Books by three Richards, though one's not a real Richard, and
only one of the books is about a dick.
Richard Stark, BREAKOUT (2002)
This is the new Parker book, which I'm sure many of you have
already read. It'll be out in paper later in the year. I
really liked it, it's one of my favourite Parkers. He gets
caught by the cops right at the start, and from then on,
until the end of the book, in one way or another he's
trapped: in jail, by circumstances, in a building he's
robbing, in a house with a hostage, in a car with a cop. And
Parker can't be closed in, he can't stand it, so he's always
trying to move, trying to get out and away. This is top-notch
stuff.
Richard S. Prather, BODIES IN BEDLAM (1951)
The second Shell Scott book. I've decided to read them all in
order. This has some of the basic Shell Scott elements: being
hit on the head, getting in fights, sleeping with beautiful
women, knocking on a door and having a gorgeous naked woman
answer it, lots of hilarious language, nice lean writing, and
a non-stop pace. The story covers three days, starting with a
Hollywood party where a blackmailer is murdered. Shell had
just been fighting with him, so he had to find the real
killer to clear himself. Cue the luscious starlets, like
Constanza Carmocha:
| "Shell?"
| "Yeah?"
| "I'm gonna do something."
| "What's that?"
| "I'm gonna **** you."
| I said, "WHAAAT?"
| "I'm gonna **** you."
| There. She'd said it again. She was going to asterisk
me.
Richard Neely, THE PLASTIC NIGHTMARE (aka SHATTERED)
(1969)
I mentioned this before as one you'll want to read if you
like books where a fellow wakes up with amnesia and can't
figure out who to trust. Now, this one doesn't go to the
classic extreme, where the hero wakes up an amnesiac, beside
a dead blonde, in a motel room. Here, the hero gets back into
his old life with his wife and work and friends, but
something's not right, and he tries to figure it out. It's
not well written, and there's little subtlety, but it moves
quickly and you'll like the ending. It was turned into a
movie, SHATTERED (1991), which I can't remember well, but I
think was pretty good.
This book does have one of the worst sentences I've ever
read: "I gasped as she enveloped the pulsating tumescence
that now achingly demanded release." In 1969 Neely could be
somewhat frank about sex (and that's the only sign of the
1960s in it, aside from the mention of some hippies once--the
book could be set in 1943 with barely any changes) but he
should have left it out, just to save us from lines like
that.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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