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Shell Scott #40
The Amber Effect
After almost fifteen years in Semi-retirement, private eye Shell Scott finds in his doorway a naked girl who is a finalist in the Miss Naked USA contest and who is marked for murder
- GenresMystery
308 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
7 people are currently reading
33 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 7, 2023
Apparently, mid-career, following disputes with Pocket Books, Prather stopped writing from 1975 through 1986 and then wrote one or two more books, namely the Amber Effect (1986) and Shellshock (1987). One final book in the series was therafter published posthumously, the Death Gods (2011). The series started in 1950, and by 1986, it had been going (with some breaks) for some thirty-seven years. Yet, Scott is the perpetual thirty-year old with shockingly white hair (although many of the later book covers make him appear quite a bit older). These later two books (Amber and Shellshock) were not strikingly popular with the reading public, but for those who enjoyed the earlier Shell Scott books in the Fifties and Sixties, they offered new adventures in a familiar series.
Amber Effect opens with private investigator Scott opening his apartment door to behold (in typical Shell Scott fashion) strawberry-tressed nude neighbor pleading with him to let her inside. She had apparently moved in down the hall and an intruder had suddenly entered the apartment as she was in the bath and he had passed out dead while preparing to attack her so he too was nude, but a bit more corpse-like. Later, in turns out that Ms. Aralia Fields (the neighbor) was that year’s Miss Naked California and gunning for the role of Miss Naked USA. Somehow, the plot manages to involve an early version of holograms/virtual reality and numerous additional corpses and gunfire, all related to Aralia’s father (Norman Amber), who she had always thought was dead many years ago, but had more recently shared a San Quentin prison cell with the original dead guy in Aralia’s apartment.
Amber Effect opens with private investigator Scott opening his apartment door to behold (in typical Shell Scott fashion) strawberry-tressed nude neighbor pleading with him to let her inside. She had apparently moved in down the hall and an intruder had suddenly entered the apartment as she was in the bath and he had passed out dead while preparing to attack her so he too was nude, but a bit more corpse-like. Later, in turns out that Ms. Aralia Fields (the neighbor) was that year’s Miss Naked California and gunning for the role of Miss Naked USA. Somehow, the plot manages to involve an early version of holograms/virtual reality and numerous additional corpses and gunfire, all related to Aralia’s father (Norman Amber), who she had always thought was dead many years ago, but had more recently shared a San Quentin prison cell with the original dead guy in Aralia’s apartment.
August 26, 2018
I have always found the Shell Scott novels by Richard S. Prather to be an antidote to days when I felt down and out of sorts. The hard-nosed detective stories are at once clever, slightly tongue-in-cheek, and above all a lot of fun.
THE AMBER EFFECT fits nicely in this comfortable niche. As an added bonus, Prather incorporates a slight science fiction flavor to the plot. Published in 1986, his idea of 3-dimensionsal film-making may have seemed outlandish. Reprinted as an e-book in 2018 it could seem prescient.
Well, almost prescient. With Shell Scott, of course, the result is rather different than it would have been with Isaac Asimov, for example, or other SF giants. Instead, think of Miss Naked California – an idealized woman who for most the book eschewed clothes. And imagine the possibilities of the “incandescently nude and stupendously gorgeous” gal in a ground-breaking new technology of 3-dimensional filming.
You get the idea.
Now mix in a bunch of hoodlums who see how such brilliant inventions could be used to squeeze out some illegal dollars, Miss Naked California is the daughter of one of the inventors who winds up dead, and the location where Miss Naked USA would be selected is also where all of gangland’s bad guys were planning to eliminate once and for all.
Now you REALLY get the idea.
But even this does not do the book justice. Though perhaps dated and sexist, in case the reader doesn't get the joke, Prather does provide hints he is playing with us by tossing in some arts and sciences tidbits. And what he finally does with the 3-D camera is nothing short of hilarious.
Not many writings can make me laugh out loud these days. I don’t find many books that can jolly me up these days. I’m glad to see that Shell Scott still can.
THE AMBER EFFECT fits nicely in this comfortable niche. As an added bonus, Prather incorporates a slight science fiction flavor to the plot. Published in 1986, his idea of 3-dimensionsal film-making may have seemed outlandish. Reprinted as an e-book in 2018 it could seem prescient.
Well, almost prescient. With Shell Scott, of course, the result is rather different than it would have been with Isaac Asimov, for example, or other SF giants. Instead, think of Miss Naked California – an idealized woman who for most the book eschewed clothes. And imagine the possibilities of the “incandescently nude and stupendously gorgeous” gal in a ground-breaking new technology of 3-dimensional filming.
You get the idea.
Now mix in a bunch of hoodlums who see how such brilliant inventions could be used to squeeze out some illegal dollars, Miss Naked California is the daughter of one of the inventors who winds up dead, and the location where Miss Naked USA would be selected is also where all of gangland’s bad guys were planning to eliminate once and for all.
Now you REALLY get the idea.
But even this does not do the book justice. Though perhaps dated and sexist, in case the reader doesn't get the joke, Prather does provide hints he is playing with us by tossing in some arts and sciences tidbits. And what he finally does with the 3-D camera is nothing short of hilarious.
Not many writings can make me laugh out loud these days. I don’t find many books that can jolly me up these days. I’m glad to see that Shell Scott still can.
March 20, 2022
I really enjoyed this Shell Scott adventure! I read a great many of these books back in the day and this relatively new story made me remember just how much fun they were! If you were a fan of sixties and seventies detective fiction, this is for you!
May 31, 2021
Part Sci Fi part male fantasy.
There was a mystery here but it is lost in the other accouterments.
I bought a copy since this is not in the public library any longer.
There was a mystery here but it is lost in the other accouterments.
I bought a copy since this is not in the public library any longer.
March 5, 2012
Very 80's John D MacDonald genre..fast read
April 17, 2017
Book number 40 in the Shell Scott private eye series sees the happy go lucky PI gifted Miss Nude California, well, nude, on his doorstep begging for help. Once he collects himself, Shell gets to business asking the why's and what for's and he doesn't like what he hears.
Someone had tried to rape / murder the young women in her hotel room only to die suddenly after laying eyes on her naked body. The deceased, later identified as Buddy Brett, a local hoodlum had suspicious ties to a scientist being strong armed to patent new technology he neither discovered or played a part in developing.
Shell Scott's case is at once cheesy and unnecessarily complicated by virtue of a scientific angle which neither pays off or adds depth to an already floundering plot. The story meanders from one intelligible interrogation to the next until a linkage between the frequently nude Miss Nude and the patented scientific technology is discovered.
Largely let down by drab dialogue, The Amber Effect, however, was just plain boring. This is one of the few pulps I actually struggled to take away anything positive from. How this series got to 40 books is beyond me.
I like reading pulps but there was just too much that didn't work for me to recommend reading further into Richard S. Prather's Shell Scott PI series.
1/5 stars.
Someone had tried to rape / murder the young women in her hotel room only to die suddenly after laying eyes on her naked body. The deceased, later identified as Buddy Brett, a local hoodlum had suspicious ties to a scientist being strong armed to patent new technology he neither discovered or played a part in developing.
Shell Scott's case is at once cheesy and unnecessarily complicated by virtue of a scientific angle which neither pays off or adds depth to an already floundering plot. The story meanders from one intelligible interrogation to the next until a linkage between the frequently nude Miss Nude and the patented scientific technology is discovered.
Largely let down by drab dialogue, The Amber Effect, however, was just plain boring. This is one of the few pulps I actually struggled to take away anything positive from. How this series got to 40 books is beyond me.
I like reading pulps but there was just too much that didn't work for me to recommend reading further into Richard S. Prather's Shell Scott PI series.
1/5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews