Randy Wayne White's "Doc Ford" character is another that has evolved from a high school wrestler and baseball player to someone Superman would envy. I like the series but not as much as the early stuff. Similar to John D McDonald whose Travis McGee character could do anything and everything the snippets of experience found in there were worth overlooking the lack of reality.
New Robert B. Parker and J. Sandford Books
- Thread starter Texas Star
- Start date
dickttx
Member
Speaking of authors dying, maybe my two favorite authors have died the last couple of years: Tony Hillerman and Dick Francis. What is strange is that I have ever given up and not finished less than half dozen books in my life, but I quit partway through my first book on both of them. In both cases, several years later, desperate for something to read, I picked up another of their books and became a huge fan. You really had to get into the rhythm of both of them.
What I was saying is that in this latest book, "Buried Prey", it has a flashback to his start with the police force, and it mentions him carrying a S&W Model 40 off duty, and then later in the book, present day, he carries a Colt Gold Cup.
I'm not doubting that you & 5wire are correct about the HK.
5Wire
Member
I, for one, didn't think you were. But Sandford/Camp seems to have had different ideas about what is appropriate for Lucas to carry as the novels progressed. He also made the Glock "safety" error in an earlier novel, too, can't remember which one.
This thread, by the way, prompted me to put in a call for the book at my local library.
The HK P7 M13 is a superb firearm but, being a 9mm, must have proved too wussy for the tough guy because the Gold Cup supplanted it and the HK was never mentioned again. I'd be willing to wager a P7 M13 with adjustable sights would be more precise than a Gold Cup but who cares. The stories are great.
OP
Texas Star
US Veteran
I find the P-7 hard to hold really steady, due to the front grip safety having to be held in under considerable pressure. And the Gold Cup I had was VERY accurate!
I have no idea whether either was approved by the Minneapolis police or Davenport's later state agency. I think Virgil Flowers has a Glock .40. May be a S&W .40 in one book. I disremember.
T-Star
5Wire
Member
The cocking lever on the P7s requires about 12 lb to close but only two or three to hold closed. Ya get used to it and you are assured of a good grip.
John Ross
Absent Comrade
You guys that like reading Parker and Sandford might like to visit a webpage I wrote some years ago where I listed my own favorite novelists.
John's Favorite Novelists
I need to update it because of some deaths (Spillane, Parker, Hamilton, Francis) and to add authors, most notably Jeffery Deaver and Michael Connolly.
John's Favorite Novelists
I need to update it because of some deaths (Spillane, Parker, Hamilton, Francis) and to add authors, most notably Jeffery Deaver and Michael Connolly.
5Wire
Member
I've used your page to get a couple writers I hadn't read before, thanks! Also confirmed some we already had in common. Chuck Logan comes to mind, Nelson DeMille.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy his books...but little things like that annoy me. I guess I want him to be a gun expert too!
Another thing I find annoying, and I don't recall Sandford doing this, is when an author has a character check/release the safety on a revolver! I know that a revolver can have a safety, although it is very rare (unless you consider the ILS or similar locks a safety) but that always annoys me.
I wonder how these guys sleep at night, knowing that I am annoyed!
Interesting link! Thanks.
When I was young, I enjoyed reading an author (Richard S. Prather) who wrote a series of books about a private detective named Shell Scott. A couple of years ago, I bought the series (on eBay) and reread some of them...they weren't quite as engaging as I remembered, but still interesting as they center mostly on his exploits fighting with hoodlums in Hollywood, and of course being a ladies man at the same time. They aren't lurid, nor graphic, certainly by today's standards, but they probably wouldn't win any awards from women's groups...all the women are "babes."
Anyone else read his books?
OP
Texas Star
US Veteran
Interesting link! Thanks.
When I was young, I enjoyed reading an author (Richard S. Prather) who wrote a series of books about a private detective named Shell Scott. A couple of years ago, I bought the series (on eBay) and reread some of them...they weren't quite as engaging as I remembered, but still interesting as they center mostly on his exploits fighting with hoodlums in Hollywood, and of course being a ladies man at the same time. They aren't lurid, nor graphic, certainly by today's standards, but they probably wouldn't win any awards from women's groups...all the women are "babes."
Anyone else read his books?
Yeah, I've read a few Shell Scott books. It doesn't offend me that he used words like "babes." it was current then, and in line with his personality. I'm not into being too PC. I have ongoing arguments about that with a girl on another board.
I think Scott carried some snub .38. Don't recall if the author said what. And I believe that I recall a .300 Weatherby in his car trunk on one occasion. That might or might not have been a MK V, which was just being introduced about then.
Has anyone read the Peter Ward books by former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt? Those were quite good, and Ward tended to use various .32 autos. I think I recall a Sauer Model 38H that he got hold of in India. Those date from the 1960's. They were contemporary with Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm books, but the Helm series lasted from about 1960-1990 or so. Helm normally had a S&W snub .38, either a Bodyguard or a Model 60, depending on the book. He never said, "Bodyguard", but the description fit. A title released about the time that the M-60 appeared had the agents getting them, because of the stainless steel construction. Hamilton was a hunter and also wrote for Gun Digest a few times. He knew guns better than any other thriller writer whom I've encountered. In one book, he had a Colt Python with 2.5-inch bbl. because it was the gun carried by a man he was told to impersonate after that fellow was killed.
Helm also used some interesting knives. The only one that you'd likely find today was a Buck Model 110, bought slightly used in Canada after he had to leave his custom lockblade folder in a body. I remember him putting a drop of oil on the joint and opening and closing the blade until it moved more smoothly.
T-Star
I'm not much on "PC" either...I'm too old fashioned (and old) for that...I hold my wife's chair, open doors for her, and I do for other ladies as well. Not as a put down, but as a courtesy as I was raised to do.
Shell Scott carried a Colt Detective Special in a clam shell holster (if memory serves me; the books are packed away, so I can't readily refer to them.)
There is no doubt - Stephen Hunter is a real gun guy and he gets them right in his books. And I agree, those 3 are clearly his best work, they were simply amazing reads. He has a new one coming out in December "Soft Target", not sure if it's more Bob Lee Swagger or not, but I won't miss it.
Pasifikawv
Member
I've read all of the J. Sanford novels and I am now half way thru Buried Prey. One interesting thing about the book for fans of the series: the books opens with a cold case resurfacing and the first 40% is flashback to Davenport's early days when first transitioning from uniform beat cop to plain-clothes detective.
Forester
Member
Very interesting as this also is what happened to me. I did read books but only those I had to. Robert Parker taught me to read for pleasure. I'll always be grateful for that. I do think he leaned on the same themes too much as he got older, but I still read every single one of them.The late, great Robert B. Parker literaly taught me to read.
All thru my life, I've never read a single book cover to cover. Even in school, if we were required to read a book and write a report about it, I would just skim thru it and make up a bunch of stuff.
However...
About 5 or 6 years ago, that all changed when a movie aired on CBS starring one of my very favorite actors, Tom Selleck. That movie was called Stone Cold.
When I realized it was based on a novel, I decided to go to the local library and see if they had it. Since then, I have read EVERY SINGLE NOVEL that RBP has ever written.
I cried the day he passed.
While I do enjoy a good dose of Spenser, Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall were my favorite of all his characters.
But my very favorite of his writings was All Our Yesterdays and Double Play. If you ever get a chance, check 'em out.
Since watching (and reading) Stone Cold, I have purchased the entire Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series on paperback and I also own the complete Jesse Stone DVD collection.
Incidentally...the newest Jesse Stone movie, Innocents Lost debuts on CBS Sunday, May 22nd at 8pm CST.
