She grudgingly agrees to pay and Shell Scott is on the case. One that will take him all across the Los Angeles area, into some adult activities with certain beautiful ladies, and a number of violent confrontations with several less than savory characters. That is when he isn’t smoking, drinking, or discussing things with the local cops.
Set in the 60’s, Shell Scott is the classic “man’s man.” He does it all and then some while making sure to be one step ahead of the bad and good guys alike. A fun read, The Cheim Manuscript: A Shell Scott Novel, twists and turns its way through 200 pages plus of mayhem and chaos all done with a slightly sarcastic tone. My first experience with a Shell Scott novel was highly entertaining and well worth the read.
The Cheim Manuscript: A Shell Scott Novel
Richard S. Prather
Pocket Books
February 1969
Paperback
215 Pages
This paperback was supplied by Barry Ergang years ago for me to read and review. He has been hounding me every so often about it ever since.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2016
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews