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Shell Scott #2
Bodies in Bedlam
Shell Scott. He's a guy with a pistol in his pocket and murder on his mind. The crime world's public enemy number one, this Casanova is a sucker for a damsel in distress. When a pair of lovely legs saunters into his office, he can't help but take the job, even when the case is a killer. Constanza Carmocha is like a cat in heat; she innocently purrs while scratching your eyes out with her razor-sharp claws. She is a dame skilled in the age-old act of bending men to her will, using no other weapon than her lips and the sensuous curve of her hips. But she had already left behind a trail of dead bodies, and this gal's blaze burns everyone who touches her. Shell's seen his fair share of women, and this one can't have a deeper bag of tricks than he — or can she?
160 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1951
21 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Richard S. Prather
93 books43 followersRichard 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 28, 2024
Not a Cozy Thriller.
Scott Shell is once again on the job. He’s looking for a killer to get himself off the hook.
Lots of brutal violence in this episode. The criminals don’t mess around. Scott is also violent enough to hang with the big boys.
This doesn’t stop him from keeping his eyes on the ladies. And some of them are good looking, but they need his help.
Scott goes through a lot to help these women. It’s what he’s got to do. Thankfully, he’s good at it.
Four stars. 💫💫💫💫
Scott Shell is once again on the job. He’s looking for a killer to get himself off the hook.
Lots of brutal violence in this episode. The criminals don’t mess around. Scott is also violent enough to hang with the big boys.
This doesn’t stop him from keeping his eyes on the ladies. And some of them are good looking, but they need his help.
Scott goes through a lot to help these women. It’s what he’s got to do. Thankfully, he’s good at it.
Four stars. 💫💫💫💫
August 25, 2025
Bodies in Bedlam is the second of approximately forty books in Richard Prather’s Shell Scott detective series, once upon a time in the 1950’s one of the most popular as measured by book sales detective series of all time. Scott has his office in the Hamilton Building on Broadway and Fourth Street in Los Angeles. He is an ex-Marine who bent his nose and lost part of his ear in battle during his four years of duty. He has short blonde- nearly white-cropped hair and eyebrows and stands tall and imposing. He drives a 1941 bright yellow Cadillac Convertible- you can see him coming from quite a distance away. But, where some detectives drive the mean streets of Los Angeles and are always dour and never chipper, Prather’s Scott leaves in a bright semi-tropical world where every woman is a budding Hollywood star and there are no end to the parties he is invited to. Most of all, in contrast to other detectives in that era, his world is blossoming in technicolor, not sepia or black and white.
Often critiqued for the light-heartedness of some of the stories, Prather was a master of prose who often threw in colorful lines that will make you laugh out loud. For instance, this one opens with Scott, as narrator, telling us readers that “It was Bedlam, and Babel, and Baghdad galloping, and Lady Godiva in the middle naked as an artificial eye on a white-satin spread. And not a sign of a horse.” Who can argue with such ideas? Later, we are told, he wakes up “as the two alarm clocks went off one after the other and it was crisp and clear outside, but I felt about as crisp as a dunked doughnut and my head was clear like a sloppy gin fizz. It was also fizzing like one.”
It opens with Scott at a Hollywood costume party and, of course, you guessed it, someone (Brane) is killed in front of everyone (practically in front) with the only suspect having shed her mask and skirt and sashayed out a window into the dusky night. She (“sweet, luscious” Hallie Wilson) is someone Scott muses it would have been “fun to play patty-cake with.” Scott remains a sort-of-suspect because of a run-in with the corpse earlier that evening. And he gets even more curious when confronted with Garvey Mace and his goons. The story involves blackmail and photographs and more.
Often critiqued for the light-heartedness of some of the stories, Prather was a master of prose who often threw in colorful lines that will make you laugh out loud. For instance, this one opens with Scott, as narrator, telling us readers that “It was Bedlam, and Babel, and Baghdad galloping, and Lady Godiva in the middle naked as an artificial eye on a white-satin spread. And not a sign of a horse.” Who can argue with such ideas? Later, we are told, he wakes up “as the two alarm clocks went off one after the other and it was crisp and clear outside, but I felt about as crisp as a dunked doughnut and my head was clear like a sloppy gin fizz. It was also fizzing like one.”
It opens with Scott at a Hollywood costume party and, of course, you guessed it, someone (Brane) is killed in front of everyone (practically in front) with the only suspect having shed her mask and skirt and sashayed out a window into the dusky night. She (“sweet, luscious” Hallie Wilson) is someone Scott muses it would have been “fun to play patty-cake with.” Scott remains a sort-of-suspect because of a run-in with the corpse earlier that evening. And he gets even more curious when confronted with Garvey Mace and his goons. The story involves blackmail and photographs and more.
June 18, 2024
Book two has our lead, Shell Scott looking for a murderer of someone he had an unfriendly visit with last night. It is that that causes him to be the only other suspect, besides the gal who left her clothes behind at the scene. But you can't really tell who that was, when everyone there was wearing a mask.
It's humorous, violent and fast-paced, as Shell Scott joints usually are. Also, I believe this one had a bit more action than the first.
Recommended.
It's humorous, violent and fast-paced, as Shell Scott joints usually are. Also, I believe this one had a bit more action than the first.
Recommended.
July 17, 2024
Shell Scott, tough private eye, gets involved with plenty of broads in this fast-moving, hard-boiled thriller. He loves, loses, moves on and regularly returns to the ladies that he encounters.
Murder at a studio party sets him up in the investigation as he is determined to get to the bottom of it. With the help of the various females he encounters, and despite intervention from a variety of thugs plus a number of beatings and shootings he finally comes up trumps and unmasks the killer. And he finally gives up on the painting that he coverts.
Murder at a studio party sets him up in the investigation as he is determined to get to the bottom of it. With the help of the various females he encounters, and despite intervention from a variety of thugs plus a number of beatings and shootings he finally comes up trumps and unmasks the killer. And he finally gives up on the painting that he coverts.
April 25, 2023
One more thanks to Bobby my friend who turned me on to Prather and Shell Scott. I now am the owner of volume 1 of the Shell Scott mystery series. What a bargain for $5 bucks.
Read
September 24, 2014Way back in the summer of 1977 or 1978 I discovered Shell Scott thanks to a half-dozen or so paperbacks one of my uncles had left at our family cottage. My 11- or 12-year old self, weaning off THE HARDY BOYS and DOC SAVAGE, took an immediate interest in the series--especially those books with covers painted by (I would learn many years later) Robert McGinnis. Yes, those demanded (as Woody Allen noted in SLEEPER) "further study."
There is no way I can argue that the Shell Scott books are GOOD--if you want GOOD crime novels, read Chandler, Hammett, Leonard, MacDonald, etc. But they are a lot of fun, especially if you're reading them today with 35 years of nostalgia behind you. I try to read one every summer when I'm back at the cottage, and BODIES IN BEDLAM was a satisfying one-sitting amusement on the beach with a beer or three. Scott finds himself tangled up in a Hollywood murder, with two babes demanding his attention, and more than a few tough bad guys who want him out of the picture. One of the real treats of reading BODIES IN BEDLAM was a peephole into some of the language of the time, not to mention the geography of Los Angeles. Plus, Prather's a fun writer: these books are like reading Mike Hammer written by an author who doesn't take himself too seriously. (From my view, Mickey Spillane has very little grounds to take himself seriously.)
There is no way I can argue that the Shell Scott books are GOOD--if you want GOOD crime novels, read Chandler, Hammett, Leonard, MacDonald, etc. But they are a lot of fun, especially if you're reading them today with 35 years of nostalgia behind you. I try to read one every summer when I'm back at the cottage, and BODIES IN BEDLAM was a satisfying one-sitting amusement on the beach with a beer or three. Scott finds himself tangled up in a Hollywood murder, with two babes demanding his attention, and more than a few tough bad guys who want him out of the picture. One of the real treats of reading BODIES IN BEDLAM was a peephole into some of the language of the time, not to mention the geography of Los Angeles. Plus, Prather's a fun writer: these books are like reading Mike Hammer written by an author who doesn't take himself too seriously. (From my view, Mickey Spillane has very little grounds to take himself seriously.)
November 15, 2020
#2 in the long series. Also one of the best. A solid story that gets repeated in various ways over the next 3 dozen plus books to come. The characters are particularly really well written. These also re-appear with different names as the series continues. The settings are very well thought out.
I like the plotting, which is more particular to method than later books and certainly contemporary books of today. There is some tricky ideas to get across and Prather handles it all very well. The ending is satisfying.
There is the issue of a bit too much sexy stuff that halts the momentum of the book. Compare to "Brett Halliday" who would rocket an excellent plot through and around such issues.
This is another example of a very good book written in few pages with a great story.
I want to note the recent set of Stuart Kaminsky books with Toby Peters that were written in later years of this time period. Reading this one, I can see Kaminsky did same and made a lot of notes. Both set in the same location with similar stories.
Bottom line: i recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.
I like the plotting, which is more particular to method than later books and certainly contemporary books of today. There is some tricky ideas to get across and Prather handles it all very well. The ending is satisfying.
There is the issue of a bit too much sexy stuff that halts the momentum of the book. Compare to "Brett Halliday" who would rocket an excellent plot through and around such issues.
This is another example of a very good book written in few pages with a great story.
I want to note the recent set of Stuart Kaminsky books with Toby Peters that were written in later years of this time period. Reading this one, I can see Kaminsky did same and made a lot of notes. Both set in the same location with similar stories.
Bottom line: i recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.
December 23, 2016
Hilarious. I laughed out loud as much as if this were a book written by Douglas Adams. (If only Dirk Gently were as funny.) Before finishing this gem, my favorite hard-boiled typewriter jockey was Robert Leslie Bellem. With this book--the second of the 42 Shell Scott books--Richard S Prather fulfills the dreams of the Bellem fan with what is very much like a novel-length "Dan Turner" novel that out nearly out Bellems Bellem. The sustainment of the purple prose out over the 158 pages is making me switch allegiances. This book cannot be more highly recommended if you like hard-boiled, leering detectives with a witty turn of phrase.
April 29, 2011
I read this book on my travels too and from Tampa, Florida last month. There are some really bady sentences and some really great writing at the same time. The setting is post war LA and an ex-cop gets tight with a local newspaper man. We get that later. From page one you are on a ride full of meat-eating, drinking and sex. All of it is a little off by our mores today, but you would to have this guy living on your block. Spoiler - LA tradition, he gets the girl.
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April 4, 2021Shell Scott's second volume makes his formula clear: Scott gets involved in the murder he investigates, takes a beating, hides a girl in his apartment and deals with beautiful women who offer himself to him. Very fun, very well written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2008
shell is up to his neck in hell. love it. the villians are nasty and he is almost barbequed!
May 30, 2016
Another fun entry in '50s sleaze!
October 5, 2018
Not the best of the Shell Scott books, but fairly typical in content.
May 4, 2022
P.I. Shell Scott is at a Hollywood party minding his business (to the extent the ever-curious PI can) when a heel of a man ruins his good time by getting in his face and acting like, well, a heel. Shell responds to the provocation like any red-blooded American male, slugging the guy, who happens to be Roger Brane.
No one has any objections to the ass-whipping Scott just meted out, including his friends and fellow-drinkers at the party, until that is, Brane turns up with his throat slashed from ear to ear later that same night.
Scott's not the number one suspect, but he's on the list, which forces him to make a concerted effort to find the killer. His investigations lead him to a photographic blackmail ring that, by postmodern standards, is tamer than your average TMZ photog. Scott being Scott, his investigations also give him plenty of opportunities to get kissed by the ladies and slugged by heavies.
Author Richard Prather keeps things moving fast, and manages some wonderfully wry observations and turns of phrase here and there. His creation is pluckier and less jaded than many another postwar private eye beating feet around L.A., and his attempts to withstand the seductions of various women for reasons that have nothing to do with fear of black widows also make him curious, and memorable.
But only just so. This better than average Gold Medal Book never tries to do anything but sing an old song well, and the recipe is about one-hundred parts text to one part subtext. Don't expect Howard Browne on his best day, and you won't be disappointed. Recommended.
No one has any objections to the ass-whipping Scott just meted out, including his friends and fellow-drinkers at the party, until that is, Brane turns up with his throat slashed from ear to ear later that same night.
Scott's not the number one suspect, but he's on the list, which forces him to make a concerted effort to find the killer. His investigations lead him to a photographic blackmail ring that, by postmodern standards, is tamer than your average TMZ photog. Scott being Scott, his investigations also give him plenty of opportunities to get kissed by the ladies and slugged by heavies.
Author Richard Prather keeps things moving fast, and manages some wonderfully wry observations and turns of phrase here and there. His creation is pluckier and less jaded than many another postwar private eye beating feet around L.A., and his attempts to withstand the seductions of various women for reasons that have nothing to do with fear of black widows also make him curious, and memorable.
But only just so. This better than average Gold Medal Book never tries to do anything but sing an old song well, and the recipe is about one-hundred parts text to one part subtext. Don't expect Howard Browne on his best day, and you won't be disappointed. Recommended.
February 27, 2025
Teprve druhá „shellscottovka“, takže to sice má nezbytné atributy, ale je to mnohem víc klasická detektivka, jen s větší porcí hlášek. Shell Scott je pozvaný na hollywoodský večírek, kde samozřejmě dojde k vraždě. A jelikož se Scott předtím s mrtvým porval (samozřejmě ještě než byl mrtvý), je mezi podezřelými a musí vypátrat, kdo je skutečný vrah.
Čili ano, je tu míň humoru a podivných situací, ale celkový je případ o něco zajímavější a pachatel není jasný od první věty. Celé se to točí kolem vydírání a v podezření je hned několik filmových celebrit… což je pro Shella příležitost, jak popisovat ženské půvaby, případně se jim věnovat nejen slovně. Jsou tu opět krátké, ale dobře popsané akční scény, drsní gangsteři a nadržené ženy, čili všechno co má být. A občas Prather ujede. Když jedna z žen svádí hrdinu a používá slovo, které musí být pro svou neslušnost nahrazeno hvězdičkami, komentuje to pak hrdina „ona mě chtěla hvězdičkovat“.
Plus je tady i třeba to, že se objevuje na začátku protihráč, který je větší než Scott a u kterého člověk čeká, že se střetnou v brutálním souboji… ale ne, ke konfliktu nikdy nedojde. To už by si pozdější Prather nenechal ujít.
Nemá tu ještě tu lehkost a i když je to zábavné, jde to víc v chandlerových stopách a občas i trochu přitvrdí… třeba když hrdinovi někdo zabije jeho oblíbené rybičky.
To se nedělá.
Čili ano, je tu míň humoru a podivných situací, ale celkový je případ o něco zajímavější a pachatel není jasný od první věty. Celé se to točí kolem vydírání a v podezření je hned několik filmových celebrit… což je pro Shella příležitost, jak popisovat ženské půvaby, případně se jim věnovat nejen slovně. Jsou tu opět krátké, ale dobře popsané akční scény, drsní gangsteři a nadržené ženy, čili všechno co má být. A občas Prather ujede. Když jedna z žen svádí hrdinu a používá slovo, které musí být pro svou neslušnost nahrazeno hvězdičkami, komentuje to pak hrdina „ona mě chtěla hvězdičkovat“.
Plus je tady i třeba to, že se objevuje na začátku protihráč, který je větší než Scott a u kterého člověk čeká, že se střetnou v brutálním souboji… ale ne, ke konfliktu nikdy nedojde. To už by si pozdější Prather nenechal ujít.
Nemá tu ještě tu lehkost a i když je to zábavné, jde to víc v chandlerových stopách a občas i trochu přitvrdí… třeba když hrdinovi někdo zabije jeho oblíbené rybičky.
To se nedělá.
July 11, 2022
My summer of My Favorite Serieses continues with this fairly average Shell. The plot is a mildly amusing one where Scott is a murder suspect (he got into a public fight with a jerk an hour before the jerk got killed) and has to solve the murder to clear himself. Along the way he learns that the jerk was blackmailing a bunch of Hollywood starlets with naked pictures that were given to him by a film editor from the dailies that were supposed to be burned. Quaint in the sense of how worried the starlets were over the publication of relatively tame picture, but the "rogue film editor with a secret illicit stash" concept is a good on that could be re-done today (and likely happens in the real world).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2025
Early 50's PI Shell Scott. One of those breezy, quick Mickey Spillane or Brett Halliday -esque private eyes. But Shell Scott is definitely not taking himself too seriously, even when the stakes are high or violence is nigh. It's a style of writing that, when well done, goes down so quick and smooth you don't notice how good it is at presenting a fairly complex plot with a lot of twists.
After reading a lot of modern historical romance I am still bemused by the books shying away from sex and swearing. Of course sex in a romance is illustrative of character and how they are growing into the relationship. I suspect that even were I to read all forty Shell Scott mysteries that the man isn't going to change a whit from book one to book forty. That's not what these books are for.
After reading a lot of modern historical romance I am still bemused by the books shying away from sex and swearing. Of course sex in a romance is illustrative of character and how they are growing into the relationship. I suspect that even were I to read all forty Shell Scott mysteries that the man isn't going to change a whit from book one to book forty. That's not what these books are for.
June 21, 2023
The second in the series and a fun ride. Scott gets mixed up in a murder at a masked costume ball when a man who he hit earlier ends up dead. Of course this makes Scott a suspect, though the biggest suspect is silver mask, a gal Scott met and wanted but didn't know who she was. However the gal was nowhere to be found, but her hooped skirt and mask were found discarded at the scene. When the gal shows back up in his life the next day being chased by hoods, he really ends up in the middle of it all.
Recommended, a solid PI tale that as long as your don't think too much you should have fun with.
Recommended, a solid PI tale that as long as your don't think too much you should have fun with.
September 12, 2016
Another great Shell Scott book. Entertaining read, but I tend forget the details as soon as I finish them. This one was pretty typical—Shell finds girl, loses girl and finds girl again. Get's knocked out several times, but eventually solves the crime before the police.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews