Wed 27 May 2009
TMF Review: ROBERT TERRALL – Sand Dollars.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV , Obituaries / Deaths Noted , Reviews[6] Comments
ROBERT TERRALL – Sand Dollars.
St. Martin’s Press; hardcover; 1st printing, 1978. Paperback reprint: Dell, 1979.
There’s a lot of money floating around this world that most of us never get the slightest glimpse of. Tax shelters for the rich being in high demand, a great deal of this money accumulates in out-of-the-way places like regulation-free Grand Cayman Island. When the mild-mannered accountant who first discovered this Caribbean financial paradise turns down the Mafia as a silent partner in his operations, he’s forced to turn to bank robbery in retaliation and as a means for sheer survival.
What results is a lusty tale of greed and marital infidelity, spiced with numerous feats of sexual superheroism. Unfortunately none of the hapless, amoral creatures involved arouse much sympathy when things don’t work out quite as planned, and the story crumbles into what’s left of sand castles when the tide comes in, as it inevitably does.
(slightly revised)
[UPDATE] 05-27-09. This is a scarce book. Only 12 copies come for sale on ABE, for example, but unless you’re fussy about condition, you aren’t likely to have to pay very much for it, either.
When I wrote the review, I may or may not have known that Robert Terrall was much more famous under several of his pen names: Robert Kyle, John Gonzales, and Brett Halliday (ghost-writing for Davis Dresser).
The list of mystery fiction that was published under his own name is small, and at least one is be a reprint of another title as by someone else. Expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s his entry there, excluding his work under other aliases:
TERRALL, ROBERT. 1914-2009.
They Deal in Death. Simon & Schuster, hc, 1943.
Madam Is Dead. Duell, Sloane & Pearce, hc, 1947.
A Killer Is Loose Among Us. Duell, Sloane & Pearce, hc, 1948.
Shroud for a City. Australia: Original Novels, pb, 1956. [US title?]
Sand Dollars. St. Martin’s, hc, 1978.
Kill Now, Pay Later. Hard Case Crime, pb, 2007. Previously published as by Robert Kyle (Dell, pbo, 1960).
Robert Terrall was 94 years old when died on March 27th earlier this year. An excellent overview of his career can be found here on The Rap Sheet blog, along with an interview editor J. Kingston Pierce did with Ben Terrall, the author’s son and a free-lancer writer himself.
If you missed it before, please don’t hesitate in jumping over and reading it now. If you’re a fan of vintage Gold Medal style literature, you’ll be glad you did.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I don’t know why this one is so rare on line. Over the years I’ve found many copies in second-hand bookstores. I suppose one reason it might be rare is most don’t know Terrall wrote many of the Brett Halliday Michael Shayne books after 1958, and as Robert Kyle the excellent Ben Gates novels (the Hard Case reprint is a Kyle/Gates novel). It’s a shame because Terrall was a fine writer too little known.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
David
We must haunt different bookstores in far separated parts of the country. I can’t recall ever seeing the book in a used shop, not that I was looking, but I’m sure I’d remember.
And why that is, I don’t know. When my wife asks me if I took my pills before breakfast that I should have, I swear I can’t tell her.
— Steve
May 27th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Steve
There is a big Library sale here every year here in OKC, and I usually see one copy of Sand Dollars at least (the paperback has a fairly distinctive cover), but it may be the local airbase means we get more stray copies of books from around the country (and the world). I’ve also seen it in various second hand book stores off and on. Still, it would probably prove elusive if I was actually looking for it. I replaced a fairly beat up copy wiht a better edition two years ago. Also, for some reason it might have had better circulation in this part of the country. For mysterious reasons only publishers understand some books perform better in some regions and get better distribution.
Still, from experience I can tell you that any locale that has a military base or big Veterans hospital tends to have a wider selection of books in the second hand stores. You can also do well in airline hub cities like Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and Denver — guess it’s the flow of traffic.
September 19th, 2009 at 1:35 am
The US title of SHROUD FOR A CITY is A KILLER IS LOOSE AMONG US.
September 19th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Thanks, Lynn. I’ll pass the word along to Al Hubin, in case he doesn’t know yet, which I don’t believe he does!
November 17th, 2009 at 1:45 am
[…] reviewed Sand Dollars, one of the mystery thrillers he wrote under his own name, several months ago here on this blog. I also added some additional bibliographic information about him, along with a few […]