Thu 31 Dec 2009
Archived Review: LES ROBERTS – An Infinite Number of Monkeys.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
LES ROBERTS – An Infinite Number of Monkeys. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1987. Paperback reprint: St. Martin’s, 1988.
This is the novel that won Roberts the award in St. Martin’s “First Private Eye Novel Contest” back in 1986, and by and large, it’s a good one.
The leading character is a part-time actor named Saxon, who is also a full-time PI, which is more than OK as a gimmick, because Hollywood is always in need of another private eye. Lots of good stories in them there hills.
His client in this particular adventure is pulp-paperback writer Buck Weldon, a throwback to the Mickey Spillane’s earliest days, and somebody is trying to kill him. Keeping Saxon’s interest at its highest peak is Weldon’s beautiful daughter Tori. (For some reason, I pictured a youthful Raquel Welch in the role, which you have to admit, makes for a very nice picture.)
I have to admit the ending surprised me a little, and it shouldn’t have, which is the sign of a perfect detective story, or very nearly so. Saxon needs to have some of his cruder edges sandpapered away, though. As a ladies’ man, he’s too obvious, and besides that, he talks too much. Be subtle, man!
Bibliographic Data: Monkeys was Les Roberts’ first book, and there were six in all that Saxon appeared in (see below). Roberts has written another 14 books about Cleveland-based PI Milan Jacovich, so far, the most recent of which being King of the Holly Hop (2008). One stand-alone novel (The Chinese Fire Drill, 2001) plus one short story collection (The Scent of Spiced Oranges, 2002) complete his resume to date.
The “Saxon” series:
1. An Infinite Number Of Monkeys (1987)
2. Not Enough Horses (1988)

3. A Carrot For The Donkey (1989)
4. Snake Oil (1990)

5. Seeing The Elephant (1992)
6. The Lemon Chicken Jones (1994)
December 31st, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I’ve read at least one of the Jacovich novels, but seem to have missed Saxon, something I’ll have to correct.
There were at least two other actors turned private eyes, one created by Donald Westlake writing as Samuel Holt (about Sam Holt) and the other Linda J. Barnes’s Michael Spraggue who even managed to spawn a pilot film (can’t recall if there was a series) with Michael Nouri in the lead role.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:23 pm
The made-for-TV movie, called SPRAGGUE, was shown on ABC on 29 June 1984. No, it wasn’t picked up for a series, and the film probably hasn’t been seen by anybody since it was first telecast.
I also see that IMDB doesn’t credit Barnes as the author, nor which (if any) of the novels it was based on. There’s not even a story line to match a book up with.
But I’ll do some investigating, and in the meantime see if I can’t add Barnes as the author who at least created the character.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I spoke a little too soon. The movie is available as a VHS tape, and I’ve just ordered it from Amazon. Here’s a description of the story line:
“In this pilot to a prospective series, college professor Michael Nouri, an amateur sleuth, and his eccentric blue-blood aunt, Glynis Johns, set out to trap suave but murderous doctor Patric O’Neal who specializes in heart attacks. Filmed on location in and around Boston and at Tufts University.”
According to another source, the TV pilot was “loosely based” on the first Spraggue novel, BLOOD WILL HAVE BLOOD, a paperback original published by Avon in 1982.
I’ll send this information on to Al Hubin, who doesn’t have a record of it in his REVISED CRIME FICTION IV.
December 31st, 2009 at 9:49 pm
SPRAGGUE showed up at least once on CBS late nite and once on TBS, so it wasn’t completely lost. Don’t know why I thought he was an actor, but I likely watched because of Glynis Johns — had a thing for her ever since I saw her as the mermaid in MIRANDA.
December 31st, 2009 at 10:21 pm
You were right the first time. Spraggue was an actor in the books. I read somewhere sometime that the reason she stopped writing the books was because she couldn’t figure out how to keep him involved in murder cases, without killing off all the people he knew around him.
If he was a college professor in the movie (and this is where the “loosely based” must have come in), and if it were picked up as a series, I imagine there it would have been a whole lot easier to keep coming up with murder victims.