Funny this should come up. Just the other day, I was
wondering why there was no biography of Ross Thomas. Of
course, his books have a hard time staying in print, so
publishers probably don't see much of a market for his
life.
Too bad, because from the oblique references in the few short
biographical notes and articles I have seen, it seems like
his life must have been fascinating. Many of his stories seem
to have come from personal experience -- there have been
rumors of CIA ties, lots of PR work, including elections in
Africa (as in Seersucker Whipsaw - by the way, did everyone
catch the brief Padillo sighting in the book, after he went
MIA at the end of The Cold War Swap?), then his years as
Hollywood script-doctor.
Speaking of that last, did he do any original scripts besides
Bad Company (the one with Lawrence Fishburne, not the
Western)? Not many seemed to like this film, but I got a kick
out of it. Trivia -- a Ross Thomas novel sits on Fishburne's
coffee table in the movie, I forget which one.
As for what to read, I always recommend Chinaman's Chance
first. I tend to like the con job books best, particularly
those featuring Wu and Durant. This is one of three series
Thomas wrote, along with the Mac and Padillo books, which
lean a little more towards espionage (although con jobs and
espionage never seem to be too separate in his books) and the
Phillip St. Ives books written as Oliver Bleeck, about a
professional go-between. Most of his books do not feature
series characters.
Thomas plots sometimes threaten to get out of hand and he
sometimes wraps his convoluted plots up a bit too quickly,
but his characters are always great and he seems to know his
stuff, all of the facts and figures ring with authenticity
(if they aren't real, and I have no reason to think they
aren't, he certainly makes you believe they are). There is
not one of his books which I did not thoroughly enjoy. He
really does deserve more of an audience than he has.
Mark
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