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Shell Scott #37

by Richard S. Prather, Ρίτσαρντ Πραίηδερ, Α. Ιορδάνου (Translator)

ΣΕΛ ΣΚΩΤ:
Σκληρός, αλλά τίμιος. Κυνικός, αλλά και αισθηματίας.
Είναι ένας ιδιωτικός ντέτεκτιβ της εποχής μας που, όταν δεν κυνηγά κάποιον εγκληματία, κυνηγά τον ποδόγυρο...

ΠΡΑΣΙΝΟ ΦΩΣ ΣΤΟΝ ΘΑΝΑΤΟ
Κάποιος είχε απαγάγει τον πατέρα της και ήλθε σ΄εμένα για να τον βρω. Ήταν κούκλα, είκοσι πέντε χρονών, και απελπισμένη. Μα ήταν και κόρη του Εμμανουέλ Μπρούνο και αυτό μπέρδευε τα πράγματα. Γιατί ο Μπρούνο ήταν ένας άνθρωπος, που είχε ξεσηκώσει θύελλα σωστή στο Λος Άντζελες. Και δεν ήταν κανένας παράνομος...
Ωστόσο, κανείς δεν είπε ποτέ ότι ο Σελ Σκωτ εγκατέλειψε κάποιον που είχε ανάγκη από τη βοήθειά του. Και φυσικά, δεν επρόκειτο τώρα ν'αφήσω να κυκλοφορήση μια τέτοια φήμη. Άσχετα αν υπήρχε κίνδυνος να παρασυρθώ από τη θύελλα, ή να γίνω και εγώ ένα από τα πτώματα που άρχισα να βρίσκω στο δρόμο μου, μόλις είπα το "οκέυ" στην κούκλα.

Out of print - Εκτός κυκλοφορίας

179 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

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 2 out of 5]

Dead-Bang (1971) was one of the least successful Shell Scott novels by Richard Prather. In it, he revisits the idea of religious cults that he visited in several of the earliest Scott novels. He also throws in a gimmick in the form of a new invention which is kind of like Viagra for everyone at all times. It is set in Los Angeles as are the vast majority of the Shell Scott novels and it begins with Scott relaxing in his Spartan Apartment Hotel in Hollywood.

Of course, it being a Shell Scott novel, there is always a "luscious lovely" with "lazy gray eyes and lips that could cook biscuits, and a voice that buzzed like little bees stuck in hot molasses." Indeed, in typical Shell Scott over-the-top narration, Drusilla Bruno (Dru for short) is described as having "radioactive-red lips pursed slightly as if preparing to blow a kiss into atoms." Her father is Emmanuel Bruno, the famous scientist, an ex-MD who had been kicked out of the AMA but in his lifetime had become many other kinds of doctor and the inventor of Erovite. "Whether or not it made people feel better or worse, whether or not it cured or killed them, it was, unqestionably, an astonishingly potent aphrodisiac." Causing people to wake up to wide-eyed libidinoiusness after an apparently total sexual anesthesia of years, including the infamous orgy in the old- folks home.

But, over-the-top ridiculousness or Erovite and its effects on society aside, most of the novel is set to discussing the cult of Festus Lemming and his flocks of followers, colorfully known as Lemmings. In fact, he is ridicule and lampooned throughout the novel, starting with being referred to as the founder, organizer, leader, and "ding-dong" of the Church of the Second Coming, which is "a collection of ecclesiastical fruitcakes that had to be described that had to be described as the major religious success story of the twentieth century." Sin to Festus Lemming is almost entirely of the evil carnal body and naturally the most doubly sinful of all was sexual sin, which put the Lemmings on a collision course with Erovite, the sexual aphrodisiac, and it is when Bruno disappears that Scott gets involved and there is direct conflict with the religious cult and a march of counter-protestors in their altogethers on the Church of the Second Coming.

Although this might have worked as a kind of parody of detective novels, it often descends into pages and pages of reflections on the Lemmings and simply barely works.

[Trounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ничего с этим не поделаешь, есть у американцев культ героев. Особенно ярко это проявляется в художественных произведениях, будь они литературного, музыкального или кинематографического толка. Обязан существовать человек, способный взять на себя ответственность абсолютно за всё, с чем не могут справиться остальные. Такой герой оказывается лишённым страха, действует без жалости и всегда переносит неимоверные мучения, выходя победителем. Таковым был и герой многих книг Ричарда Пратера, понять которого предлагается по произведению «Проснуться живым».

(c) Trounin

[John Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It would have been a mildly diverting 50-ish page story/novella. But it was streeeeetched out to an almost unbearable 233 page novel instead.

[Michael Rhode · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has really dated badly. I'd leave it until you have no more Shell Scott books to read.