John wrote:
> And what's become of David M. Pierce? He had three
pretty fair LA PI
> books
> in the late 80s and then disappeared from the face
of the earth.
Ah, yes. That P.I. would be Vic Daniel, whom I always sorta
of as a Shell Scott for the nineties. Although he wore his
big crazy heart on his sleeve, he shared an attitude that
went straight back through Scott to Bellem's Dan Turner and
Latimer's Bill Crane, and if his adventures don't always
quite achieve the lighthearted zaniness (and old
Testament-style justice) of some of his glorious
predescessors, well, they came awful close at times. And this
was a "kinder, gentler" era, after all.
Slightly shady, highly quirky L.A. P.I. Vic was 6'7'' in his
outsized Hawaiian shirt and was ably, albeit somewhat
reluctantantly, assisted by Sara, an adolescent, would-be
punk/poetess. He had an office on the wrong end of Hollywood
Boulevard in a failing strip mall where he kept his Mac,
Betsy and one of his four guns, all Police Positives. He also
has one in his car (a pink-and-blue Nash Metropolitan), one
at home, and an unlicensed one he sometimes carried. He also
had a mean way with a misquotation, always circling but never
quite hitting the mark.
Maybe the kinder, gentler times weren't so kind and gentle
after all.
The author was born in Montreal (Yay, team!), and in one of
his author bios it said he had "pursued the typical career
path of an aspiring writer-aluminum company slave, furniture
salesman, reporter, truck driver, door-to-door magazine
salesman, stage manager, actor, bartender and hatcheck girl,"
as well as writing lyrics for Alice Cooper, Chad 'n' Jeremy
and John Entwistle. After living for several years in London
and Los Angeles, he made his home in Paris. I met him once,
briefly, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. And at the
time, his mom still lived in Montreal.
But he actually wrote six books in the series, as well as a
couple of short stories, John. the novels are Down in the
Valley (1989), Hear the Wind Blow Dear (1989), Roses Love
Sunshine (1989), Angels in Heaven (1992), Write Me a Letter
(1993) and As She Rides By (1996).
So you have some catching up to do.
Kevin
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