Customer Reviews

The Trojan Hearse

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The Trojan Hearse is a 1960s detective novel by Richard S. Prather, who obviously had his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek when he wrote it. It stars Shell Scott, the fictional protagonist of many a Prather work. Scott is an LA private eye, known equally well for his fearlessness and his trademark white hair and eyebrows.
In this particular installment, Scott is hired to find out who is responsible for the sudden death of Charley White, the best friend of a highly popular singer named Johnny Troy. Along the way, he finds himself in a position to influence the outcome of the Presidential election taking place that very week.
Scott himself provides the narration and in doing so unleashes countless clever quips. As the story unfolds, the reader is treated to Mr. Scott's take on various topics like urban renewal, flouridation of drinking water and psychoanalysis. (He's against all three).
The Trojan Hearse is light entertainment. Few would mistake this book for great literature. A 3 star effort, no more, no less.

From the back...Sure there was a national election going on, but I wasn't running for any office. Still, if it hadn't been for me the other candidate, who was a shoo-in, might have won. But there were a lot of other things going on, too. Like Polly Plonk, whom I first encountered all dressed up in her birthday suit in her psychiatrist's office. Or Johnny Troy, America's golden-voiced gift to females of all ages, who might have polled more votes than both presidential candidates if he hadn't fetched up dead. And, lastly, Ulysses Sebastian, whose talent agency was the biggest in the world until it started to "represent" some mighty peculiar clients, such as Joe Rice, top man in the west coast Mafia, whose delightful little hirelings kept trying to kill me for reasons that were not at all clear to anyone, least of all me, Shell Scott.