Richard S. Prather (1921–2007)

“And listen you, I’m older than I look.”

“Then she shut the door and I thought about sitting down on the grass and rolling around howling, and I thought about jumping up and running back and crashing through the door, but what I did was go out to the Cad and lean my head against the cool steering wheel for a couple seconds, then shiver spasmodically and put the buggy in gear thinking that Jules Osborne should have told me more about Diane, and offered me at least twenty thousand dollars.” — Hot-Rock Rumble

This is a terrific trio of Shell Scott stories from Richard Prather. Prather’s Shell Scott series reads like a slightly mellower version of Spillane’s Mike Hammer, but with a wry sense of humor. Between the luscious tomatoes and pulp violence there is quite a bit of humor in Prather’s narrative, the hard-bitten detective Shell Scott his voice. Three For the Shroud is a trio of shorter Shell Scott stories, but if you’re collecting these wildly popular books from yesteryear, don’t skip it, because it’s a blast.

Blood Ballot is the first of the stories and might be the best, but only by a hair. Shell is working for Senator Paul Hershey in this one, trying to protect him from the corrupt Blake, who is attempting to get the goods on Hershey so he can smear him in the press and make his boy a shoe-in this election. Blake plays rough, and there are two strikingly different hot tomatoes for Shell to deal with in Lorry Weston and Martita Delgado. Evidence in a safe everybody wants and a kidnapping come into play before Shell wraps this one up. Great fun.

The second tale, Dead Giveaway, is quirkier and funnier, and is also good fun. When a mousey girl named Ilona walks into Shell’s office looking for her missing husband, her story leads him to the conclusion that someone is out to kill her. Shell soon has his hands full with more than one Ilona, as he goes from girly show to girly show trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got do it. A snazzy redhead mistakes Shell for a doctor in this one and it’s hilarious! Will Shell survive the Hungarian Hurricane? Will a big inheritance turn an ugly duckling into a swan? You’ll have to read it to find out, but the middle story is not to be taken too seriously, it’s just good fun.

The third tale in the trilogy, Hot-Rock Rumble, is on a par with Blood Ballot. Shell’s trying to recover a stolen necklace from a guy’s mistress so she doesn’t start talking to his wife. She seems like jailbait to Scott, but he barely makes it out of her place with his, er, integrity intact once he meets her and experiences her charms. A little stoolie Shell knows points him to a tomato named Lois who has an entire carnival in her walk, and dresses the color of drinks — Shell can’t wait to see the champagne number. When someone turns up dead in Shell’s Caddie, however, Scott has to tackle a guy as big as a circus to avenge them, and get out from under a murder charge.

Two terrific pulp stories with a very good one sandwiched between them, it’s hard to go wrong on this one if you like Shell Scott, and why wouldn’t you?… (mais)

“From the sea’s edge fifty yards or so away I could hear the boom of surf, and the tangy bracing scent of the ocean was exhilarating in my nostrils.”


First appearing in the December 1954 edition of Manhunt, Richard S. Prather’s short story, Crime of Passion, features his creation, Shell Scott, and it’s a hoot. Heavy on the humor and light on the mystery, this one is a better supplemental story for Shell Scott fans than it is an introduction to Prather’s wonderful — and incredibly lucrative — P.I. creation. Scott had a lot in common with Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, but Prather also played the noir for laughs — though not to the screwball level Craig Rice did — and it’s that blend which made Shell Scott a household name. Prather had sold over 40 million copies by the time he passed, and anyone who’s read a Shell Scott novel knows why.

Perhaps the best way to think of Shell Scott, for those either of a certain age, or with a lot of pop culture knowledge, is to imagine that stocky little cartoon guy from those old Hawaiian Punch commercials. The difference is that Scott had a gun, and he got involved in some pretty tough little noir detective stories. There was always humor though, sometimes self-deprecating; combined with Prather’s smooth writing style, it was a surefire winner with the public, who gobbled up Prather’s Shell Scott stories nearly as fast as they gobbled up Spillane’s Mike Hammer tales.

This little bauble is a hoot from beginning to end. Shell’s trying to get through the front door of a swanky Malibu house by the sea, because he’s been invited by Dolly. The knockout blonde who answers the door initially is disappointed Shell isn’t who she’s expecting, and she gives him the brushoff. Not to be discouraged from a Hawaiian luau full of laughter and scantily-clad pretty girls — like the blonde who answered the door — Shell keeps trying. But the next person he encounters is no more friendly:

“He was built like a .45 automatic, and he was loaded.”

It really is a wild party, and once Shell finally gets inside, he runs into the blonde again:

“Saying she wore clothes would be, perhaps, an overstatement, since she was bare-foot and wore a red and black and green sarong that hugged her waist and hips the way I’d have liked to.”

Shell quickly gets revenge for being poked, only to discover the guy’s the host of the shindig, so he heads down to the beach, where the fun is really in high gear:

“Well, if everybody here was crazy, this was no time for me to be sane.”

Shell’s having a great time, until he discovers something a bit gruesome down there at the pig roast. Shell tries to sober up long enough — even putting off a gorgeous redhead, which goes against his nature — to get the cops out there.

While it’s nothing much, it’s also a blast that’ll put a smile on your face. As a mystery, Crime of Passion is almost gossamer. As a piece of humor, it works better if you’re familiar with Shell Scott — as readers of Manhunt would have been. Those unfamiliar with the Shell Scott mystery novels who pick this up because of the title, are going to be in for a huge disappointment. I can easily see three stars at best for someone reading this cold, without any background or context. For fans of Shell Scott, however, and the wonderful and unique blend of grit and guffaws perfected by Richard S. Prather, this short story is a sheer delight.… (mais)

Richard S. Prather’s name isn’t as well known today as Mickey Spillane’s, and he never became the cultural icon that Mick did. But he was a fabulous writer in the hardboiled vein, whose sales and popularity were right up there with the best of them for many years.

Whereas Spillane had Mike Hammer, Prather had Sheldon “Shell” Scott to make his way through the hardboiled and often violent streets of mystery/detective fiction. Unlike Mickey, however, Prather, whose first Shell Scott book, Case of the Vanishing Beauty, appeared in 1950, was very prolific. He left a literal slew of Shell Scott stories for us to enjoy.

Also unlike Mickey, Prather filled his Shell Scott novels with almost as much offbeat humor as violence, and the combination proved irresistible, especially during the glory days of Shell Scott in the 1950s and '60s. By the time he passed away at 85 in 2007, three years after losing his wife of nearly 60 years, Tina, his books had sold over 40 million copies.

The Sleeper Caper first appeared in Manhunt, and it's one of his shorter Shell Scott stories. The Sleeper Caper is a terrific and enjoyable story, and a perfect way to acquaint yourself with Prather’s creation to see if you like him. In Prather’s case, this is important because a great number of his Shell Scott novels were released on Kindle, and now have been packaged into boxed sets which are are a real bargain.

Shell is in Mexico to lend bookie Cookie Martini a hand. Cookie’s been losing a bundle because something very funny is going on around the horse track in Mexico. Too many long-shots have been paying off, and it’s obvious the fix is in. Scott’s at the track in Mexico as the story opens, and naturally there are a couple of hot tomatoes on his arms in Vera and Elena. When a tough little jockey refuses to throw a race, it doesn’t end well, and Scott wants revenge.

Shell knows Hammond and his right-hand man, Rath, are behind it, but before he can wrap this one up, things get pretty ugly. Right away Shell is on the wrong end of a brutal beating, but it isn’t enough to send him back home, not by a long-shot. When a dancer shows Scott the knife scars on her belly, he realizes someone is even more sadistic — and to his shock, masochistic — than he thought, which places a doll in danger. Said doll is in need of saving as only a guy like Shell Scott can.

The Sleeper Caper has a great, if violent ending, but there is a smoothness here in the writing, and within the flow of the story. In addition, Prather’s trademark humor lightens the mood at just the right moments, making this a truly enjoyable short story. A fine introduction to Prather’s wonderful Shell Scott stories, which will make you want to grab the novels up while they’re still being offered on Kindle. A fun read!… (mais)

Richard S. Prather never became the cultural icon that Mickey Spillane did, but he was a fabulous writer in the hardboiled vein whose sales and popularity were right up there with the best of them for many years. Prather’s detective was Sheldon “Shell” Scott, who made his way through the hardboiled streets with a lot of humor, making him a softer — and way funnier — version of the more serious Mike Hammer type.

It’s the easy narrative flow of Prather and that humor which make most of the Shell Scott series such a blast to read, even all these years later. The series began in 1950 and over that decade and the next, Prather’s Shell Scott stories, with their irresistible blend of violence and humor — often self-deprecating humor — outsold almost everyone but Spillane. By the time Prather passed at the age of 85, he’d sold over forty-million books.

Published in 1965, Dead Man’s Walk is an absolute blast. It has everything you could want in a Shell Scott story; a tropical setting as Shell sets sail for Verde Island in the Caribbean on the Wanderer II, with hot tomato Vanessa by his side; a Hunan Voodoo Priest with big steel teeth who immediately puts a curse on Shell upon his arrival — and of course gets knocked on his kisser; a Voodoo Priestess named Dria who’s also a hot tomato, and might need Shell’s help; people dropping like flies with no apparent cause of death except said voodoo; and a “voodoo” duel between Shell and Mordieux in the tropics which is both exciting and laugh-out-loud hilarious. And oh yeah, Shell figures out who has really been doing the killings, and why.

It all began — we get a flashback — when a former client of Shell’s bequeathes to him in his will a piece of Sunrise, a successful club in Verde that just about everyone’s heard about but the not-so-hip Shell. When the luscious Vanessa wants to join him in checking the place out, what’s Shell to do but let her come along? Of course, when Shell arrives there’s Mordieux putting a curse on him, and everyone around the joint is having trouble staying alive. It’s more atmosphere than plot in this one — though at the end, there’s more going on than you thought — but it’s a very fun ride. There’s one hilariously written scene about a bird watcher during a high speed chase that will have you laughing so hard you might bust a gut.

Shell almost goes down for the count when someone poisons him, but Dria, whose father may have been murdered by the powerful Mordieux, uses her own voodoo skills to save him. Between that, and Vanessa getting snatched, Shell’s had about all he can take in this tropical paradise, and plans out a confrontation with Mordieux the likes of which readers haven’t seen since Harry Potter and that guy whose name shall not be spoken.

It’s best not to think too hard about the plot of this one, and just enjoy the ride. Like a lot of Prather's work, it’s sharp, funny, exciting, and it will definitely leave a smile on your face when you turn the last page, as a lot of the Shell Scott stories have a tendency to do. A fabulous entry in a fun series which shouldn’t be forgotten. Thanks to Prather's fun Shell Scott series becoming available in boxed sets on Kindle as of late, and at a bargain price, an entirely new generation is discovering why this cat sold over forty-million books. This entry in particular is fun stuff, and is sure to make most readers a fan.… (mais)