Ironside: The Picture Frame Frame-up

by William Johnston

the picture frame frame-up

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Librarian note: William Johnston has also written under the pseudonyms Susan Claudia, Willa Jay, Heather Sinclair, Ed Garth, Alex Steele, and William Howard.

William Johnston joined the Navy in 1942 and served in the Pacific. He worked as a disc jockey, advertising executive, magazine editor, and PR man before his writing career took off in 1960 with The Marriage Cage, a comic mystery that earned him a Best First Novel Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. He followed that book with a slew of pulp titles for Monarch Books, ranging from light comedy (The Power of Positive Loving) to medical romance (the Doctor Starr trilogy) to soft-core erotica (Save Her for Loving, Teen Age Tramp, Girls on the Wing).

Johnston’s medical novels dovetailed with his first tie-in assignments -- original novels based on the TV series The Nurses, Doctor Kildare and Ben Casey. Those books, published between 1962 and 1964, were so successful that his next original medical romance, Two Loves Has Nurse Powell, was presented as “From the author of Ben Casey.”

In 1965, Johnston wrote an original novel based on the TV comedy Get Smart. The book was a huge success, leading to nine more novels over the show’s five-season history and making him the “go-to” guy for sitcom-based tie-ins. He wrote books based on Captain Nice, Room 222, Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter, The Flying Nun, The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor, The Munsters, Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, The Monkees and F-Troop, among others.

But his TV tie-in work extended far beyond sitcom adaptations. He wrote books based on Ironside, Dick Tracy, The Young Rebels, The Iron Horse, Then Came Bronson, and Rod Serling’s The New People, to name a few. He even adapted the cartoon characters Magilla Gorilla and Snagglepuss into books for children.

Johnston also penned many novelizations, including the pilots for the 1930s-era private eye series Banyon and the high school drama Sons and Daughters. His feature film novelizations include Klute, The Swinger, Echoes of a Summer, The New Interns, The Priest’s Wife, Lt. Robin Crusoe USN and his final tie-in project, Gore Vidal’s Caligula (under the pseudonym “William Howard”).

After retiring from fiction writing, he opened his own bar, which he operated for many years. He resided in San Jose, California prior to his death in 2010.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Chuck Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ironside: The Picture Frame Frame-Up" was part of a series of Whitman books published in the late 1960 based on popular TV series. This novel concerned chief Ironside and his team investigating a thief of 57 valuable paintings from a millionaire who lives in a castle outside San Francisco. The pictures were to be auctioned off but were discovered to have disappeared when the truck carrying them arrived at the auction house. Ironside and his team must discover who did it, but even more importantly how. The characters seem true to the TV series, especially the short tempered but soft at heart Ironside. The story is interesting, but would not have made an exciting episode. There is almost no action, other than Ironside's paddy wagon traveling back and forth to the castle. The plot is interesting, though a little drawn out. The series was for teenage readers, coming with illustrations, and evokes for us now the enjoyment we had watching those TV shows. This book does that quite well.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chief of Detective Ironsides has a case of stolen paintings to puzzle over. The problem is that he has too many suspects and too many motives, but can't see how the robbery was committed. It makes him harder to live with than ever. A nicely written story (though the solution was obvious to me from the start) that keeps the reader's interest up throughout.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Whitman book go this one was fairly good even though I sort of had the mystery figured out early in the story.