Dagger of Flesh

Shell Scott #5

by Richard S. Prather

UNDER THE EVIL POWER OF A HYPNOTIC SPELL!

Can a man be hypnotized into making love?

Mark Logan was.

First with Gladys, who knew exactly what she wanted — and how to get it.
Second with Ann. Ann was young, but she had grown-up ideas. And then with Ayla of the evil face but the loveliest body any man could want to hold.

But can a man be hypnotized into committing murder?

When two men were found dead and he had no alibi, Mark began to wonder. Was there an evil logic behind his illogical actions — and the irresistible urges he couldn't control?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Richard Scott Prather was an American mystery novelist, best known for creating the "Shell Scott" series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms David Knight and Douglas Ring.

Prather was born in Santa Ana, California. He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. In 1945 year he married Tina Hager and began working as a civilian chief clerk of surplus property at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. He left that job to become a full-time writer in 1949. The first Shell Scott mystery, 'Case of the Vanishing Beauty' was published in 1950. It would be the start of a long series that numbered more than three dozen titles featuring the Shell Scott character.

Prather had a disagreement with his publisher in the 1970s and sued them in 1975. He gave up writing for several years and grew avocados. However in 1986 he returned with 'The Amber Effect'. Prather's final book, 'Shellshock', was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor Books.

At the time of his death in 2007, he had completed his final Shell Scott Mystery novel, 'The Death Gods'. It was published October 2011 by Pendleton Artists.

Prather served twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. Additionally Prather received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1986.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dagger of Flesh, the fifth book in Prather’s Shell Scott series, might feel a bit off to Scott aficionados. For one thing, he is suddenly morphed: “Six feet of something. Black curly hair, brown eyes, a very nice nose, even a Cary Grant dimple in that square chin. You should be handsome, Shell, but you’re not.” Shell has white hair and brows, a busted nose, a cut up ear, and is over six feet. Then, suddenly, his office moved from Broadway one block over to Spring Street and from the Hamilton Building to the Farnsworth Building. His buddy in Homicide is no longer Captain Samson, but someone else — Captain Arthur Grant. And though he’s still a ladies’ man, he feels guilty about having an affair with a married woman Gladys even before he belatedly realizes she’s his friend’s wife, and he doesn’t even want to touch the grown up 21-year-old bombshell who declares her eternal love for him cause she’s his friend’s daughter Ann.

All of these things start to make sense when you realize Dagger of Flesh has an interesting publishing history and Prather has sold it to Falcon as a Mark Hogan detective novel with appropriate changes to other biographical details when he couldn’t sell it as a Shell Scott. Later, apparently, Gold Medal changed their minds and published it as A Shell Scott, but did no more than change the name of the lead character.

At any rate, it is unusual in the Shell Scott universe. Instead of a damsel in distress chasing him down or a distraught father searching for his long lost daughter in exotic Gardena nightclubs and Las Vegas casinos, Shell (this version of Shell with dark hair) has a buddy Jay who runs a clothing store at Ninth and Spring and is being hustled to sell it as a discount. Jay, who is married to Gladys with whom Shell has been rendezvousing in various motel rooms (with Gladys not Jay), sells his entire business worth a quarter of a cool million to Shell fir a buck to keep the Goons away.

Shell ought to be happy. He’s got Jay’s business, Jay’s wife, and Jay’s grown up daughter, too, if Shell (this Shell) wants as well. But he’s hauled off to an interrogation room for a murder he thinks he didn’t commit. Thinks is an important distinction here cause everyone is getting hypnotized and he can’t be sure he wasn’t under mind control at the time.

Hypnosis perhaps was not quite a tired plot device back in the early Fifties as it is today. It was still new, different, and mysterious.

[Pop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely 5 Stars. Best mystery I’ve read in awhile. Kept me guessing until the very end.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an interesting history. It started life as a Shell Scott manuscript that was passed on by Gold Medal. Never one to waste anything, Prather changed the name to Mark Hogan, with black hair, and it was sold to a Publisher called Falcon. They screwed it up, rewriting portions of it without asking or telling, and pissing off Prather. That was in 1952.

A few years later, he was selling well(the only PI of the era that sold better was Mike Hammer) and Gold Medal wanted all Prather books under their banner. Two Shell Scotts had been changed to other characters, this one and PATTERN FOR PANIC. Prather states that Gold Medal went back to the original manuscripts for their editions.

They did that for the one, but apparently didn't for this one. In an interview on the Prather site, he says that, but at the same time admits to confusion and having only the Mark Hogan version in his personal library.

But this is the Gold Medal version and it still has Hogan as the hero. So faulty memory perhaps? The passage of many years?

Then in the early part of this century, the owners of the copyright started reissuing the Scott books as ebooks and POD paperbacks(with the most hideous covers). They issued DAGGER OF FLESH finally as a Shell Scott mystery, but didn't go to the original manuscript(one would imagine it was still around). Instead they used the Gold Medal version, changing the name from Mark Hogan to Shell Scott throughout. But that's all. Thus we have Shell Scott with black, curly hair instead of his famous white brush cut.

The story involves Hogan trying to help a friend who's being pressured to sell his business for a tenth of it's value. He's fighting a compulsion to give in and sell. At the same time, he's started to see a green parrot each day from noon to one sitting on his his shoulder.

Hypnotism is involved and Mark falls under suspicion when his friend is murdered, his gun found lying on the floor beside the body. Two things make him look good for it. He'd been sleeping with a married woman who wouldn't tell him her last name or where she lived, just coming to his apartment. Second, the plan worked out with his friend is Hogan would by the business for a dollar and let them try to pressure him.

The set-up comes when he visits his friend's home before the murder(he hasn't seen his friend in years) and learns his new lover is the second wife of his friend.

Let's see: sleeping with the friend's wife and now owns the business. Two good motives.

He's got to figure it all out before the police put that together.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dagger of Flesh reads like a bad pulp magazine story. It has created a lot of confusion among Shell Scott fans as it was not originally written for that series. Even Prather's own recollection of the origins of the novel are suspect. He claims to have written it as a Shell Scott, but sold it to another publisher after Gold Medal rejected it. But unless the other publisher, Falcon, did an extensive rewrite, which is a possibility however remote, there seems to be little evidence that it started out as a Shell Scott book. There are too many details throughout that are not consistent with Shell Scott. The character of Mark Logan is 6' with black curly hair, drives a Buick and has an office in the Farnsworth Building, while Shell Scott is 6'2" with a white-blond crewcut, drives a gold Cadillac and has an office in the Hamilton Building. There are also none of the recurring characters found in the Shell Scott novels, nor even any similar, who might have had their name changed for the Mark Logan book. There are just too many dissimilarities to believe it was ever written as a Shell Scott. Prather even admitted that he had no manuscript or paperback of Dagger of Flesh with Shell Scott as the main character.

My theory is that, if Gold Medal passed on it originally, it was simply because it wasn't a Shell Scott novel, which was probably all they wanted from Prather. They eventually did publish it in the early 1960s as a Shell Scott novel, simply by replacing every reference to Mark Hogan, with Shell Scott, thereby creating the confusion.

[Jacob Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second Richard S. Prather novel and easily my favorite of the two so far! The plot was fun and fast paced, the character was more likable than Shell Scott (sorry any fans, I said it and I meant it) and the mystery itself was much more compelling to me. My only complaint is the same as the first Prather novel I read. By the end things got a little...convoluted. I was willing to go along with it a bit more in this one, but overall it feels like that's gonna be a staple of the author's work, and if that's the case then it's up to me as a reader to just go along for the convoluted ride and enjoy what it has to offer. 4 stars for me.

[Paul Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off well enough but fizzles greatly by the end.