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Al Wheeler #14
Desired
Cover art by Barye Phillips.
140 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Carter Brown
556 books52 followersCarter Brown was the pseudonym of Alan Geoffrey Yates (1923-1985), who was born in London and educated in Essex.
He married Denise Mackellar and worked as a sound engineer for Gaumont-British films before moving to Australia and taking up work in public relations.
In 1953 he became a full-time writer and produced nearly 200 novels between then and his retirement in 1981.
He also wrote as Tex Conrad and Caroline Farr.
His series heroes were Larry Baker, Danny Boyd, Paul Donavan, Rick Holman, Andy Kane, Randy Roberts, Mavis Siedlitz and Al Wheeler.
He married Denise Mackellar and worked as a sound engineer for Gaumont-British films before moving to Australia and taking up work in public relations.
In 1953 he became a full-time writer and produced nearly 200 novels between then and his retirement in 1981.
He also wrote as Tex Conrad and Caroline Farr.
His series heroes were Larry Baker, Danny Boyd, Paul Donavan, Rick Holman, Andy Kane, Randy Roberts, Mavis Siedlitz and Al Wheeler.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 24, 2024
The Desired, number eighteen in the Al Wheeler hit parade, is set in Carter’s fictional Pine City, which is sort of Southern California and sort of not. The Desired is a homage to the crooked unions and the tight tentacled grip of organized crime on the union money. The background is a Senate hearing about to take place and Lieutenant Wheeler is involved the minute a body shows up. Scratch that, he’s involved the minute an inebriated young woman driving like the proverbial bat out of hell nearly runs I’m off the road. “Nemesis was a bright red convertible doing seventy miles an hour on the wrong side of the highway. As I came around the bend it loomed, larger than Death, right in front of me.”
The young maiden is Bella Woods, with the build of a female Viking, and whose father was Tom Woods, union boss and all powerful in the state. But as he tries to explain later to her dear father, who keeps trying to downplay a little driving under the influence, the problem isn’t so much her smashing into a tree, but the corpse with a cute little bullethole in the forehead that popped out of her trunk.
The bigger problem for Wheeler is that Woods stands by his assistants, hard mobbed up guys, any one of whom could have done this to prevent evidence of corruption being leaked. What’s more all the tough guys are holed up together in a big house where it’s party all the time and Wheeler definitely didn’t fit in.
Wheeler doesn’t necessarily figure it all out until he falls into a big mousetrap with the guns pointed at him. But, as usual, he spends much of the novel testing out one theory of what happened and who did it before that blows up and he’s got to try another theory.
The young maiden is Bella Woods, with the build of a female Viking, and whose father was Tom Woods, union boss and all powerful in the state. But as he tries to explain later to her dear father, who keeps trying to downplay a little driving under the influence, the problem isn’t so much her smashing into a tree, but the corpse with a cute little bullethole in the forehead that popped out of her trunk.
The bigger problem for Wheeler is that Woods stands by his assistants, hard mobbed up guys, any one of whom could have done this to prevent evidence of corruption being leaked. What’s more all the tough guys are holed up together in a big house where it’s party all the time and Wheeler definitely didn’t fit in.
Wheeler doesn’t necessarily figure it all out until he falls into a big mousetrap with the guns pointed at him. But, as usual, he spends much of the novel testing out one theory of what happened and who did it before that blows up and he’s got to try another theory.
July 4, 2023
A very short novel and also a very engaging one. Police Detective Al Wheeler witnesses a car crash by a beautiful woman and finds himself drawn into several murders, a subpoenaed labor leader, the mob, and a contract killer.
Excellent dialogue, clever characters who spout wonderful dialogue, and a clever series of crimes with an excellent ending. My only flaw with the book was it was too short--I wanted this to go on for much longer! Just 126 pages.
Excellent dialogue, clever characters who spout wonderful dialogue, and a clever series of crimes with an excellent ending. My only flaw with the book was it was too short--I wanted this to go on for much longer! Just 126 pages.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews