PETER ISRAEL – The Stiff Upper Lip.

Thomas Y. Crowell Co., hardcover, 1978. Paperback reprint: Avon, 1980.

   The private eye seems in essence to be almost wholly a uniquely American character. Even if B. F. Cage is originally from Los Angeles, by continuing to use the side streets and back alleys of Paris and Amsterdam as his stomping grounds, he stands out like a crime against nature.

   His client this time around is a black basketball player trying a comeback in France, but certain past and present indiscretions involving mobs of two different nationalities are threatening to catch up with him. The story is slight, involving no particular urgency, and it ends with an awfully silly version of a Chicago gang war.

   Too many transplants, and they fail to take. Valerie, Cage’s newly self-appointed assistant, is the only delicious morsel to be found anywhere in this stale and condescending affair.

[UPDATE] 12-30-08. As a wild shot in the dark, I’d say that fictional PI’s are a world-wide phenomenon today, which is a Good Thing. And in the years since 1979, I think that these foreign born PI’s have adapted and changed. They display much more of their own countries’ backgrounds and flavors, instead of relying so heavily on the US model. (A point worth considering in more detail, someday.)

   Just from reading through this review, I also think I might enjoy The Stiff Upper Lip more now than I did in 1979. Not having read it again in the almost 30 years since, all I can pass along to you is my judgment as it was back then.

   Over the years Peter Israel, the author, was also a high-ranking editor at Putnam. He eventually became the president, then chairman of the board of directors, serving in these capacities between 1978 and 1987.

   Of more specific interest to us, he also wrote five mystery novels, three with B. F. Cage and two with “eccentric, brilliant New York City legal detective Charles Camelot and his assistant, Phil Revere,” as they’re described on one bookseller’s website.

   Here’s a list of all five, as taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin:

      ISRAEL, PETER. Pseudonym of J. Leon Israel.

   Hush Money (n.) Crowell 1974 [B. F. Cage; Los Angeles, CA]
   The French Kiss (n.) Crowell 1976 [B. F. Cage; Paris]

   The Stiff Upper Lip (n.) Crowell 1978 [B. F. Cage; Paris]
   I’ll Cry When I Kill You (n.) Mysterious Press 1988 [Charles Camelot; New York City, NY]
   If I Should Die Before I Die (n.) Mysterious Press 1989 [Charles Camelot; New York City, NY]

   More authors from the D-H section of the annotated online Addenda for the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

   PLEASE NOTE: This will be the last of the Addenda updates to appear on the M*F blog, I’m sorry to say. To post them here as well as there takes time and effort I’ve decided I could use more effectively elsewhere. What I’ll be doing instead is putting together a list of interested parties to whom I’ll send updates like this one by email on a regular basis. If you’d like to be on the list, leave a comment or contact me directly, and I’ll make sure you are.

DAVIES, FREDA. 1937- . Add year of birth. Born in London; read zoology at Bristol University and taught for a while before moving to Pembrokeshire. Add SC: science reporter Sue Bennett, in the title below and at least one later novel, post-2000. Pseudonym: Amy Pirnie, q.v.
   Let Heaven Fall. Allison, UK, pb, 1995; Carroll & Graf, US, hc, 2006, as by Amy Pirnie (shown). “Accidental death, judges the coroner, but was it simply a case of solicitor Colin Bennett falling under a rush-hour train?”

DAVIS, ELIZABETH.
   There Was an Old Woman. TV movie: Mark Carliner, 1971, as Revenge (scw: Joseph Stefano; dir: Jud Taylor)

DAVIS, GIL. Add as a new author. SC: Dan Walker, who does undercover assignments for the CIA, in all titles.
   Assignment: Tokyo. Publishers Export, pb, 1967. Setting: Tokyo.
   Missile Island. Publishers Export, pb, 1967. Setting: Caribbean.
   Valley of the Doles. Publishers Export, pb, 1967. Setting: Texas (El Paso).

DEAL, BABS.
   The Walls Came Tumbling Down. TV movie: Whittman, 1979, as Friendships, Secrets, and Lies (scw: Joanna Crawford; dir: Ann Zane Shanks, Marlena Laird). [Note: Filmed and produced with an all female cast, with only one male in the crew, a cinematographer.]

DEFOE, DANIEL.
   The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. Film: MGM, 1996, as Moll Flanders (scw & dir: Pen Densham). TV movie: BBC, 1975, as Moll Flanders (scw: Hugh Whitemore; dir: Donald McWhinnie). Also: ITV/PBS, 1996, as The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (scw: Andrew Davies; dir: David Attwood). [Shown is the DVD case for the 1996 MGM film.]

DELMAN, DAVID. TV movie, based on an unidentified novel: Lorimar, 1975, as Conspiracy of Terror (scw: Howard Rodman; dir: John Llewellyn Moxey). SC: Lt. Jacob Horowitz (Michael Constantine) [and Barbara Rhoades as Helen Horowitz].

K. j. a. WISHNIA – Red House.

St. Martin’s; paperback reprint, December 2002. Hardcover edition: St. Martin’s, November 2001.

   This is the fourth in the series of mysteries solved by Ecuadorian ex-revolutionary and now fledgling private eye Filomena Buscarsela, single mom and philosopher slash social critic. Quoting from page 67: “And thus we see the dangers of post-Heideggerian rejection of history.”

   Since I haven’t read the previous three books, I don’t know exactly what career paths she may have been following up to now. She seems to have spent some time on the New York City police force — a police detective for only one day, as she puts it — but in this book, she’s a first year trainee at the PI firm of Davis and Brown, trying to work her way up to getting her own license.

   And rather than focusing on only one case, we get bits and pieces of a number of them — more of a private eye procedural, a la Joe Gores, street style, as Filomena tries to build up the Latino clientele for the firm.

   The mugging (murder?) of a local housing advocate is the main item on her agenda, however, with the plight of the illegal squatters in an abandoned tenement they refurbished themselves a close second.

   The pace is fast-moving, told in first person, present tense, and Filomena certainly knows her way around. The problem with the book is a subtle one, as I found it. According to the back cover, Wishnia (male) has a Ph.D. in comparative literature, and book reads as though it was written by someone having a Ph.D. in comparative literature.

   It does not read as though it was being told by a real-life Filomena Buscarsela, whose depth of knowledge seemingly knows no bounds, running the gamut from Heidegger (see above) to Marx (Groucho, waggle-waggle) to pulp novel covers (page 131) to nineteenth-century German chemist Friedrich Kekulé (page 226).

   I’m not saying that Filomena Buscarsela is not the person she says she is. What I’m saying is that K. j. a. Wishnia did not succeed in convincing me that she is. It’s his job, and so far (I’ve read only the one book) he hasn’t done it, at least not for me.

   The street scenes are fine, perhaps even more than fine. Otherwise? I’m skeptical, but I’ll leave myself open to opposing argument. (Even better, I’ll read the first three books.)

[UPDATE] 12-29-08.   That’s another promise I haven’t kept, I’m sorry to say. Not yet, I haven’t, but I will. For the record, expanded upon from her entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all of Filomena’s appearances in book form:

   BUSCARSELA, FILOMENA

      23 Shades of Black. The Imaginary Press, trade pb, 1997. Signet, pb, Nov 1998; Point Blank, trade pb, 2004.    [Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel.]

      Soft Money. Dutton, hc, 1999; Signet, pb, May 2000.
      The Glass Factory. Dutton, hc, 2000; Signet, pb, Mar 2001.
      Red House. St. Martin’s, hc, Nov 2001; St. Martin’s, pb, Dec 2002.
      Blood Lake. St. Martin’s, hc, Dec 2002.

   Here are the first entries in the newly created D-H section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

DALE, WILLIAM. One of many pseudonyms of writer Norman A. Daniels, q.v. Under this pen name, the author of three works listed in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   _Corpse, Hands Off! See The Terror of the Handless Corpse.
   John Doe–Murderer. Gateway, hc, 1942. United Authors, UK, 1946. Australian title: Murder Has No Name. Phantom, pb, 1955.

   _Murder Has No Name. See John Doe–Murderer.
   Outside the Law. Dodge, hc, 1938. Add setting: Denver, Wyoming. Leading characters: Jeff Tracy, thief, and Douglas Greer, detective.

   The Terror of the Handless Corpse. Gateway, hc, 1939. Australian title: Corpse, Hands Off! Phantom, pb, 1955. Setting: New York. Leading character: PI Loopy Jones.

DALEY, ROBERT.
   To Kill a Cop. TV movie: David Gerber, 1978 (scw: Ernest Tidyman; dir: Gary Nelson)

DANIELS, HAROLD R.
   House on Greenapple Road. TV movie: Quinn Martin, 1970 (scw: George Eckstein; dir: Robert Day)

DANIELS, NORMAN A. Pseudonyms: William Dale, q.v., Daniella Dorsett, Harrison Judd, Mark Reed, Norman T. Vane & David Wade; house pseudonyms James Clayford, G. Wayman Jones & Robert Wallace; ghostwriter for Dorothy Daniels; hence also Angela Gray, Cynthia Kavanaugh, Suzanne Somers, Geraldine Thayer & Helen Gray Weston. Prolific writer for the pulps as well as the author of many titles cited in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   Chase. Novelization of TV movie [pilot for series]: Mark VII/Universal, 1973 (scw: Stephen J. Cannell, dir: Jack Webb)

DAVIDSON, MURIEL (FRIEDLAND). 1923-1983. Correction of year of birth; add maiden name. A television executive and the author of three mystery novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. She was found murdered at her California home on September 27, 1983, her killer a man whom she had met at a hospital where she counseled alcoholics once a week.
   The Thursday Woman. TV movie: CBS, 2000, as The Wednesday Woman (scw: N. D. Schreiner; dir: Christopher Leitch). Note: In this semi-biographical suspense thriller, a woman, Muriel Davidson, writes a novel about a reckless affair with a dangerous criminal, then lives out the story she has created. Davidson is played by Meredith Baxter on the screen. No onscreen credit is given to the book as the source of the screenplay. [For more on the story, see this earlier post on the M*F blog.]

   I’ve been too busy to do more than to finish up the C-authors today. You can also find these entries online in the A-C section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

CREEKMORE, DONNA (R.) 1926?-1995? Pseudonym: Diana Campbell. Under her own name, the author of two romantic suspense novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV (and under her pen name, the author of one more).
   The Coachman’s Daughter. Dell, pb, 1979, pb; Linford, UK, 1992. “Her sister’s mysterious disappearance and rumors of the gruesome ‘Shoreditch Slasher’ filled violet-eyed Linnet Hamilton with terror…”
   The Silver Shroud. Manor, pb, 1978. Add UK edition: Linford, pb, 1992.

CROSS, NEIL.
   Mr. In-Between. Film: Verve, 2001 (scw: Peter Waddington; dir: Paul Sarossy); also released as The Killing Kind.

CUNNINGHAM, E. V. Pseudonym of Howard Fast.
   Sally. TV movie: CBS, 1971, as The Face of Fear (scw: Edward Hume; dir: George McCowan)
   Shirley. TV movie: ABC, 1971, as What’s a Nice Girl Like You…? (scw: Howard Fast; dir: Jerry Paris)

CURTISS, URSULA.
   Out of the Dark. TV movie: CBS, 1988, as I Saw What You Did … and I Know Who You Are! (scw: Cynthia Cidre; dir: Fred Walton)

CUSSLER, CLIVE.
   Sahara. Film: Paramount, 2005 (scw: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John C. Richards, James V. Hart; dir: BreckEisner) SC: Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey)

   I’ll soon be finished with the A-C section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. Through Parts I through III, that is.

CORBY, JANE (IRENITA). 1899- ? Pseudonyms: Laura Brighton, Jean Carew & Joanne Holden. Of some 24 novels published under her own name, many of them nurse romances, nine are included the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Of these, most are apparently gothic romances. (Those written under her various pen names fall in very much the same categories.)
   Peril at Stone Hall. Arcadia, hc, 1969. Also published as: Fall, Darkness, Fall! Leisure, pb, 1975, as by Laura Brighton. Add UK edition: Linford, pb, 1993. “Mystery lured her to the old castle. Death would show her the way out.” Shown is the US Macfadden paperback edition.

CORNWELL, BERNARD. 1944- . Clarification: This was his name at birth; as an infant he became Bernard Wiggins when adopted by the Wiggins family, but legally changed his name back to Bernard Cornwell when Joseph Wiggins died. Prolific British author of historical fiction; he has also written five contemporary thriller novels, many of them involving sailing, which are included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Shown is the cover of the US edition of one of these; the UK title is Sea Lord (Michael Joseph, 1989).

COUGHLIN, WILLIAM J(EREMIAH).
   Shadow of a Doubt. TV movie: Scripps-Howard, 1995 (scw & dir: Brian Dennehy). SC: Charlie Sloan (Brian Dennehy).

COURTENAY, BRYCE
   -Jessica. Australia: Viking, hc, 1998. Joseph, UK, hc, 1999. Setting: Australia; ca.1914. (Add time frame to the setting.) TV movie: Umbrella, 2004 (scw: Peter Yeldham; dir: Peter Andrikidis)

COXE, KATHLEEN BUDDINGTON. Joint pseudonym of Amelia Reynolds Long & Edna McHugh. Under this pen name, the author of one mystery novel included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. See below:
   Murder Most Foul. Phoenix, 1946, hc. Setting: Pennsylvania; Academia. (Add precise location.) Leading characters: Buddie Cox, female undergraduate student, and Francis Thrush, psychology professor.

CRAIG, JOHN (ERNEST).
   If You Want to See Your Wife Again. TV movie: Brentwood, 1972, as Your Money or Your Wife (scw: J. P. Miller; dir: Allen Reisner)

CRANE, CAROLINE.
   Summer Girl. TV movie: Bruce Lansbury, 1983 (scw: A. J. Carothers; dir: Robert Michael Lewis)

CHARLES MERRILL SMITH – Reverend Randollph and the Fall from Grace, Inc.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1978. Paperback reprint: Avon, 1982.

   This third mystery adventure of C. P. Randollph, a one-time pro quarterback now turned minister, continues to learn the ins and outs of his new profession, and in this case more specifically, how he finds that a clergyman’s responsibilities entail more than just his presence at Sunday morning services.

   In addition, there are often affairs of a political nature to contend with, both within the church and out. In this case, as an extreme example, being murdered are the close associates of a television evangelist who hopes to join Randollph’s denomination before announcing his bid for the U. S. Senate.

   Without a doubt, organized religion can always use such engagingly down-to-earth men of the cloth as Reverend Randollph. Reporting fairly on the mystery, however, I reluctantly have to admit that the motive for murder is an unlikely one.

[UPDATE] 12-24-08.  The Reverend Randollph books, concerned with everyday church life as they were, remain among my favorite mysteries in which clergymen do double-up duty as sleuths and detectives.

   Charles Merrill Smith wrote five of them before a relatively early death, with a sixth almost finished at the time of his passing. The book was completed by his son Terrance Lore Smith, also a mystery novelist. Phil Grosset, on his webpage for the character, says that Terrance intended to continue the Reverend Randollph stories on his own, but two years later he was killed himself in an automobile accident.

   From the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all six Reverend Randollph mysteries:

SMITH, CHARLES MERRILL. 1918-1985.
      Reverend Randollph and the Wages of Sin. Putnam, 1974.

      Reverend Randollph and the Avenging Angel. Putnam 1977.
      Reverend Randollph and the Fall from Grace, Inc. Putnam, 1978.
      Reverend Randollph and the Holy Terror. Putnam, 1980.
      Reverend Randollph and the Unholy Bible. Putnam, 1983.

      Reverend Randollph and the Splendid Samaritan (completed by the author’s son, Terrance Lore Smith). Putnam, 1986.

KATHRYN LASKY KNIGHT – Mortal Words.

Pocket, reprint paperback; 1st printing, July 1991. Hardcover edition: Summit Books, 1990.

   It’s a comfort then [after reading and reviewing Ben Sloane’s Hot Zone] to return to the real world, where deaths still occur, but when they do, they’re seriously mourned. The real world, unfortunately, is filled with violence, there’s no denying that, but it’s nice to be able to feel that you’re not the only one who feels that violence is the problem, and very seldom is it the solution.

   On the top of the front cover, even before the title, is the heading: “Calista Jacobs is back!” Unfortunately, this is the first I knew about Trace Elements, which was Callista’s first mystery-adventure, along with her precocious son Charley, who is now 13, so I never knew she was away.

   Luckily (in a matter of speaking) enough references to the earlier book are made that I may not even have to go out looking for it. In terms of updating her life, in Mortal Words Calista is now a widow. She is also a world-famous illustrator of children’s books, and she and Charley live in that hotbed of liberalism, Cambridge, Mass.

   This is definitely not a book for readers of a more conservative persuasion. The book opens with Calista and her friends being harassed by a fervent right-wing fundamentalist at a librarian’s literary conference, and the plot grows to include born-again evangelists, evolutionary racists, and Nazi-inspired sperm banks. Moral cripples all, according to Ms. Knight, but nonetheless they embody a powerful anti-science movement, and quite the nasty combination indeed.

   Naturally Calista is opposed to all this with every fiber of her being, and equally naturally it makes her an obvious target. Murder also occurs, but with Charley’s computer-hacking abilities and general intellectual curiosity, along with Calista’s growing friendship with Archie Baldwin, noted archaeologist, the villains stand very little chance.

   As you may have gathered, here is a mystery that is bursting the seams of plain old (and old-fashioned) detective fiction, and in my opinion, it certainly wouldn’t hurt anybody to read it. As a detective story, though, I think it’s seriously flawed by the total lack of attention the Boston police force pay to the murder and to the invaders of Calista’s home.

   They are so severely excluded from the story, as a matter of fact, that you begin to wonder if they could possibly be in on the plot. I hope I’m not saying too much without a [WARNING: Plot Alert] that they are not, but it certainly makes the rest of the story a little harder to swallow.

   This same lack of concern on the part of Calista and Archie as to their safety, and that of Charley, is just as hard to accept. If murder and the invasion of one’s home isn’t warning enough that their opponents are serious, what is?

[UPDATE] 12-23-08.   The author wrote only four books in the series. As Kathryn Lasky, she’s been much prolific as a writer of children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction, for which she’s been given a list of awards as long as your arm. Expanded from her entry the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here are her four mysteries, all with Calista Jacobs:

KNIGHT, KATHRYN LASKY. 1944- .
      Trace Elements. Norton, hc, 1986. Pocket, pb, 1987.

      Mortal Words. Summit, 1990. Pocket, pb, 1991.
      Mumbo Jumbo. Summit 1991. Pocket, pb, 1992.
      Dark Swan. St. Martin’s, 1994. Worldwide, pb, 1996.

GLORIA WHITE – Murder on the Run.

Dell, paperback original. First printing, July 1991.

   According to page one, Ronnie Ventana is the half-Mexican daughter of a pair of jewel thieves. Somehow she is now a PI. According the short bio at the end of the book, this is Gloria White’s first novel.

   Of these two statements, the first one is more than a little unusual, but it’s actually the second one that’s harder to believe. This is a very good book, and if I had any say in the matter (which I don’t, since I’m not involved in voting for any book for any award) I think it could easily be nominated for Best First Novel in anybody’s league.

   It begins like this. Ronnie is out running near Golden Gate Bridge one morning, when she spots two men struggling. One pushes the other into the water, and then she is pursued by the one who did the pushing. Luckily she gets away.

   Two problems follow right away: (1) the body is not discovered immediately, and (2) she recognizes the person who did the dumping as Pete August, a PI who once worked for the D.A.’s office, and who was also once on the police department — and in brief, a fair-headed, high profile boy with all his former connections still intact.

   Snubbed by the police, Ronnie keeps on the case. More deaths follow, and she manages to get a homicide detective named Philly Post interested. Ronnie is a lady who doesn’t give up, and the story has both ginger and snap.

   There is even an unexpected twist ahead. The only problem is the ending. It’s too predictable. A little too obvious. I saw it caning. One good twist deserves another, as the saying goes, and I didn’t get it.

   Don’t get me wrong, though. This book is as good as any of the other female PI novels I’ve read in recent months, and some of them were as good as some of the males of the species. (A number of them were even better.)

[UPDATE] 12-20-08. This is the first review I’ve reprinted since I announced the new focus for this blog posted last weekend but revised earlier today. I was doing movie reviews back in 1991 as well as now, and the ones in this old issue of M*F will soon be showing up here also.

   As for Gloria White, her PI character Ronnie Ventana didn’t have as long a career as I was hoping when I wrote this review. In spite of a slew of award nominations, which I’m pleased to have anticipated, Dell dropped her books after only four outings. Luckily, and this doesn’t always happen, two more books in the series have come out in recent years, and in hardcover to boot.

   Expanded from her entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all of Gloria White’s mystery fiction:

WHITE, GLORIA.    Series character: PI Ronnie Ventana in all.
      * Murder on the Run. Dell, pbo, 1991. [Anthony Award finalist]
      * Money to Burn. Dell, pbo, 1993.
      * Charged with Guilt. Dell, pbo, 1995. [Edgar Award Finalist, Shamus Award Nominee, Anthony Award Finalist]

      * Sunset and Santiago. Dell, pbo. 1997. [Edgar Award Finalist, Shamus Award Finalist]
      * Death Notes. Severn House, hc, April 2005.
      * Cry Baby. Severn House, hc, June 2006; trade paperback, June 2007.

   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?]