Mystery Writing

I just discovered the Mack Bolan/Executioner site (thanks to Ben Boulden). The best thing about it is the complete list of the 343 MACK BOLAN titles (not counting the 114 SuperBolans and 89 Stony Man titles) and the names of the ghostwriters who actually wrote the books.  Twenty-some years ago, when I was writing the .357 VIGILANTE books, I was approached to write an EXECUTIONER. They sent me a huge packet of material and I spoke to several authors about their experiences writing the books (I think I spoke to Raymond Obstfeld and Mike Newton), but after giving it some thought, I declined the offer. I ran into Mike last year at Boucheron (or was it Thrillerfest?) and it was great to catch up with him again. I wonder what ever happened to Raymond Obstfeld who, as I recall, was an English professor at some Southern California college (he also wrote the DIAMONDBACK westerns for Pinnacle, along with my buddy Paul Bishop).

Looking at this list of Bolan writers makes me appreciate even more how prolific Robert Randisi is …as "J.R. Roberts," he’s written the 312 GUNSMITH titles all by himself. And that’s not counting his many, many other books.

I have some horrible news to share  — author Elaine Viets has suffered a stroke. But she is out of danger and is, I am told, making a remarkable recovery. I am not surprised.  Elaine has always been a fighter. I’ve known Elaine for years and have worked with her on various MWA projects. I have always admired her humor, her candor, and her dedication to her fellow writers.

I just learned from Charles Ardai, publisher of Hard Case Crime, that Donald Hamilton, author of the Matt Helm novels, has died. Ardai’s obituary is so informative and thoughtful, I’m sharing it here in its entirety as a tribute to Hamilton, who I was lucky to have met several years ago at the Edgar Awards:

Don was 90 years old.  Though his name may be little
remembered today, in the 1960s and 70s he was well known as the best-selling
author of the "Matt Helm" novels, a series of well-written and popular stories
about a ruthless agent of the U.S. government who fought evil in the Cold War
world (and eventually — briefly — the post-Cold War world).  Helm starred
in 27 novels between 1960’s DEATH OF A CITIZEN and 1993’s THE DAMAGERS;
he was also featured in several movies starring Dean Martin, as
well as a short-lived TV series starring Anthony Franciosa that reimagined the
character as a private eye.  More recently, Dreamworks optioned the rights
to all the Helm novels for feature film development. A final Matt
Helm novel exists but has never been published.

Don also wrote a dozen
non-Helm novels, including several popular Westerns (including THE BIG COUNTRY,
which became the Gregory Peck movie, and SMOKY VALLEY, which was filmed as "The
Violent Men" starring Glenn Ford).  And he wrote several outstanding noir
crime novels, including one — NIGHT WALKER — which we’re proud to have
reprinted last year in the Hard Case Crime series.

In the last decade of
his life, Don moved back to Sweden, where he’d been born, and lived
there with his son, Gordon.  He died peacefully, in his
sleep, this past November.  Gordon kept the fact of his
death private until today, when he confirmed it in a phone conversation with
me.

We’ve lost a number of giants of the mystery field over the past few
years — Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain, and Richard S. Prather, among others — and
Donald Hamilton is very much of that caliber.  He sold more than 20 million
books during his lifetime.  But unlike Spillane, McBain and Prather, all of
whom were widely remembered at the time of their death, Don’s passing has sadly
gone unremarked.

In honor of my friend Richard S. Prather, here are some of my favorite lines from his Shell Scott novels:

“He lay there with his face on the cement, in his own
blood and wastes. Lesson for would be killers: Either don’t miss with your
first shot, or else eat light, go to the john, take an enema, and be ready to
die neat.” Kill Him Twice

“She had short mouse-brown hair, rather nice full lips
and gray eyes. But they weren’t pretty eyes. Not dawn gray, slate gray or even
muddy gray. They were sort of Dorian gray.” Always’s Leave’em Dying.

“This was one lovely who looked as if she could be
grateful to excess. And some excesses I’m excessively fond of,” Darling, It’s Death

“Lita was a gal so female that she made most other
females seem male,” Take a Murder, Darling

“It was a woman, a doll, a sensational tomato who
looked as if she’d just turned twenty one, but had obviously signaled for the
turn a long time ago. She was tall, and lovely all over, maybe five-seven, and
she wore a V-necked white blouse as if she were the gal who’d invented cleavage
just for fun. I gawked, and she smiled with plump, red lips, beautiful lips
that undoubtedly had said yes much more often than no…” Always Leave’em Dying

“It was one of those rare, completely smog-free days
when you can see Los Angeles from Los Angeles. Often you
can’t find City Hall unless you are in it, but this was one of those mornings
when you spring out of bed nearly overwhelmed by oxygen,”Always Leave’em Dying

“I think they lease Rodeo Drive by the carat rather than
front foot,” Kill Him Twice

“I have looked upon death and destruction, blood and
split brainboxes and disemboweled oxen. But I have seldom looked upon anything
less appetizing than Aggie fluttering her bald lips at me,” Gat Heat

“When an unidentified corpse lands in the morgue, the
real person is long gone to somewhere or other, and all that’s left for the
police and private eyes and others to draw conclusions from is the garbage left
behind, the worm food, the soil conditioner. The gift is gone, so we study the
package, eye the wrappings…” Take a Murder, Darling