Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award winner, Richard S. Prather brings Shell Scott to life. Known for their arched humor, punchy dialogue, and sunny Southern California locale, the Shell Scott PI series is detective fiction at its finest.
Shell Scott – he’s a guy with a pistol in his pocket and murder on his mind. The crime world’s public enemy number one, this Casanova is a sucker for a damsel in distress. When a pair of lovely legs saunters into his office, he can’t help but take the job, even when the case is a killer. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Contents: • "The Case of the Vanishing Beauty" • "Bodies in Bedlam" • "Everybody Had a Gun" • "Find This Woman" • "Dagger of Flesh" • "Darling It's Death" • "Way of a Wanton"
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.
Shell Scott is a P.I. in Hollywood, a man's man and a bit of a scoundrel. But he is good at his trade. He always gets his man. This collection transports the reader back in time to the golden age of cinema, to the days of clean movies and the dirty guys who make them and sexually abuse their positions by objectifying them for their own pleasure. The stories are captivating and detailed in such a way that you feel yourself there, in the story. We'll worth the time spent escaping into the past.
I read this series, back in my twenties, and it was good, then. The Classics never fade away. The main character, Shell Scott is the pinnacle of the private detectives written about in the seventies. I highly recommend this series.