My friend Richard Prather sent me a signed copy of his book THE PEDDLER today. It’s so nice to see this "lost" classic it back-in-print again in a Hard Case Crime edition with a stunning new Robert McGinnis cover. Prather and McGinnis have reunited after a long and rewarding partnership-of-sorts on Prather’s wildly successful Shell Scott detective novels in the 1960s (over 90 million copies sold!). Those books were Prather and McGinnis at the top of their form…and so is THE PEDDLER. I only meant to glance at Richard’s kind inscription but I was pulled into the prose and before I knew it, I found myself reading nearly the entire book again. It’s a dark, gritty, utterly compelling read…and is nothing like the funny, sexist, and gleefully entertaining detective romps that Prather is best known for. Kudos to Hard Case for making this great book available to readers again!
Dear Lee Goldberg,
I recently finished Prather’s THE PEDDLAR , and wanted to thank you for recommending it on your blog. (Had trouble finding it in the bookshop…it was under H for Hardcase, not P for Prather…)
I wouldn’t have known to look for it w/out your mentioning it. Strong writing – a real economy to the way the character is set forth, and revealed through action, a neatly done beginning and ending (he’s with the same girl) that serves to underline and dramatize his complete moral disintegration. I read a so-called “literary mystery” right before, and I thought the Prather was stronger.
The Mystery File Blog has a link to an absolutely spectacular interview with Prather, who has remarkably mental agility for an 85-year old man.