Dead Letter

Digger #3

by Warren Murphy

Digger is assigned to protect Allison Stevens, a student at Waldo College, when she is threatened with murder for breaking a chain letter circulating on campus

Paperback

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Warren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.

Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.

His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.

He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

Reviews

[Gilbert Stack]

This is easily the best of the Digger novels yet. Digger is asked by his boss to check in on his college-aged daughter when he travels to Boston. Digger does so only to discover two things – the daughter is not the sheltered young near-nun that her father thinks she is, and someone is trying to frighten her and just possibly murder her. The mechanism for scaring her is a chain letter which has a list of people who are going to die. The first name on the list is someone that the girl had, herself, put on a dorm joke-list of people the world would be better off without—a person who has just died in an alleged accident. But more people on the list die and then the girl’s name appears on it too.

There’s a lot of tension in this fast-moving mystery, but the clues are all there for anyone paying enough attention to figure them out. (I did figure it out, which of course, makes me think even more highly of the mystery.)

My biggest concern with the novel was that Digger’s girlfriend, Koko, wouldn’t appear since she and he live in Las Vegas and the story is in Boston, but fortunately she does get to contribute to both the mystery and the story.

[Jim]

3.5 Stars. A slow first chapter or so, then a good read. This installment seems a step closer to a "real" novel and the Trace series that this eventually turned in to later on.

[Joseph]

So far this is my favorite Digger novel. These books are way too much fun!

[Tom Johnson]

Digger #3: “Dead Letter” by Warren Murphy. Digger (Julian Burroughs) is going to Boston for his annual physical. His boss, and drinking partner, the night before asks him to look in on his daughter Allison at Waldo University while he’s there. It seems on her last visit she appeared depressed, and her father Frank Stevens found a newspaper clipping about the death of a bar owner in her possession. Why would his daughter be upset about a bar owner’s death? When Digger arrives he discovers everything is mixed up at the university, and there appears to be a chain letter circulating – a letter with a list of people to be murdered. Although Tamiko Funucci isn’t with him, he can still reach her in Vegas for help with the mystery. And he must solve it before Allison’s name is listed on the dead letter. This was the usual fun story not cluttered with a lot of people or too much mystery. The best of Warren Murphy is his dialogue, which is some of the best of any writer. A quick and fun read

[Chris Haynes]

These books are great

I really like the Digger series. The dialog is awesome and Digger is a great smarta$$. The books really are page turners and a lot of fun to read.