> On Mon, 27 Apr 1998, James & Livia Reasoner
wrote:
>
> : I've read all the Shell Scott novels but none of
Prather's other
> : work. (There's not much non-Scott stuff, a couple
of novels and
> : maybe some short stories). The funniest PI novel I
ever read was
> : Prather's _Strip For Murder_.
>
> Was that the one set in a nudist camp?
Yep, that's it. And you didn't even mention the hot air
balloon. It must
be twenty-five years or more since I read that book, and I
remember that
scene perfectly.
> Here are some of the Shell Scott titles listed inside
_Dagger of
> Flesh_(!), which isn't a Scott: _Darling, It's
Death_, _Always Leave
> 'Em Dying_, _Three's a Shroud_, _Take a Murder,
Darling_, _Have Gat -
> Will Travel_, _The Scrambled Yeggs_, _Dig That Crazy
Grave_, _The
> Wailing Frail_, _Slab Happy_ and _Kill the Clown_.
The man had a way
> with titles.
>
> _Everybody Had a Gun_ was a lot of fun. I'm going to
pick up any
> other Prather books I see.
Glad you mentioned the titles. Now nobody can say they
weren't warned. It
seems to me that Prather must have been influenced by Robert
Leslie
Bellem's Dan Turner. I like Bellem, but I think Prather was a
better
writer, and some of the Shell Scott novels actually have some
serious
moments in them.
Prather and Stephen Marlowe did one of the first mysteries to
cross-over
characters from different series with _Double in Trouble_,
which featured
Prather's Shell Scott and Marlowe's Chester Drum. Good
stuff.
James
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