Mon 18 Sep 2023
Archived Mystery Review: SAMUEL HOLT (*) – What I Tell You Three Times Is False.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[7] Comments
SAMUEL HOLT – What I Tell You Three Times Is False. Sam Holt #3. Tor, hardcover, 1987; paperback, 1988. Felony & Mayhem, softcover, 2006, as by Donald E. Westlake writing as Samuel Holt.
Former TV star Sam Holt and three other actors and actresses typecast in their roles of fictional detectives, along with assorted wives, lovers, and so on, are trapped on an isolated Caribbean island with a killer who seems intent on being the last one left alive.
After a slow start, setting the scene, the mystery revs into high gear, with the killer and the detectives squaring off in a long, complicated game of murder, somewhat reminiscent of Ellery Queen, but by a noticeable hair, not quite as clever as the master.
(*) Original footnote: If anyone know who Samuel Holt is, let me know. (And note that the similarity on plotting to EQ’s work is matched by the pseudonymous author-character relationship. It couldn’t be just a coincidence, could it?)
The Sam Holt series –
1. One of Us Is Wrong (1986)
2. I Know a Trick Worth Two of That (1986)
3. What I Tell You Three Times Is False (1987)
4. The Fourth Dimension Is Death (1989)
September 18th, 2023 at 9:49 pm
I don’t remember how long it took before Donald Westlake was identified as the author of this series, but it’s obvious that when I wrote this review, it still hadn’t happened.
I also don’t know enough about Westlake’s writing career to know why he decided to write the books, nor why he stopped.The pattern in the short string of four string of titles certainly could have gone on a lot longer!
(It’s quite possible that they didn’t sell all that well. There are only less than a dozen offered for sale right now on Abebooks, including both hardcovers and paperbacks as well as the later F&M edition.)
September 18th, 2023 at 10:12 pm
Apparently, westlake wanted to test his appeal by writing under a protected pen-name, which the publisher promised to keep secret so that the books would sink or swim on their own merits rather than selling on the basis of westlake’s good name alone. However, “The publisher had let slip Samuel Holt’s real identity to his Marketing Team, and the books were in the bookshop credited to Donald E Westlake, destroying the whole purpose of the exercise.†As a result, westlake abandoned the project. https://mbc1955.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/westlake-as-holt-the-sam-holt-books/
September 18th, 2023 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for the info and the link, Tony. Now that I know what Westlake was doing and why it didn’t work out, well, it’s nothing very surprising. But the timing seems off. If Westlake was revealed as being Sam Holt after the first book, why was it still a secret after the third one (above) was published? Of course the easy answer to that it that the news had a long way to go to reach me.
BTW, the woman who wrote the Harry Potter books had the same problem come up when she started to write mysteries, didn’t she?
September 19th, 2023 at 4:05 pm
I read all these when they came out. I loved ’em and can give them my highest of recomendations.
September 19th, 2023 at 4:39 pm
I’m sure I read the first three, not so sure about the fourth. I remember enjoying them, but until I came across this old review, I’d pretty much forgotten about them. After reading what I had to say then and what you’re telling me now, I’m hoping to find my old copies and see if I still feel the same way about them. (I think I will.)
September 19th, 2023 at 9:39 pm
Otto Penzler confirmed it was Westlake to me when I guessed it might be right after I started reading though it doesn’t really read a lot like Westlake. Lucky guess. It wasn’t too much later it was revealed not that long after the book came out. I suspect they hoped to capitalize on Westlake’s audience.
I really enjoyed the series and wished it had run a bit longer.
September 19th, 2023 at 10:12 pm
Great going, David! Here I was guessing Ellery Queen. As if. (I knew it wasn’t Agatha Christie, n spite of some plot similarities.)