Tue 9 Sep 2025
ROBERT CAMPBELL – Plugged Nickel. Jake Hatch #1. Pocket Books, paperback original; 1st printing, March 1988.
Two halves of a body are found along the tracks of a train heading from Chicago to Denver, but railroad detective Jake Hatch suspects foul play more than just an unfortunate accident, His primary clue: a plugged nickel. Primary suspect: the local coroner.
The problem with this is this: the nickel is not exactly plugged, nor is it exactly a nickel. The current day railroad background – a last link to a vanishing era – is nicely sketched in, but in retrospect the detective work is forced, and plagued with coincidence.
UPDATE: This adventure of Jake Hatch was followed by Red Cent (Pocket, 1989), but that was the last of his cases on record.
September 9th, 2025 at 9:10 pm
Robert [Wright] Campbell’s Wikipedia page is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wright_Campbell
And he had quite a career, both as a writer and the film industry. This is the first paragraph:
“Robert Wright Campbell (June 9, 1927–September 21, 2000), often credited as R. Wright Campbell or Robert Campbell, was an American screenwriter, author and occasional actor. He was the brother of actor William Campbell and brother in law of Judith Campbell Exner. He wrote ten television series, including Maverick and Marcus Welby, M.D.”
September 10th, 2025 at 7:56 am
I’m a fan of Robert Campbell’s work, especially his LA-LA LAND series. Another underrated writer…
September 10th, 2025 at 10:10 am
Like George, I enjoyed the LA-LA LAND books. That was a wonderful Era of resurgent PI fiction.
September 10th, 2025 at 10:57 am
I was also a big fan of his Jimmy Flannery series. But can anyone top his script for roger Corman’s TEENAGE CAVEMAN starring a 25-year-old “teenage” Robert Vaughan?
September 10th, 2025 at 11:13 am
Campbell wrote 11 Flannery books, so for mystery fans, those are the ones he’s probably most remembered for. There were only four La-La books, but (as I remember) all four packed quite a punch. His film-making career was often tied in with Roger Corman, including (as you say, Jerry) TEENAGE CAVEMAN, which once seen never forgotten.
September 12th, 2025 at 11:28 pm
I generally preferred Campbell as R. Wright with CIRCUS COURONNE, and THE SPY WHO SAT AND WAITED. I did like the LA LA LAND books. Wasn’t his P.I. Mallory?
He and Ib Melchior had much more prestige as novelists than the basically B, but often entertaining, movies they wrote.
September 13th, 2025 at 12:20 pm
The PI in the La-La Land books was a fellow named Whistler”
1. In La-La Land We Trust (1986)
2. Alice in La-La Land (1987)
3. Sweet La-La Land (1990)
4. The Wizard of La-La Land (1995)
But Mallory is a name that’s familiar too. I one I’m thinking of is a chap in a five book series by Max Allan Collins.