Sun 13 Nov 2011
TIMOTHY CHILDS – Cold Turkey. Harper & Row, hardcover, 1979. No paperback edition.
With all the locations in the US to chose from, somehow Los Angeles still comes up Number One in providing the best background possible for the perfect embodiment of the private eye novel.
This case of the stolen barbiturates and the murdered security guard, for example, takes Peter Stokes, a one-armed operative for Cadish Security, on a grand whirlwind tour of the City of Angels, from the most rundown slums to the inner city, to the nude shores of Topanga Beach, then back again to the cheap gaudiness of Sunset Strip, as well as a good many assorted bits of scenery in between.
It therefore seems an unmitigated shame to suggest that hokey incompetent cops like Lt. Farrell are no longer even fractionally believable, no matter how necessary they are in keeping an essential cog of the plot in gear. And if that’s not enough, the identity of the key culprit is a bit of gristle nearly impossible to swallow.
Rating: C plus.
[UPDATE] 11/13-11. This was the author’s only crime novel, and therefore the only appearance of Peter Stokes, which in spite of my obvious misgivings about the book, I think is too bad. (He’s not even mentioned on Kevin Burton Smith’s Thrilling Detective website.)
November 14th, 2011 at 10:32 am
He had a couple of stories published in Ellery Queen Magazine. He is now a theatre producer (with his wife Terri), they were co-producers of the recent production of The Tempest starring Ralph Fiennes in London’s West End
November 14th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Thanks, Jamie. I hadn’t Googled his name, thinking it too common to help very much (and being a little too lazy on a Sunday afternoon). But you’re quite right. He and his wife have had quite a career producing plays not only in London, but on Broadway, off-Broadway, and up in Toronto.
Here’s a list:
http://broadwayworld.com/people/Timothy_Childs/
It doesn’t look as though he needed a career of writing detective novels.
November 14th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Now that I’ve found where to look, I came across this headline story:
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-26/entertainment/ca-705_1_timothy-childs
ENTERTAINMENT
Finding Success on Broadway Is Childs’ Play : Theater: At 50, L.A. real estate mogul Timothy Childs decided to become a N.Y. producer. Four years and eight shows later, he says his theatrical stake has grown 554%.
February 26, 1993 | ROBERT EPSTEIN
Timothy Childs must know something that has evaded most of us. There he was a few years ago . . . edging toward 50 . . . owner of his own big-league Los Angeles real estate investment and asset development company . . . bank official, too . . . married, his wife also a financial pro . . . active member and officer of a Music Center board, also of the Foundation for the Joffrey . . . donor of a writing commission for the Taper Forum that went to David Mamet . . .
November 14th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Well, nicely off like that, he could afford to bomb in the thriller department.
The Doc