Sun 2 Jun 2013
LESLEY ANDRESS – Caper. Putnam, hardcover, 1980. Pocket, paperback, December 1980. Also published as by Lawrence Sanders: Berkley, paperback, 1987.
Her publisher unhappy about her recent lack-lustre production of mystery thrillers, Jannie Shean, also known as Chuck Thorndyke, Mike Cantrell, and yes, God help us, Brick Wall, among others, faces a crisis in her career. Her books need more reality, she is told. Others tell her they need what you usually don’t find happening in real life. Tidy endings, she is advised. No loose ends.
In the pursuit and name of reality, she plans her own crime. A jewel heist, complete with a new blonde identity and a crew of several more-than-willing recruits. Events take a sudden expected twist, however, and she’s trapped into pulling it off. The mob gets involved, a dullish sort of book finally becomes exciting, and the chase is on.
Some moralizing about the freedom of amorality and the forced awareness of a life on the run does not cloud the fact that crime is a serious business, and one not entirely suited nor meant for amateurs. No tidy endings here. By book’s end, the story has gone downhill badly. Running out of gas (figuratively) may be the ultimate realism, perhaps, but I’ve somehow never found it particularly satisfying.
Vol. 4, No. 4, July-August 1980 (slightly revised).
[UPDATE] 06-02-13. It was not known at the time I wrote this review that Andress was a pen name of Lawrence Sanders. (Note the anagram of his last name!) It was the only book he wrote under this nom-de-plume. Sanders was an extremely popular author in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but every library sale I’ve gone to in recent years seems to have had tons of his books on the tables and still unsold at sale’s end.
June 3rd, 2013 at 7:59 am
I was going to say that I never read this one but did read and enjoy a number of Sanders’s other books but when I checked my database I find that I did indeed read it (albeit under the Sanders name). I prefer the Edward X. (“Iron Balls”) Delaney books, starting with THE FIRST DEADLY SIN. (I know he was in the earlier ANDERSON TAPES too.)
June 5th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
It’s good to know that you found his books enjoyable, Jeff. As popular as Sanders was as a crime fiction writer, I don’t think he was ever a fan favorite. I might be wrong, but I can’t recall much written about him in mystery fanzines and so on, even at the height of his popularity.