Checking All the Usual Hideouts

After yesterday’s flurry of activity surrounding Richard S. Prather’s death; and with today representing a serious cleaning opportunity here in The Rap Sheet suite, I’m going to have to confine myself to Saturday wrap-up column. Fortunately, it seems to be a quiet day. At least so far. A few things to notice, however:

• An essay by Rachel Donadio, published in tomorrow’s edition of The New York Times Book Review, looks back on the spy-fiction-writing career of CIA agent-turned-Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, who died on January 23 at age 88. Leaving aside the fact that Donadio, an editor at the Book Review, is well behind the pack in addressing this subject, she does offer a few interesting anecdotes about Hunt, including this:

Back in Washington after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Hunt wrote increasingly pulpy, glamorous espionage fantasies, far removed from the drudgery of his actual duties. In a column last month, [William F.] Buckley [Jr.] recalled that Allen Dulles, then head of the agency, told Hunt--who wrote more than 70 novels--that he could continue to publish his fiction without clearance, as long as he used a pseudonym. (Hunt’s noms de plume included John Baxter, Robert Dietrich and David St. John.) “Hunt handed me his latest book, ‘Catch Me in Zanzibar,’ by Gordon Davis,” Buckley wrote. “I leafed through it and found printed on the last page, ‘You have just finished another novel by Howard Hunt.’ I thought this hilarious. So did Howard. The reaction of Allen Dulles is not recorded.”

The full Book Review piece can be found here.

• I’m not sure whether this suggests that a new edition of Allan Guthrie’s Noir Originals (which hasn’t published anything fresh for a year) might be in the offing, but the site appears to be new with a retrospective on the work of politician-turned-pulpster Dan. J. Marlowe. It’s written by Arizona Republic reporter Charles Kelly, who’s supposedly working on a Marlowe biography (and, meanwhile, has a first novel due out “soon” from PointBlank Press). He presents the creator of bank robber and professional thief Earl Drake as an amalgam of intriguing contradictions:

To some degree, Marlowe remains a mystery. But my research into his life has been quite revealing. Marlowe is a fascinating study--a businessman and city official who also, according to his own account, had been a professional gambler. A Rotarian whose novels often captured sociopathic personalities. An unathletic sports fan who wrote convincingly from the viewpoint of the he-man. A crossword-puzzle junkie, a hard drinker, a lover of the theater who disliked movies, a reserved and not-conventionally-attractive man who still managed to be a womanizer. And, late in life, an amnesiac--though some questioned the nature of that condition.

The full article is well worth reading. You can look it up here. And let’s hope that it’s simply a taste of what’s to come from a (finally) revitalized Noir Originals.

• Victor Gischler will be moderator Gerald So’s guest tomorrow at Chatterific, beginning at 3 p.m. Central Time. If you’d like to weigh in with online questions for the author of Gun Monkey, Shotgun Opera, and other books, you must first register here with Yahoo! Groups. “Once you’ve signed up,” Gischler explains in his blog, “you’ll need to log onto Yahoo! Messenger and contact Gerald So’s Yahoo I.D. (‘g_so’). Then you’ll be invited to the chat.” Although the preliminaries sound troublesome, Gischer is an entertaining fellow (from what I hear), worth chatting up.

• After having picked up, at Left Coast Crime, a Fawcett paperback edition of Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise, his 1965 first novel to feature the “dazzling female secret agent” he created for the comics pages, I couldn’t help noticing Steve Lewis’ recollections of O’Donnell’s work at Mystery*File. His piece tipped me to an essay by O’Donnell, featured at the Crime Time Web site, in which the octogenarian author traces his inspiration for the lovely Ms. Blaise. And it reminded me that the pilot for an American Modesty Blaise TV series, starring Ann Turkel, was broadcast in 1982 (though I must’ve missed it) and is remembered by some as being far superior to the 1966 theatrical release Modesty Blaise, which starred Italian actress Monica Vitti. Given the renewed interest in James Bond and actor Hugh Jackman’s hope to create a film franchise around the character of CIA code specialist Charles Heller (from Robert Littell’s The Amateur), perhaps it’s time to resurrect Modesty Blaise for the big screen. Any suggestions on who could play the young and rich spy? I can envisage Charlize Theron or even Natalie Portman in the role.

• Robert B. Parker, closet crooner? In his latest Amazon blog post, the creator of Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall tell readers: “We have begun putting together a CD to be called something like SONGS THAT SPENSER TAUGHT ME, featuring my son Dan singing songs from the books. It may include a guest appearance by Old Golden Throat himself. It’ll take awhile, but I thought I’d warn you early.” Yikes! I’m experiencing flashbacks to William Shatner singing “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” ...

• Author and Rap Sheet blogger Megan Abbott is the latest interviewee in Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards’ series of podcasts at Behind the Black Mask. Their discussion touches on Megan’s new novel, The Song Is You, her interest in film noir (“which I’ve been watching since I was a kid”), her historical research techniques, and the remarkable Richie Fahey covers of her novels so far. Listen to the full exchange here. Previous Behind the Black Mask podcasts featured Danuta Reah (Bleak Water), Theresa Schwegel (Probable Cause), Hard Case Crime’s Charles Ardai, and others. Still to come on March 15: Allan Guthrie, the British author of the forthcoming novel Hard Man.

• And birthday wishes are due to author Ruth Rendell--aka Barbara Vine, aka the Baroness Rendell of Babergh--who turns 77 years old today. Her 21st and latest Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford novel, Not in the Flesh, is due out in Britain come August.