More authors from the online Addenda for the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. What I had in mind was that the last grouping of such authors, also from the “C” section, was going to be the last I was going to be double-posting. But the extra exposure seems to help; the comments that were left were extremely useful.

   So I’ve decided to continue posts like this one for a little while longer. Cutting down on the number of of authors will help. It’s quite a mixed batch this time around, as I think you’ll agree, about as different from each other as a group of five can get.

CHADWICK, JOSEPH L. Pseudonym: John Conway, q.v. Other pseudonyms: Joselyn Chadwick, Janet Conroy, Jo Anne Creighton, John Creighton and Elizabeth Grayson. Under his own name, the author of one crime novel included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   The Golden Frame. Gold Medal, pb, 1955. “She was as old as Eve, as young as love, as warm as life – and as cold as death.”

CONWAY, JOHN. Pseudonym of Joseph L. Chadwick, q.v. Under this pen name, the author of six titles published by Monarch as paperback originals between 1959 and 1961, including the one below. Besides one book in the Revised Crime Fiction IV under his own name, other titles appear under five additional pseudonyms.
   A Sin in Time. Monarch, US, pb, 1961. Add setting: Pennsylvania. “She lived hard and fast until her sins caught up with her.”

CONYERS, (MINNIE) DOROTHEA (née BLOOD-SMYTH). 1863-1949. Born in Limerick, Ireland; married Lt. Conyers, who was killed in 1915, then married Captain White. Author of more than forty sporting novels and collections. Of these, seven of a criminous nature are included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Add the following:
   Kicking Foxes. Hutchinson, UK, hc, 1947. Setting: England. A novel of the “changing fortunes of a lady in the Leicestershire hunting set.”

COOK, KENNETH.
   Wake in Fright. Joseph, UK, hc, 1961; St. Martin’s, US, hc, 1962. Setting: Australia. Film: NLT, 1970; also released as Outback (scw: Evan Jones; dir: Ted Kotcheff). [Add alternative title.] “The story of John Grant, a young school teacher, stranded in a brutal and menacing town in outback Australia.” [Reputed to be Australia’s great lost film.]

COOK, ROBIN.
   Acceptable Risk. TV movie: TBS, 2001 (scw: Michael J. Murray; dir: William A. Graham)
   Harmful Intent. TV movie: David Schneider, 1993 (scw: James Steven Sadwith; dir: John Patterson)
   Mortal Fear. TV movie: ACI, 1994 (scw: Rob Gilber, Roger Young; dir: Larry Shaw)
   Outbreak. TV movie: NBC, 1995, as Virus; also released as Formula for Death (scw: Roger Young; dir: Armand Mastroianna)
   Terminal. TV movie: NBC, 1996 (scw: Nancy Isaak; dir: Larry Elikann)

COOKE, L(AWRENCE) A(LFRED) B. Add/correct his first two names in full. Brother of mystery writer Rupert Croft-Cooke; educated at Oxford; tutor in Switzerland for two years; antiquarian bookseller; later prep school teacher. Author of a single title listed in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   War in the Gates. Geoffery Bles, UK, hc, 1937. Setting: England. [Could the fascist movement in England have tried to impose a dictator on the UK Government?]

    Included in this post are authors in the A-C section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

   In all likelihood, this will be the last of these posts I’ll do on the blog. While I’m pleased with the results, it takes more time that it should to double post them. From now on, annotated additions and corrections like these will be found only on the primary CFIV website.

COEN, FRANKLIN. 1912-1990. US movie & TV screenwriter with many credits between 1936 and 1974. Add the second of the two books listed below. This now constitutes the author’s complete entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   The Plunderers. Coward McCann, US, hc, 1980. Severn House, UK, hc, 1981. “A high-speed, high-stakes thriller – Nazi greed against all the pride of Paris.”
   -Vinegar Hill. Rinehart, 1950. Setting: US South. TV movie: Art & Anne, 1995, as Deadly Family Secrets (scw: Brian Taggert; dir: Richard T.Heffron)

COFFEY, BRIAN. Pseudonym of Dean R. Koontz.
   The Face of Fear. TV movie: CBS, 1990 (scw: Dean R. Koontz, Alan Jay Glueckman; dir: Farhad Mann)

COLE, ALEXANDER. Pseudonym of Justin Scott, q.v. Other pseudonym: J. S. Blazer; add new pseudonym: Paul Garrison. As “Alexander Cole,” the author has only one entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. See below:
   The Auction. Jove, US, pb, 1983. Add British edition: Granada, hc, 1985, as by Justin Scott. “Kidnapped. The most valuable man in the world. The bidding starts at $5 million…”

COLE, MARTINA
   The Jump. TV movie: BBC, 1998 (scw: Martina Cole; dir: Richard Standeven)

COLLINS, JACKIE. Pen name of Jacqueline Collins Lerman, 1941- . Prolific bestselling author; much of her fiction has criminous components. Add the second of the two novels below.
   Chances. Partial basis for TV movie [mini-series]: NBC, 1990, as Lucky/Chances (scw: Jackie Collins; dir: Buzz Kulik). SC: Lucky Santangelo (Nicollette Sheridan), Gino Santangelo (Vincent Irizarry)
   Lucky. Simon & Schuster, hc, 1985; Collins, UK, hc, 1985. SC: Santangelo family; setting: Las Vegas, NV. Partial basis for TV movie [mini-series]: NBC, 1990, as Lucky/Chances (scw: Jackie Collins; dir: Buzz Kulik). SC: Lucky Santangelo (Nicollette Sheridan), Gino Santangelo (Vincent Irizarry)

COLLINS, MAX ALLAN
   The Road to Perdition. Film: Dreamworks, 2002 (scw: David Self; dir: Sam Mendes)

COLLINS, WILKIE
   Basil. Film: Kushner-Locke, 1998 (scw & dir: Radha Bharadwaj)
   The Moonstone. TV movie: BBC/PBS, 1996 (scw: Kevin Elyot; dir: Robert Bierman)
   The Woman in White. TV movie [series episode/Dow Hour of Great Mysteries]: NBC, 1960 (scw: Frank Ford; dir: Paul Nickell)

CONDON, RICHARD
   The Manchurian Candidate. Film: Paramount, 2004 (scw: George Axelrod; dir: Jonathan Demme)

CONNELLY, MICHAEL
   Blood Work. Film: Warner, 2002 (scw: Brian Helgeland; dir: Clint Eastwood)

CONRAD, JOSEPH
   The Secret Agent. TV movie [mini-series]: BBC, 1967 (scw: Alexander Baron; dir: Gerald Blake). Also: BBC, 1992 (scw: Dusty Hughes; dir: David Drury)
   -Victory. Doubleday, 1915; Methuen, 1915. Silent film: Paramount, 1919 (scw: Jules Furthman; dir: Maurice Tourneur). Sound film: Paramount, 1930, as Dangerous Paradise (scw: William Slavens McNutt, Grover Jones; dir: William A. Wellman). Also: Paramount, 1940 (scw: John L. Balderston; dir: John Cromwell). Also: Miramax, 1995 (scw & dir: Mark Peploe)

CONROY, A. L. This is this author’s only entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. [In spite of the similarity of names, there is no evidence to suggest that the author was Al Conroy, aka Marvin H. Albert.]
   Storefront Lawyers. (Bantam, pb, 1970) Novelization of TV movie [series episode/Storefront Lawyers] entitled A Man’s Castle: CBS, 1970 (scw: unknown; dir: Lee H. Katzin)

SCOTT, JUSTIN (BLAZER). 1942- . Pseudonyms: J. S. Blazer, Alexander Cole, q.v. Add pseudonym: Paul Garrison. His father, A. Leslie Scott, was the author of approximately 250 western novels, including many under several pen names; his mother, Lily K. Scott, wrote novels, many of them romances, as well as short stories for the slicks and pulp magazines. Also a novelist is his sister, Alison Scott Skelton. Under his own name, the author of many crime and detective novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   The Auction. Grafton, hc, 1985. Add: This is the British edition of a book published in the US earlier as by Alexander Cole, q.v.

   I’ve recently split the previous A through H page of the online Addenda to Al Hubin’s Revised Crime Fiction IV into two sections, A through C and D through H. These entries obviously come from the A-C page, falling immediately after Agatha Christie’s entry:

CHRISTMAN, ELIZABETH. Add as a new author. 1914- . Ref: CA. Literary agent, 1946-69; faculty member at DePauw University, University of Notre Dame, 1969- .
   -A Nice Italian Girl. Dodd Mead, hc, 1976. TV movie: Brut Productions, 1977, as Black Market Baby (scw: Andrew Peter Marin; dir: Robert Day)

CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F. Prolific author of sports novels for boys. The title below is his only entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   Look for the Body. Phoenix Press, hc, 1952. Add setting: Midwest. Leading character: Brooks Carter, physician.

CHURCHILL, EDWARD. 1895-1972. Author of many stories in the pulp fiction magazines between roughly 1929 and 1952, plus one hardcover mystery novel cited in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. See below:
   Menace of Death. Dodge, hc, 1937. Add settings: New Jersey, Washington D.C. Leading character: Captain Kirkland Crane of US Army Intelligence.

CLANCY, TOM
   The Sum of All Fears. Film: Paramount, 2002 (scw: Paul Attanasio, Daniel Pyne; dir: Phil Alden Robinson). SC: Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck)

CLARK, MARY HIGGINS
   ● All Around the Town. TV movie: PAX, 2002 (scw: Peter Mohan; dir: Paolo Barzman)

   ● The Anastasia Syndrome and other stories. TV movie Lucky Day, based on ss in this collection: PAX, 2002 (scw: Peter Mohan; dir: Penelope Buitenhuis)

   ● Before I Say Goodbye. TV movie: PAX, 2003 (scw: Jon Cooksey, Ali Marie Matheson, John Benjamin Martin; dir: Michael Storey)

   ● The Cradle Will Fall. TV movie: Cates Films, 1983 (scw: Jerome Coopersmith; dir: John Llewellyn Moxey)

   ● A Cry in the Night. TV movie: Telescene, 1992 (scw & dir: Robin Spry)

   ● I’ll Be Seeing You. TV movie: PAX, 2004 (scw: John Benjamin Martin; dir: Will Dixon). [No writing credit given to Mary Higgins Clark.]

   ● Let Me Call You Sweetheart. http://imdb.com/title/tt0129198/: Family Channel, 1997 (scw: Christopher Lofton; dir: Bill Corcoran)

   ● Loves Music, Loves to Dance. TV movie: PAX, 2001 (scw: Peter Mohan; dir: Mario Azzopardi)

   ● Moonlight Becomes You. TV movie: Family Channel, 1998 (scw: David Kinghorn; dir: Bill Corcoran)

   ● My Gal Sunday. TV movie A Crime of Passion, based on ss in this collection: PAX, 2003 (scw: John Benjamin Martin, Carl Binder; dir; Charles Wilkinson)

   ● Pretend You Don’t See Her. TV movie: PAX, 2002 (scw: Donald Hounam; dir: Rene Bonniere)

   ● Stillwatch. TV movie: CBS, 1987 (scw: Laird Koenig, David E. Peckinpah; dir: Rod Holcomb)

   ● We’ll Meet Again. TV movie: PAX, 2002 (scw: Michael Thoma, John Benjamin Martin; dir: Michael Storey)

   ● Weep No More, My Lady. TV movie: CBS, 1992 (scw: Michel Andrieu, Leila Basen, Robert Levine; dir: Andrieu)

   ● While My Pretty One Sleeps. TV movie: Hallmark/Family Channel, 1997 (scw: David Kinghorn; dir: Jorge Montesi)

   ● You Belong to Me. TV film: PAX, 2001 (scw: Irina Diether; dir: Paolo Barzman)

CLEWS, ALAN. Add as a new author. British television and film screenwriter.
   A Child of Air. Headline, UK, hc, 1995. Setting: Scotland. [“An old-fashioned ghost story of rolling mists, Scottish lairds, and something nasty behind the curtains.” Storyboards for a proposed film can be found online.]

COE, CAPTAIN. Joint pseudonym of Edward Card Mitchell and Lincoln Springfield, 1865- . Author of one title cited in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Add year of birth of the latter author; death date unknown.
   The Coroner’s Understudy. Arrowsmith, UK, hc, 1891.

JAYNE CASTLE – The Chilling Deception.

Dell, paperback original. First printing, August 1986.

   Speaking of numbers of books sold, as I was in my preceding review of Richard S. Prather’s Over My Dear Body, Jayne Castle is no slouch in racking up sales, which were up to seven million in print at the time The Chilling Deception came out. (Ms. Castle is also known as Stephanie James and Jayne Ann Krentz, which also happens to be her real name.)

   That many of her books are romances without a hint of mystery to them makes no difference at all, especially to the IRS and other more mortal bean-counters.   [Jayne Krentz is also Amanda Quick, under which name many of her more mystery-oriented books have appeared, but she didn’t use that name until several years after this review first appeared.]

   Prompted, I assume, by the success of such TV series as Remington Steele and Moonlighting, in which the pseudo-romance between the leading characters is featured as prominently as the detective story itself, book publishers (never ones not to sense a dollar when a dollar is there) have decided to get in on the action. Hence, the second of the adventures of Guinevere Jones, exclusive secretarial assistant, and Zachariah Justis, sophisticated security specialist.

   They have a romance going — or more properly, perhaps, an affair — and in between trying to help their combined client in this book out from whatever trouble he is in — he won’t tell them — Guinevere is trying to pin Zach down as to what exactly their relationship is, and Zach, he’s simply trying to pin Guinevere down. In bed, that is.

   There is more explicit sex in this book than in Richard Prather’s, say, and nothing else could be more indicative as to how times have changed. Swooning is hardly enough for today’s readers — and I imagine I’m talking about the female half of the population, for I don’t believe many males will read this book.

   And if they do, they are likely to find the other scenes, those in which Guinevere and Zach talk (or, when they’re alone, think) about their relationship, something less than totally compelling. (I hope I’m not maligning men too much.)

   I have little idea how the aforementioned female half of the population will go for this book and this series, except to say that a track record of seven million books is quite a record to build on.

[UPDATE] 12-12-08. There were in all four books in the series. They all came out in 1986. Expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a complete list:

JONES, GUINEVERE
      o The Desperate Game (n.) Dell, pbo, June 1986.

      o The Chilling Deception (n.) Dell, pbo, Aug 1986.
      o The Sinister Touch (n.) Dell, pbo, Oct 1986.
      o The Fatal Fortune (n.) Dell, pbo, Dec 1986.

   She has her own page on the Thrilling Detective website, devoted to private eyes of all kinds, but other than that, I don’t know how successful the series was.

   Except for this. If you were to search for any of these four books on Amazon, which is where you will find the most accurate prices books are really going for, you will find only one for which the asking price is less than $22.50, and I’m willing to wager that that one book won’t last long at that price.

   Apparently none have been reprinted. If that’s so, one wonders why, as the market for Jayne Ann Krentz’s fiction seems to know no bounds. If her total was seven million books in print in 1986, one can only imagine what it is now.

RICHARD S. PRATHER – Over Her Dear Body.

Gold Medal s887; paperback original. First printing, June 1959. Reprinted many times.

   [As a brief preface, this is the book I read immediately following Hyde and Seek, by Benjamin Wolff, and reviewed here by me earlier on the blog.]

   Two books in a row, and in both a private eye (or someone playing at being a private eye) is hired by a girl (a knockout, of course) to help her brother, who has been working at some secret deals, making a lot of money, then either (1) disappearing, or (2) starting to worry for his life.

   Coincidences happen, but it’s still a little scary.

   Actually all it really says is that there is a shortage of private eye plots to go around. So, I thought, we’ll let the veteran Mr. Prather show the new guy how it’s done. After all, hadn’t he already sold over 21,000,000 Shell Scott books by the time this was published? (Information taken at face value from the front cover.)

   Isn’t he the guy with the built-in leer in his typewriter? Books full of tomatoes, bikinis, nudist camps and other highly unlikely spots for one of the toughest private eyes in the business to find business in? (Information from reading but a small fraction of the above-mentioned 21,000,000 books — which is all it takes. Really.)

   Unfortunately and in all honesty, this wasn’t one of Mr. Prather’s better efforts. There are no drug smugglers, no South American generals, no semi-benevolent order of Christian missionaries — only a single gang of crooks whose only task is to wipe out Shell Scott before he wanders onto the truth. And of course they don’t. End of story.

   If the plot of Hyde and Seek ended up far too complicated — and with too many loose ends — to be believable, not to mention sour-tasting (or maybe I did — say something along those lines, I mean), the trail Shell Scott follows in this book is as straight as a string.

   The tomatoes are delicious, though.

[UPDATE] 12-12-08.   The following paragraph, again only slightly revised, was actually the first paragraph of the next review to appear in that issue of Mystery.File 1. As you can see, reviewer’s remorse was already setting in:

    “Lest you misunderstood, let me hasten to add that I found the Prather book easier — more fun — to read than the one by Wolff. In spite of a simplistic plot and some rather obvious padding, Prather knows how not to take himself too seriously, and how to entice the reader into keeping the pages turning. After all, 21 million books cannot be wrong.”

   And keep in mind that the cover blurb where I found that figure was from a book published in 1959. Prather’s career continued with Gold Medal up to 1964 when he switched to Pocket, where he stayed until 1975. Two further books came out from Tor in 1985-86, both Shell Scott books, but by that time interest in wacky PI novels had diminished greatly, and neither of them seemed to attract much notice.

   I’ll refer you to the Thrilling Detective website for more on both Shell Scott and his creator, Richard S. Prather, along with a complete bibliography and a small selection of covers. And if you want even more, here it is: http://user.dtcc.edu/~dean/.

BENJAMIN WOLFF – Hyde and Seek.

Avon, paperback original; 1st printing, October 1984.

   A blurb from Tony Hillerman is on the back cover, and he makes the book sound promising, if not more so: “A great story, a skillful storyteller … action-suspense fans are going to love this one.”

   I hate to disagreed with Mr. Hillerman, but I do. I thought the story was murkily plotted, that Wolff is an unpolished story-teller, and that while I personally didn’t go wild over it, maybe the book did sell well in army post bookstores. Not that it’s in Donald Pendleton’s league, but when it comes down to it, whose are?

   From the publicity blurb on the front cover, I was also led to believe that this was a private eye yarn. As it turns out, though, the only real connection the protagonist of the story, John Byron Hyde, has with that profession is through a part-time job he has doing an insurance investigator’s books.

   He is also a part-time karate instructor, however, and a disillusioned post-traumatized Vietnam vet, and (after some thought) nobody I’d really rather care to know. (There goes the rooting interest.) When he’s asked by a girl (a knockout, of course) to help her find her brother, who’s mysteriously disappeared, he ends up in a sour-tasting melange of drug smuggling, South American politics, and the semi-benevolent order of The Good Helpers of our Lady The Mother of God.

   After something of a conclusion has taken place (at least everybody’s motivations are laid out in the open), the story is clearly continued into the next volume of Mr. Hyde’s adventures. I have a copy — it’s here somewhere– but if/when I find it, the question is, will I read it? You have two guesses, the same as I, and the second doesn’t count.

[UPDATE] 12-11-08.   An uneasiness I have whenever I pull a review out of my archives that’s as negative as this one is that it turns out to have been written by someone I know, but writing under a pen name at the time. Not that I fear writing negative reviews (not all books can be as wonderful as the publicity guys make them sound), but generally speaking, I tend not to write reviews of books by authors I know.

   It turns out that Wolff was a pen name, and that there were only two of John Hyde’s adventures. My review had nothing to do with the latter. No more than 40 people may have seen this review when it first appeared; more than likely it was only a tenth of that.

   From the Revised Crime Fiction IV by Allen J. Hubin:

WOLFF, BENJAMIN. Pseudonym of Louis Chunovic; see also Charles Heath.
      Hyde and Seek (Avon, 1984, pb) [John Byron Hyde; Los Angeles, CA]
      Hyde in Deep Cover (Avon, 1985, pb) [John Byron Hyde; Bolivia]
      Nasty Boys (Berkley, 1991, pb) [Las Vegas, NV]

HEATH, CHARLES. Generally a pseudonym of Ron Renauld, but also note the book below:
      Operation Desert Sun: The Untold Story [by Louis Chunovic] (Dell, 1984, pb) [A-Team; Middle East]. Novelization of the “A-Team” TV series.

NORA ROBERTS – Midnight Bayou.

Jove; paperback reprint; first printing, December 2002. Hardcover edition: Putnam, October 2001.

   I may or may not have mentioned this recently, but among other things, I collect gothic paperback romances. In the decade from roughly 1965 to 1975, they were immensely popular, with a thousand or more different titles published. Every publisher did several a month, or so it seemed, and readers must have gobbled them down like candy.

   Eventually historical romances took over, “bodice-rippers” as they were called for a long time, and the gothics died away, never quite completely, but never again to make a sustained comeback. (Novels of romantic suspense — heroines in jeopardy — are still with us, and seem to be rising in popularity, but without the overtones of the weird and occult, most of them cannot be properly called gothics.)

   Some books hover right on the borderline, and this latest romantic novel from Nora Roberts is one of them. The prologue certainly has all of the right elements, beginning with the rape and murder of a young woman by her husband’s twin brother in Louisiana’s turn-of-last century’s bayou country. Her young daughter is left alive, but abandoned to her mother’s backwoods family, she’s forcibly separated from her father’s heritage, rightfully hers.

   It’s a strong, intense start, and the ghosts of the past that still haunt Manet Hall in the year 2002 are what keeps the book loosely in the gothic genre. But it’s largely the story of two modern-day lovers, Boston raised-and-born Declan Fitzgerald, Manet Hall’s new owner, determined to refurbish it, and Angelina Simone, Cajun descendant of the young murdered woman and her infant daughter.

   Nora Roberts writes romance (if not sublimated lust) that simply oozes with electric tension on the printed page, with dialogue that continually crackles with chemistry and wit. It’s hard to imagine more perfect people than Declan and Angelina; even their flaws are perfect. This is the stuff of fantasy.

   As for the ghost story, it’s chilling at first, but it fades in significance in comparison with Declan’s efforts to persuade Angelina that he’s the man for her, then it collapses altogether with no logic behind which spirit is doing what and for what reason.

   Well, most of the old-fashioned gothics ended in much the same way, the hints of mysticism waved away, and wedding bells in the offing. Nora Roberts just may have you believing it all, however, especially during the telling. It’s no wonder she’s one of the most popular authors writing today.

[UPDATE] 12-11-08.  And of course she still is today, and if possible, even more so. Quoting from her Wikipedia entry:

    “Nora Roberts was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. As of 2006, her novels had spent a combined 660 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 100 weeks in the number-one spot. Over 280 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.”

   The best bibliography, with the most covers, is as usual at the UK FantasticFiction website. Go and prepare to be amazed. (But not if the numbers in the previous paragraph have sunk in.)

   Also, from HollywoodReporter.com: “October 27, 2008. Lifetime has lined up big-name talent for the first two of its four upcoming movie adaptations of Nora Roberts novels. […] Jerry O’Connell, Lauren Stamile and Faye Dunaway lead the cast of Midnight Bayou.”

   It looks like perfect casting to me.

BOB McKNIGHT – Running Scared.

Ace Double D-469; paperback original; 1st printing, 1960.

   I meant to say something about George Harmon Coxe’s “workmanlike” prose in my recent review of Murder for Two, but it could be said just about as well right here. [The phrase is a common one; Google just a moment ago produced about 3000 hits.] What I mean by the term is this: a style of writing that you just don’t notice.

   Nothing so fancy as to call attention to itself, although as a standard that’s hardly enough. It can’t be anything other than a subjective assessment, one that varies from person to person.

   Nonetheless, assuming that there is such a concept, I think that “workmanlike prose” was more common with writers whose background was working for the pulp magazines. Writers whose job it was to tell a story, to get on with it, before their readers got bored and went on to something else.

   Coxe was such a writer. Frank Gruber was another. The most famous was probably Erle Stanley Gardner. None would get much of notice for their writing from a professor of literature, but because they were good writers, they captured the reader’s attention from page one onward.

   Although I don’t believe he ever wrote for the pulps. He came along a little too late for that. He was a paperback writer. He never had a book come out in hardcover, so in the overall scheme of things he’s on a far lower scale than either a Gardner or a Coxe, who both made it big. But a storyteller? Yes.

   The plot of Running Scared is that of your basic, everyday nitwit hero in a not quite everyday basic situation. He’s the kind of guy who has reasons for not calling the cops on page two — for if he had, there would be no story. He watches a murder take place, committed by someone driving his ex-wife’s car, and then he gets a call warning him that she has reported the car stolen. By him.

   He goes to her apartment (after being beaten up by two hoods on the way), befriends another girl there, hides her in a bathroom hamper when the cops come calling, and then finds her shot to death inside the hamper when the cops leave.

   I am not making this up. Actually, it reads very well. McKnight had the knack of making you believe nonsense like this all the while you realize that it is nonsense. Workmanlike prose, remember? One could easily picture an Alan Ladd or a Dick Powell in the leading role.

   But in the end, this is about all there is to say about the book. The pace is terrific, and I guarantee you that once stated, you will keep reading. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you that there is any overall depth to either the characters or the story. It’s too lightweight to be considered memorable, and the non-meticulous details of the plot are exactly that.

   What Running Scared is, though, is fun to read.

[UPDATE] 12-09-08.   My comments on the other half of this Ace Double will be posted here shortly. For the record, it is Man-Killer, by Talmage Powell, an author who really did start out writing for the pulp magazines before shifting into a career, mystery-wise, of mostly paperback originals.

   As for Bob McKnight, here below is a complete list of his novel-length mystery fiction, as compiled in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. Surprisingly enough to me, when I wrote this review I obviously didn’t recognize PI Nathan Hawk as being in this book and as being a series character. I thought so little of him, apparently, that I didn’t even mention his name. (I don’t think he was the main protagonist, but perhaps he was.)

   And as long as I’ve brought him up, Nathan Hawk is included in Kevin Burton Smith’s website devoted to Private Eye fiction. He says, in part: “Tough guy eye NATHAN HAWK, transplanted northerner in Sun City, Florida, shot and slugged his way through ten novels published by ACE in the late fifties and early sixties. Detective Lieutenant Toby Duane lends a hand when he can, and dishes out plenty of friendly ‘damn yankee’ jibes along the way.”

   Running Scared is the only one of McKnight’s books I’ve ever read. Even though my judgment was qualified, I’m a sucker for books with wacky openings like this, even if the endings don’t pan out so well in comparison. Given an opportunity, I absolutely would read another.

McKNIGHT, BOB. 1906-1981. Mining engineer, pilot and horse-racing handicapper before semi-retiring to Florida.
      Downwind (n.) Ace Double D-217, 1957 [Santa Fe, NM]
      Murder Mutuel (n.) Ace Double D-279, 1958 [Nathan Hawk; Florida]

      The Bikini Bombshell (n.) Ace Double D-387, 1959 [Nathan Hawk; Florida]

      Swamp Sanctuary (n.) Ace Double D-411, 1959 [Florida]
      Kiss the Babe Goodbye (n.) Ace Double D-447, 1960 [Nathan Hawk; Florida]
      Running Scared (n.) Ace Double D-469, 1960 [DELETE Nathan Hawk; ADD setting: Florida (St. Petersburg)]
      Secret Sinners (n.) Merit 35, 1960 [Nathan Hawk; Florida]
      A Slice of Death (n.) Ace Double D-419, 1960 [Florida]
      Drop Dead, Please (n.) Ace Double D-511, 1961 [Florida]

      The Flying Eye (n.) Ace Double F-102, 1961 [Florida]
      A Stone Around Her Neck (n.) Ace Double F-143, 1962 [Nathan Hawk; Florida]
      Homicide Handicap (n.) Ace Double F-229, 1963 [Nathan Hawk; Florida]

GRAHAM THOMAS – Malice Downstream.

Fawcett Books; paperback original; 1st printing, December 2002.

   Graham Thomas is a Canadian writer (British Columbia) who seems to have the British down pat, both the countryside and the countrymen. This is the fifth case for Detective-Chief Superintendent Erskine Powell, all paperback originals, and in the age of bloated mysteries running up to 400 pages or more, they’re lean and mean at a mere 200 plus.

   In Malice Downstream Powell is found recuperating from a previous injury at a small village called Houghton Bridge, known almost only for its superb chalk stream fishing, and home of the renown Mayfly Club. Taking his mind off his almost healed leg, and to a lesser extent his failing marriage, Powell also finds murder, with roots in the past. Totally out-of-bounds in taking a hand in investigating a case he shouldn’t be, he’s obviously the epitome of a busman on holiday.

   The detective work is solid if not flashy, with a villain rather obvious from first meeting, but if fly-fishing is an art you’re interested in, this is the book for you. And even if you’re not, if you can enjoy reading about the enthusiasm that someone else has for their near-obsessive hobbies, then this is also the book for you.

   Overall a male-oriented book, but still very cozy in nature. Snug and insightful, in a minor key sort of way.

[UPDATE] 12-09-08. Until I looked him up in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, I did not know that Graham Thomas was a pen name, but it is so. I’m guessing, of course, but perhaps Kosakoski did not sound “British” enough to someone whose opinion mattered.

   Using his entry in CFIV as a basis, here below is a complete list of the Graham Thomas mysteries. Chief Supt. Erskine Powell is in all of them.

   Note: In the original version of this review, I stated that Malice Downstream was the sixth in the series. It does not appear to be so, nor was there ever a sixth.

THOMAS, GRAHAM. Pseudonym of Gordon Kosakoski, 1950- .
      Malice in the Highlands. Ivy, pbo, Jan 1998.

      Malice in Cornwall. Ivy, pbo, June 1998.
      Malice on the Moors. Ivy, pbo, Aug 1999.
      Malice in London. Ivy, pbo, April 2000.
      Malice Downstream. Fawcett, pbo, Dec 2002.

   Note that the movies listed below, each based on an Agatha Christie novel or short story, are only those which are not included in the original Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. (They are included in the Revised CFIV, but not in this expanded version, as well as the online Addenda, where they also are.)

   For more information on each of the movies or TV series episodes mentioned, follow the links provided to their corresponding IMDB entries.

CHRISTIE, AGATHA

   ● After the Funeral. TV movie [series episode]: Granada, 2005 (scw: Philomena McDonagh; dir: Maurice Phillips. SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● At Bertram’s Hotel. TV movie : BBC/PBS, 1987 (scw: Jill Hyem; dir: Mary McMurray) . SC: Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson)

   ● The Body in the Library. TV movie: BBC/PBS, 1984 (scw: T. R. Bowen; dir: Silvio Marizzano). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson). Also: Granada, 2004 (scw: Kevin Elyot; dir: Andy Wilson). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan)

   ● By the Pricking of My Thumbs. TV movie: Granada, 2006 (scw: Peter Medak; dir: Stuart Harcourt). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan), Tuppence & Tommy Beresford (Greta Scacchi & Anthony Andrews ). [Miss Marple did not appear in the book version.]

   ● Cards on the Table. TV movie [series episode]: Granada, 2005 (scw: Nick Dear; dir: Sarah Harding). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) [and Zoë Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver]

   ● A Caribbean Mystery. TV movie: Stan Margulies, 1983 (scw: Sue Grafton, Steve Humphrey; dir: Robert Michael Lewis). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Helen Hayes). Also: BBC, 1989 (scw: T. R. Bowen; dir: Christopher Pitt). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson)

   ● Dead Man’s Folly. TV movie: CBS, 1986 (scw: Rod Browning; dir: Clive Donner). SC: Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) [and Jean Simmons as Adriadne Oliver]

   ● Death on the Nile. TV movie: London Weekend/A&E, 2004 (scw: Kevin Elyot; dir: Andy Wilson). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● Dumb Witness. [Published in the US as Poirot Loses a Client.] TV movie [series episode]: London Weekend, 1996 (scw: Douglas Wilkinson; dir: Edward Bennett). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● Evil Under the Sun. TV movie [series episode]: London Weekend, 2001 (scw: Anthony Horowitz; dir: Brian Farnham). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● Five Little Pigs. [Published in the US as Murder in Retrospect.] TV movie [series episode]: London Weekend, 2003 (scw: Kevin Elyot; dir: Paul Unwin). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● 4:50 from Paddington. [Published in the US as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!] TV movie: BBC/A&E, 1987 (scw: T. R. Bowen; dir: Martyn Friend). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson). Also: Granada, 2004 (scw: Stephen Churchett; dir: Andy Wilson). SC: Miss Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan)

   ● Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. [Published in the US as Murder for Christmas.] TV movie [series episode]: London Weekend/PBS, 1994 (scw: Clive Exton; dir: Edward Bennett). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● Hickory Dickory Dock. TV movie [series episode]: London Weekend, 1995 (scw: Anthony Horowitz; dir: Andrew Grieve). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● The Hollow. TV movie [series episode]: Granada/A&E, 2004 (scw: Nick Dear; dir: Simon Langton). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)

   ● The Hound of Death and other stories. TV movie The Last Seance, based on ss in this collection: Granada, 1986 (scw: Alfred Shaughnessy; dir: June Wyndham-Davies)

   ● Lord Edgware Dies. TV movie: CBS, 1985, as Thirteen at Dinner (scw: Rod Browning; dir: Lou Antonio). SC: Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov). Also: Carnival/A&E, 2000, as Lord Edgware Dies (scw: Anthony Horowitz; dir: Brian Farnham). SC: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet)