Tuesday 2 October 2018

2 BY ROSS THOMAS

A couple this week from US author Ross Thomas and someone I probably haven't read in about 25 years or so. I think I first discovered in him the late 80s, enjoyed something - can't remember what. I subsequently bought a few books from him, shelved them and moved on.






















Ross Thomas wrote about twenty-five novels in a career that saw him published from 1966 to 1994 - crime fiction, thrillers and espionage - including three different series characters - Mac McCorkle, Arthur Case Wu and Philip St. Ives under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck. 

Briarpatch won the 1985 Edgar Award for best novel.

In his non-novelist life he was a reporter, a foreign correspondent and a public relations executive in the US, Europe and Africa. He died in 1995.

I suppose after twenty plus years I ought to blow the dust off these and read them!


Briarpatch (1984)

When Detective Felicity Dill is blown to smithereens by a car bomb, her brother, Benjamin, a consultant to a Senate sub-committee, flies to their hometown for her funeral. But Benjamin has two other missions in mind: to find Felicity's murderer and to get a much-needed deposition for his sub-committee.

A lot has changed in the burgeoning Sunbelt city of his youth, and Dill soon uncovers a vicious web of murder and political skullduggery that involves a motley array of friends and enemies from his own past and his sister's mysterious present: Dill's boyhood friend who got rich as an arms dealer in Vietnam; a spaced-out electronics genius: several members of the local police; a very beautiful lawyer; and an ex-CIA spook whom everybody in Washington wants to meet.

Sexy, streetwise, fast-paced and funny, Briarpatch is the novel all Thomas fans - and everyone else - have been waiting for.

"There are very few of our contemporary entertainers as consistently entertaining as Mr Thomas and ever fewer who can match him for style and power...." - The New Yorker

The Fourth Durango (1989)


In the God-forsaken city of Durango a man can get lost. In fact, it can be arranged - for a small fee, payable to the Mayor and Chief of Police....

Jack Adair, ex-judge-turned-jailbird, is a man who wants to get lost badly. 400,000 US Dollars badly. That's the money floating around a Panama bank with Jack's name on it after an alleged bribery deal.

Father Teddy - aka the Snout, aka Theodore Cotraire - is a man with a .22 shotgun and a mission, a mission to save Jack. He'd like to fond him badly. 400,000 US Dollars badly.

As the hideously disfigured Teddy drifts around town preaching through the barrels of his gun, the killings start to rise, and a macabre pursuit ensues. But can Jack find Teddy before Teddy finds Jack and the Mayor and Chief of Police find Jack's body....?

"The most knowledgeable, exciting and original writer in hid field" Julian Symons, INDEPENDENT


14 comments:

  1. I have noticed that journalists and roving correspondents usually write good fiction, especially espionage and thrillers. I will look out for Ross Thomas' novels.

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    1. That's a good point Prashant. I hope you can pick something up by him at one of your roadside stalls. I don't hardly ever see his books around here in the UK these days.

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    2. Col, I don't recall seeing the author's books either but his name is familiar to me.

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    3. Prashant, there#s a lot of people I used to see when browsing secondhand shops but not so much now - Ed McBain, Harold Robbins, even your man Higgins

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  2. These do sound good, Col. I've heard of Thomas, but not read his work. But these sound intriguing, so perhaps I've been missing out...

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    1. Margot he might be an author where our tastes collide.

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    1. June thanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope you can track something down by him and you enjoy it.

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  4. Just like you, I read a couple of Ross Thomas's a long time ago, and haven't thought of him since. I'll be interested in your verdict if you do read these.

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    1. Thanks Moira. Now the library is resettled at home, I'll be trying to read more of my own books in future.

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  5. I have read two of Ross Thomas's books and I liked them a lot. I have more of them, including Briarpatch. I love those covers on your editions.

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    1. I do like the covers as well, they're quite busy. I'll hopefully read something from him in the next year or so. Not much difference between 25 years and 26...

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  6. The first of his novels I read many years ago was CHINAMAN'S CHANCE, and I became an instant fan. I read quite a few others subsequently, and still have one on my shelf and a few others on a flash drive to get to.

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    1. I haven't read Chinaman's Chance yet, but I think I have it on the pile somewhere.Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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