What do you think?
Rate this book
The Wrong Venus
The Wrong Venus represents a 180 degree departure from William's usual literary fare. It's an over-the-top comedy about Americans in Paris. This very funny book is populated with a number of interesting characters. A spinsterish authoress of best selling sex drenched novels, some thoroughly inept kidnappers, a ruthless French gangster and a six foot tall blond beauty of a ghostwriter who's pretty good at judo... to name only a few. There's also plenty of slapstick action and an abundance of very clever dialogue. The Wrong Venus is a wonderfully entertaining showcase for a surprisingly different side to Charles William's substantial talent.
148 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
3 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Charles Williams
33 books99 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Charles Williams
Charles Williams was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years (1929-1939) before leaving to work in the electronics industry. He was a radio inspector during the war years at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington state. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime.
Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay.
After the death of his wife Lasca (m. 1939) from cancer in 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood in early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined when stand alone thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison.
Please see: Charles Williams
Charles Williams was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years (1929-1939) before leaving to work in the electronics industry. He was a radio inspector during the war years at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington state. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime.
Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay.
After the death of his wife Lasca (m. 1939) from cancer in 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood in early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined when stand alone thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 23, 2021
I’ve been on a Charles Williams binge this year. I took delivery of "Go Home, Stranger" this week. Unfortunately, it is in the German language. I also received a copy of "Confidentially Yours" which I discovered was another edition of “Finally, Sunday” which I read last week. “The Wrong Venus” came in three days ago. It is my ninth novel by Charles Williams.
Charles Williams writes an entertaining farce with elements of a crime procedural. Lawrence Colby (Korean paratrooper, art student, PR man, script-writer, a dealer in art forgeries, and newspaperman, and had once ghost-written the autobiography of a homicidal maniac) is smuggling watches on a plane from Geneva to London, when he runs into the beautiful and shrewd Martine Randall who informs him about the ticking sounds of his watches that might alert airline authorities. She helps him get the watches through customs. In return, he has to help her find a kidnapped ghost writer (the 6-foot, 160-pound Judo expert Kendall Flannagan) who is finishing an erotic novel that would be attributed to a famous novelist who disappeared with an Italian paramour. The rest of the novel is about how Colby outwits the kidnappers and wins the girl.
Fans of Williams' backwoods and nautical crime thrillers might be disappointed by The Wrong Venus. This one is markedly different from the other dark Williams novels featuring tortured characters like Maddox or John Ingram.
It is less than 150 pages long but new plot points and characters leap out every second page and it does get quite tiresome keeping track of them after a certain point. While Williams does come up with witty one liners and similes, the plot resolution and the ending are uninspired. Also, the most interesting character Kendall Flannagan disappears too soon. It is too much like a Raymond Chandler novel.
I suspect that the Coen Brothers might have been inspired by The Wrong Venus when they wrote The Big Lebowski. Like in The Big Lebowski there is an elaborate kidnap plot and ransom delivery filled with confusion and misdirection. I could be wrong, but I was thinking about The Big Lebowski while reading this.
However, Williams’ soft corner for the gentle and the idyllic – a feature of his crime thrillers, is not missing –
“St.-Médard-au-bout-de-la-colline was a small farming village of three or four streets lying athwart the road with a church steeple at the back of it, looking quaint and peaceful in the early rays of the sun. ”
or
“It was one of those mornings Colby loved best in London— that rare October day when miraculously it was cursed with neither the Automobile Show nor rain. Pale lemon sunlight slanted in on the carpet at the other end of the room where her window overlooked the traffic on the Thames. ”
Charles Williams writes an entertaining farce with elements of a crime procedural. Lawrence Colby (Korean paratrooper, art student, PR man, script-writer, a dealer in art forgeries, and newspaperman, and had once ghost-written the autobiography of a homicidal maniac) is smuggling watches on a plane from Geneva to London, when he runs into the beautiful and shrewd Martine Randall who informs him about the ticking sounds of his watches that might alert airline authorities. She helps him get the watches through customs. In return, he has to help her find a kidnapped ghost writer (the 6-foot, 160-pound Judo expert Kendall Flannagan) who is finishing an erotic novel that would be attributed to a famous novelist who disappeared with an Italian paramour. The rest of the novel is about how Colby outwits the kidnappers and wins the girl.
Fans of Williams' backwoods and nautical crime thrillers might be disappointed by The Wrong Venus. This one is markedly different from the other dark Williams novels featuring tortured characters like Maddox or John Ingram.
It is less than 150 pages long but new plot points and characters leap out every second page and it does get quite tiresome keeping track of them after a certain point. While Williams does come up with witty one liners and similes, the plot resolution and the ending are uninspired. Also, the most interesting character Kendall Flannagan disappears too soon. It is too much like a Raymond Chandler novel.
I suspect that the Coen Brothers might have been inspired by The Wrong Venus when they wrote The Big Lebowski. Like in The Big Lebowski there is an elaborate kidnap plot and ransom delivery filled with confusion and misdirection. I could be wrong, but I was thinking about The Big Lebowski while reading this.
However, Williams’ soft corner for the gentle and the idyllic – a feature of his crime thrillers, is not missing –
“St.-Médard-au-bout-de-la-colline was a small farming village of three or four streets lying athwart the road with a church steeple at the back of it, looking quaint and peaceful in the early rays of the sun. ”
or
“It was one of those mornings Colby loved best in London— that rare October day when miraculously it was cursed with neither the Automobile Show nor rain. Pale lemon sunlight slanted in on the carpet at the other end of the room where her window overlooked the traffic on the Thames. ”
January 18, 2015
A ghost writer working on a trashy sex novel (unknown to the author whose name it is to be published under) gets kidnapped. There's a little bit of mob action, art forgery and discussion of literature thrown in. The protagonists are witty, ingenious and of course gorgeous and good fighters, too. Another entertaining read, but not one of Williams' noirer works.
June 7, 2020
This book published in 1966 (There was a television set in the salon, a big twenty-one-inch model) might In places be showing its age, however, nothing distracts from the really smooth flowing writing style of Charles Williams. This is the third book I've now read by him, and they keep on getting better. Yes at times the plot seemed over thickened and towards the end, it really seems to be a jumble, but nonetheless A sparkling entertaining read.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
June 11, 2023
Not a typical CW but I read it anyway.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews