Sixty-One Years of the Shell Scott Mystery Series by Richard S. Prather

It was in 1950 that Richard S. Prather's first Shell Scott mystery novel, The Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published by Fawcett's Gold Medal Paperback Originals. His successful and best-selling Shell Scott series of thirty-six novels plus four short story collections, published between 1950 and 1987, have sold over 40 million copies in the United States and have enjoyed foreign language publication, selling millions more world-wide. In addition to the Shell Scott mysteries, Richard penned three novels under pseudonyms. He wrote the first Dragnet novel based on the television show, Dragnet, titled, Dragnet: Case No. 561, published under the name, David Knight; used that same pseudonym for the initial publication of Pattern for Murder, later republished by Gold Medal Books as The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather; and used the pen name Douglas Ring for The Peddler, which was later republished under his own name by Gold Medal. He also published a number of short stories; and lent his name to the Shell Scott Mystery Magazine.

Richard S. Prather's book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor. He received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986, and was twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. His Shell Scott mysteries are now back in print with ereads.com and available as POD paperbacks and ebooks, and a number of his novels are at booksinmotion.com as unabridged audio books. The Peddler, a non-Shell Scott mystery, is now back in print, published by Hard Case Crime, November 2006.

I met Richard and his wife, Tina, in 1989, when my husband, Don Pendleton and I were vacationing in Sedona, AZ. Don and Richard had shared the same literary agent for a number of years, yet the two of them had never met. Don picked up the telephone and called Richard and we spent a delightful evening with them at their home.

About five years later, Don and I moved to Sedona, so we often got together with Richard and Tina.

Richard had given me a wonderful endorsement quote for my first Catherine Winter PI novel, Shattered Lens, and encouraged me to make it a series, which I have done. Fractured Image is the second book in the series and I hope there will be more Catherine Winter in the future.

In 2006, I asked Richard if I could do an interview with him. We did it by mail, and due to his declining health, it did take some time. I published the long interview in December 2006. During that time, Richard asked me to take his unpublished 1,000 page manuscript, The Death Gods, at his death and to do my best to market it. Following his death in February, 2007, I received the manuscript, all 1,000 pages, only a few of those pages typed, the balance, handwritten with lots of his blue felt pen notes squeezed between lines.

The task seemed overwhelming and due to the length, agents and publishers did not find it an attractive opportunity. But I did not give up on publishing Richard’s work, as I felt strongly that his fans and new readers should have the opportunity to read the last Shell Scott mystery.

So sixty-one, yes, Sixty-One years after Richard S. Prather’s tough, yet happy-go-lucky, Southern California detective, Shell Scott hit the pages of a book, the last Shell Scott mystery is now in print and in ebook formats. I am pleased with his story, with the book and with the cover I designed with Judy Bullard. I hope readers will enjoy Richard S. Prather’s last creation.

Read more here

Blog, Richard S. Prather, The Death Gods, Shell Scott

Exclusive Interview with Richard S. Prather by Linda Pendleton, at Kindle

~Linda

Richard S. Prather and Shell Scott Series

Richard S. Prather's "The Death Gods" is now in Kindle, in print at Amazon, and at Smashwords. Coming soon to other ebook retailers.

Happy-go-lucky, Los Angeles Private Eye, Shell Scott, bulldozes his way thru thugs, often with light-hearted humor, and with a beauty or two along the way, in this final novel of the long-running and best-selling classic Shell Scott Series by Richard S. Prather. More than 40 million Shell Scott books sold in the U.S., and millions more worldwide.

This was Prather's last book. Richard S. Prather (1921-2007) received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986.

Cover by Judy Bullard , Published by Pendleton Artists.

~Linda

The Death Gods, A Shell Scott Novel by Richard S. Prather

The Death Gods

Happy-go-lucky, Los Angeles Private Eye, Shell Scott, bulldozes his way thru thugs, often with light-hearted humor, and with a beauty or two along the way, in this final novel of the long-running Shell Scott Series by Richard S. Prather. More than 40 million Shell Scott books sold in the U.S., and millions more worldwide.

Coming soon to Kindle, print and Smashwords.

Paperback Covers

Robert McGinnis is one of America's foremost illustrators. Since 1950s, he has painted over 1,000 paperback covers in all genres, including mystery, romance, and western. He also painted movie posters, many from well-known movies such as James Bond, You Only Live Twice, Thunderball, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and The Odd Couple. He is a member of the American Illustration Hall of Fame.

He painted alluring women who ended on many hard-boiled detective books throughout the years and his covers are easily spotted by those who know his work. He did the Shell Scott Mystery series written by Richard S. Prather, and has recently done covers for several of the recent Hard Case Crime novels, including Richard Prather’s The Peddler.

Here is an interview about paperback covers, featuring author Stephen King, Hard Case Crime publisher and writer, Charles Ardai, and artist Robert McGinnis.

~Linda

Reviews of PI Novel, Shattered Lens by Linda Pendleton

Amazon.com (temporarily) has lowered the price on my novel, Shattered Lens: Catherine Winter, Private Investigator!

I’m pleased at the response I am getting from readers about my book. When the manuscript was completed, my friend, Richard S. Prather had asked to read it. The late Richard S. Prather was a best-selling author for many years. He wrote the Shell Scott Mystery Series of forty books, very popular during the 1950s through the 1970s, with the last two Shell Scott novels published in 1986 and 1987. Not too long ago, one of his non Shell Scott books was re-issued by Hard Case Crime. I’m involved with his estate in marketing his very last manuscript, The Death Gods.

So when Prather asked to read my book I was a little anxious because he was a stickler for pacing and especially for plot. And any critique from him was valuable, very much in the same way it would have been from my late husband, Don Pendleton, and from several other well-seasoned writers.

Well, Richard loved the book and loved my character, Catherine Winter. He gave me this endorsement, “Linda Pendleton’s first private-eye novel is a brilliant debut.” He said many good things about my book and also encouraged me to write a Catherine Winter series. At that time I did not think I would write a second book.

I know Don could pick up any book and read less than a page and say whether the author was a good writer or not. I’m not sure that I can do that in reading a page of someone’s work unless it happens to be so badly written that it falls apart at first sight.

Another friend, author Jon Guenther, who has written about thirty books now, most being Don Pendleton’s Executioners and spin-off Stony Man novels, and his most recent book, Soul Runner, wrote two great reviews—one he put up at Amazon.com and the other he posted to his blog. I was thrilled with what he said about Shattered Lens.

I think you may see why....

“The hardcore mystery makes a come-back! Too many mysteries these days are little more than watered-down thrillers. At last, a whodunit in the spirit of a Sherlock Holmes mystery has returned. Linda Pendleton busts out of the gate with her first novel of licensed private investigator Catherine Winter. Winter picks up a young girl for a client--a young girl wrapped up in the glitz, drugs, and porn of Hollywood life--who shortly thereafter winds up dead. And the list of suspects is neither short nor usual.

“What makes the book so pleasurable to read outside of the brisk pace is that nothing comes easy for Winter. She has to "earn" it in the same way that Linda has earned her right to sit at the top with today's other crime writers. The inside look at Hollywood and surrounding areas rings with authenticity. As a writer, I've often been disappointed in a lot of mysteries on the shelf but I knocked this one out in no time at all. Yeah, it was just that easy. Part police procedural, part hardboiled, and all entertaining, this one's a keeper.” ~Jon Guenther, Author, Soul Runner

Here is a review from a reader:

“Great! Another page turner I couldn't put down from Linda Pendleton. I really enjoyed the main character, Catherine Winter, Private Investigator. Interesting, no nonsense, but fun, well rounded older gal. She is just as interesting and sexy as the younger ones.

“She's also a great detective. Meets up with some interesting characters to solve this crime of murder. Of course things are never as easy or clear as they seem at first. Twists and turns, a new clue, a new character, you never know what's coming. You will definitely enjoy this one.” ~Anne Boss

Amazon does not seem to tell us authors how long our book may be listed on sale but apparently from what Amazon has told me, the periodically reduce prices, and in this case my book is now reduced more than $4.00. So you can now pick it up in tradepaper back for the sales price $10.76...and for you Kindle readers, it is $8.95.

Thanks to those of you who have read it—and I love getting the great comments and reviews! It is becasue of the response I have received that I decided to write a second Catherine Winter...and hopefully it will be completed over the next few weeks.

I’ve been away from writing the story for the last week or more as I’ve been busy formatting five of Don Pendleton’s Joe Copp Private Eye novels for Kindle. More about those soon.

~Linda

Stephen Marlowe, Author, Obituary

This obituary of Stephen Marlowe was written by fellow author, and his long time friend, Graham Andrews.

From The London Times Online
April 30, 2008

Stephen Marlowe
Once described as America’s most prolific mystery writer who became known in the 1950s for his series featuring the dour Washington private eye, Chester Drum

Until Fawcett Publications of New York City and Greenwich, Connecticut, brought out the first Gold Medal novel in 1950, paperback companies had usually played safe with tried-and-tested reprints. Gold Medal discovered or developed such seminal American popular fiction authors as John D. MacDonald, Richard S. Prather, and Stephen Marlowe.

Stephen Marlowe was born Milton Lesser in Brooklyn, New York City in 1928. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1949, with a BA in philosophy. He would found the first Writer-in-Residence program there in 1974. An editorial job at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, 1949-50, was followed by US Army service, 1952-54, finishing as a corporal. He then spent the rest of his life as a full-time writer.

Some eighty science-fiction stories by Milton Lesser appeared between 1951 and 1958. “Do It Yourself” (Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1957) is a worthy example. Its hero, Robert A. McPeek, belongs to an outlawed union of itinerant handymen in post-Third World War America. Lesser wrote three novels for the juvenile market: Earthbound (1952), The Star Seekers (1953), and Stadium Beyond the Stars (1960). Recruit for Andromeda (1959) is his best adult science-fiction novel: “Once mankind gets out to the stars and begins to spread out across the galaxy, he’ll be immortal despite his best — make that worst — efforts to destroy himself,” he write in his Introduction.

After changing his name to Stephen Marlowe, in hommage to Raymond Chandler, he produced a quick succession of mystery novels: Catch the Brass Ring (1954), Turn Left for Murder, and Model for Murder (both 1955). Turn Left for Murder puts a young Second World War veteran firmly and unfairly on the gangland spot.

The Second Longest Night (1955), published by Gold Medal, brought us the globetrotting and very private eye Chester Drum. Nicknamed “Chet” by the favoured few, Drum is an erstwhile FBI agent, only somewhat less dour than Fox Mulder of The X-Files. But he’s usually got a lot to be dour about; not least having a home base in even-then unsavoury Washington, DC. But it forms an unusual background for mystery fiction and much of the action takes place in genuinely exotic Venezuela. It gained critical praise rarely accorded paperback originals, with The New York Times calling it “effectively and restrainedly told”.

Mecca for Murder followed in 1956, in which Chester Drum makes a professional pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Next year saw the publication of Trouble is My Name, Murder is My Dish, Killers Are My Meat. Such Horror is My Hobby-type titles seldom matched the actual contents, but they sure made life easier for bookstore browsers. The marvellously mad Death is My Comrade (1960) doesn’t so much suspend disbelief as hang it out in the wind to dry.

In 1959, Marlowe collaborated with his fellow Gold Medal author Richard S. Prather (obituary, April 20, 2007) on Double in Trouble, which effectively teamed Chester Drum with Prather’s much more happy-go-lucky Hollywood private eye Shell Scott. It was one of the year’s best-selling mystery paperbacks. The last Chester Drum novel, Drum Beat — Marianne, appeared from Gold Medal in 1968. Drum Beat: The Chester Drum Casebook was published in 2003: it contained five short stories and one novel, Drum Beat — Dominique (1965).

Dead Man’s Tale (1961) was one of Marlowe’s most commercially successful novels, even if most of the money went to the by-lined Ellery Queen. The pseudonym Jason Ridgway was used to write four novels about the investigator Brian Guy in a frankly incredible Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! brand-name series, 1960-1966. But he would soon write more substantial thrillers like The Search for Bruno Heidler (1966), The Summit (1970), and The Man with No Shadow (1974). The Valkyrie Encounter (1978) is a radical take on the July Plot to assassinate Hitler.

Marlowe’s personal life had been disrupted in 1962 by divorce from his first wife, the psychologist Leigh Lang, whom he had married in 1950. Two years later, he entered into a second and happily life-long marriage with the Canadian writer-editor Ann Humbert. “I began to wander the world in earnest,” he once said. “Not, come to think of it, unlike Chet Drum.” He would spend most of the next few decades living in Switzerland, France, and Spain.

The Shining (1963) was his first historical novel, concerning the charismatic Athenian general, Alcibiades. Marlowe used the title long before Stephen King. Mary Renault or Rosemary Sutcliff couldn’t have done it better. Ten years later, he wrote the now better-known Colossus: A Novel about Goya and a world gone mad. “As good a novel about an artist as The Moon is Sixpence and The Horse’s Mouth and, in some ways, even better,” according to Stephen Longstreet.

Both these novels can be seen as dry runs for The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus (1987), which was “co-written” with Stephen Marlowe and became an international best-seller. In this book, Marlowe explained, “the name of the game is to determine where facts leave off and fancy begins.” For just one example: “Legend has it — are you ready? — that I, Christóbal Cólon, before sailing west across the Ocean Sea from the southern coast of Spain in 1492 stepped ashore on Claddagh Quay right here in Galway from my flagship Santa Maria to pray in the church of St. Nicholas of Myra for a safe voyage to America. I don’t have to tell you how many things are wrong with that legend!”

Marlowe played the same game in The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes (1991), but to ultimately more sombre effect. The title is chronologically exact. It is currently in the process of being filmed. He considered this to be his best novel. The Lighthouse at the End of the World (1995), however, showed his great admiration for Edgar Allan Poe. James (Deliverance) Dickey wrote the following dust-jacket endorsement: “In this extraordinary novel, Stephen Marlowe helps us to see the mysterious figure of Poe more clearly than ever before.” Lighthouse has also been optioned for filming.

The New York Times once called Stephen Marlowe the most prolific mystery writer in America, to which he responded: “Good Lord, I don’t want to be the most prolific anything; I would love to be the best.” His fifty-plus novels were translated into at least twenty foreign-language editions. Marlowe had just finished writing his autobiography (forthcoming from Stark House in 2009) and he had been working on a novel set in contemporary America.

Marlowe received France’s Prix Gutenberg du Livre in 1988 and the Life Achievement Award of the Private Eye Writers of America in 1997.

He is survived by his wife, Ann, and two daughters.

Stephen Marlowe, author, was born on August 7, 1928. He died after a long illness on February 22, 2008, aged 79


Graham Andrews tells me he has written an article on Marlowe and it will appear in the June Issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.

~Linda

Simon and Schuster and Author Contracts

The Authors Guild (of which I’ve been a member since 1990) sent out a notice to members early this week to let us know that publisher, Simon and Schuster has made changes to their standard contracts with authors. Traditionally all major publishers follow the practice in which rights to a work revert to the author if the book falls out of print or if its sales are low. Their new contract language apparently will no longer include minimum sales requirement for a work to be considered in print, and the work would remain under their exclusive control as long as it is available in any form, including through its own in-house data base (POD) and not even available to be ordered by traditional bookstores. In essence, this would amount to an exclusive grants of right in perpetuity. And as the Authors Guild suggests, this would effectively mean the publisher would co-own the author’s copyright.

The Authors Guild, who represents thousands of writers, states this is unacceptable. And most authors and agents would agree! This is very troubling. It will mean more negotiation for an author to protect his rights. Simon and Schuster is now stating that the Authors Guild is over-reacting and that they will negotiate reversion clauses on a "book-by-book basis."

An author wants to have control of his work. Books normally have a short shelf life, sometimes as short as three or four months, unless it really catches on. In this scenario, Simon and Schuster could publish a book, and it might have a short run, and even after a reasonable length of time when rights traditionally and usually revert, they could continue to consider the book "in print" as a Print on Demand, forever.

In many cases, an author wants to take back the rights of out-of-print books so they can give their work a new life with a new publisher. That happens often. When Don Pendleton’s six Joe Copp, Private Eye novels and six Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novels were out of print, I asked for the rights back and soon put them into print again.

Richard S. Prather is another example: his Shell Scott mystery series is available again after many years, and his 1952 novel, The Peddler, was published a few months ago by Hard Case Crime.

I’m sure we will be hearing more on this from literary agents and authors. It’s difficult enough negotiating a decent contract without having this added issue.

~Linda

Richard S. Prather's Date of Death

Richard S. Prather's official date of death was February 14, 2007. He was 85 years of age.

About mid-week, I will be sending his official obituary out to major newspapers for his family. His cousins want to thank everyone for the nice tributes that have been written by fans and fellow writers.

Linda

Richard S. Prather, author

I have some sad news to report. Best-selling author, Richard S. Prather has passed away. (See my earlier post, Author Interviews to read more about him). I had been concerned these last couple of days about him. He has not been well for some time and about three weeks ago he hurt his back while picking up trash bags after his trash can had blown over. Last week he told me x-rays showed he had a compressed fracture of his spine and nothing could be done for it, except time for it to heal. He was having a lot of pain and said the only way he was somewhat comfortable was in bed. Walking was difficult.

On Wednesday morning I decided to call Sedona to find out what type of home care might be available for him, such as grocery shopping, light housekeeping, and maybe someone to cook some meals. I know he had been wanting some good home-made chicken soup with vegetables and rice. I had also suggested he needed a portable phone to have handy, something he did not have and told him I could order one for him if he wanted. So I had a list of phone numbers to give him after talking with a few Sedona social services organizations.

When I called about noon yesterday, he did not answer the phone. When he did not answer my second call four hours later, I became even more concerned and my intuition told me strongly something was wrong. I even thought of calling the Sheriff’s to have them check on him, but did not do so. This morning I called again. No answer. So I called the local hospital to see if he might be a patient there. He was not. I then called the homeopathic doctor I knew he had been seeing these last months. She returned my call an hour later to tell me that she and his other doctor had also become concerned and called the Sheriff’s Department yesterday to check on him. They found him dead in his bed. As I told her, in some ways I guess I was not surprised to hear that. I believe I was somewhat relieved to know he had not fallen and was unable to get to the phone. So at this point I do not know what will be his recorded date of death.

Richard S. Prather will be missed by many. His literary legacy will live on, and it seems kind of special that his last published (republished) book is now out there in the bookstores, The Peddler, first published in 1952. And I’m glad I was also able to publish online what has now turned out to be his last interview. He (and I) have been pleased with the response we have received to his interview, and he has been delighted with the excellent book reviews on The Peddler.

This last year when he struggled to complete my many questions for the interview, he had told me more than once that he was determined to get it done before he died. He also said we would not call it his "autobiography" as he knew of too many authors who died soon after publishing their autobiography. I told him we will just call it "your memoir."

I will miss him and our long telephone conversations about writing and life.

Linda

Author Interviews by Linda

Recently I did a long interview/discussion with best-selling author Richard S. Prather, creator of the Shell Scott Mystery series. I hoped to create an unique and informative interview with a look at Richard S. Prather’s long writing career and his life. He is now eighty-five years of age. I believe we accomplished what we set out to do. I recently posted the interview to my late husband’s website, http://www.donpendleton.com

It was in 1950 that Richard’s first Shell Scott mystery novel, The Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published by Fawcett’s Gold Medal Paperback Originals. His successful and best-selling Shell Scott series of thirty-six novels plus four short story collections, published between 1950 and 1987, have sold over 40 million copies in the United States and have enjoyed foreign language publication, selling millions more world-wide. In addition to the Shell Scott mysteries, Richard penned three novels under pseudonyms. He wrote the first Dragnet novel based on the television show, Dragnet titled, Dragnet: Case No. 561, published under the name, David Knight; used that same pseudonym for the initial publication of Pattern for Murder, later republished by Gold Medal Books as The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather; and used the pen name Douglas Ring for The Peddler, which was later republished under his own name by Gold Medal. He also published a number of short stories; and lent his name to the Shell Scott Mystery Magazine. The Peddler, a non-Shell Scott book, is now back in print, released by Hard Case Crime in November, 2006.

I enjoy doing interviews with authors. On the sidebar, Author Interviews by Linda Pendleton, in addition to the Prather interview, you will find links to two other interviews I’ve done with friends. Athena Demetrois, medium and trance-channel for the spirt guide, James Martin Peebles, Dr. Peebles being the subject of two of my nonfiction books. Athena hopes to soon publish her book on her journey of healing and spiritual growth. Her life story is an important one as she suffered sexual abuse as a very young child, and in her search for God she had a spiritual awaking and found healing. The other interview is with E. Nora Amrani, metaphysician, and author of American Indian Women Poets: Women Between Worlds.

I have also added links on the sidebar to two of my slide show meditations. Soul Reflections features my original nature photos, famous quotations, and beautiful instrumental music by Carey Landry. The second, Forgiveness Meditation also features a beautiful song by Carey Landry. If you need a few minutes to escape from the chaos of the day, I believe you will find the meditations enjoyable and relaxing.

Also on the sidebar are new links to my ECards and to my Sedona, Arizona original photographs. Please visit my free Ecards and send them to your friends and loved ones. I lived in among the beautiful red rocks of Sedona for nine years. I hope you enjoy viewing the beauty of nature.

Linda