Category: Eat This Book

URBAN EXPLORER: What’s Inside the Chrysler Building?

low-angle photography of white concrete building tower
Best skyscraper in NYC!
red and blue abstract painting
Urbex!

The Chrysler building is my favorite New York sky scraper. What’s not to love about its stainless steel roof and Art Deco perfection?

And the fact that its observation deck  on the 71st floor has been closed to the public adds to its mystery. What’s inside that steel dome? A secret nightclub? The most exclusive penthouse condo in NYC?

Visitors to the Chrysler Building are actively discouraged. Ten years ago, we were able to walk into its beautiful Art Deco lobby for a look-see, but on our first visit after COVID, we were summarily chased out by the security guard! That, of course, piqued my curiosity even more. 

Beautiful lobby of the Chrysler Building

To my surprise the answers to the Chrysler Building’s mysteries popped up on the internet and we can visit inside its stainless steel roof -virtually – thanks to urban explorer, Moses Gates, author of Hidden Cities. (Eat that Book!)

Walter P. Chrysler, famed auto magnate, wanted a personal monument to himself. The building was completed on May 28, 1930, according to a design by architect, William Van Alen. Somewhat foolishly, Van Alen never signed a contract with Chrysler, who refused to pay him, accusing him of shady dealings with the building contractors. Van Alen sued and did get his money eventually but the fight ruined his reputation and he never worked as an architect again. (Sound familiar?)

Then as now there was a lot of dick-waving: to own the tallest building in the world and to make them taller with spires. The Chrysler Building’s 61 meter spire, made of special stainless steel,  was hidden inside the building and installed as a crowning touch. For about 11 months, it was the tallest in the world until the Empire State Building surpassed it.

Walter Chrysler kept his own office and apartment in the building though apparently he didn’t use either much. He like to boast that he had the highest toilet in the world.

Walter Chrysler’s potty

Interestingly, the other private apartment in the Chrysler Building belonged to a woman, photo-journalist Margaret Bourke. Despite her wealth and fame, she had to have the lease to her 61st floor apartment co-signed by Time, Inc. because she was female. Here she is astride one of the building’s gargoyles. She had a remarkable career as a war correspondent  and adventurer. (Read more about her here.)

Margaret Bourke and gargoyle

At the behest of Texaco, Chrysler installed the Cloud Club, with three exclusive dining rooms – and a speakeasy – on floors 66 to 68. The Cloud Club  lasted 40+ years until the late 1970s when it was demolished for office space.  That was much longer than the celestial-themed observation deck on the 71st floor, which was shut down in 1945.

Celestial-themed observation deck

But there was a way, you could see NYC from the top of the Chrysler Building: you could go to the dentist! From 1962 to 2012, Dr. Charles M. Weiss ran his dental practice, mostly located on the 69th floor. He was known as The Dentist in the Sky and was an innovator in dental implantology. 

The Dentist in the Sky

But what about inside that glorious stainless steel roof? Are there hidden speak-easies? Secret apartments for mistresses? Who better to ask than urban explorer, Moses Gates? Here’s the YouTube video of his visit INSIDE the stainless steel roof.

It’s a dizzying climb with a spectacular forbidden view of NYC, but the inside is underwhelmingly functional, with concrete beams, ladders and steel walkways. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EAT THIS BOOK: Trail of the Lost by Andrea Lankford

EAT THIS BOOK!

Last fall, we made a sentimental journey to Stowe, Vermont, which included a visit to one of my favorite bookshops, Bear Pond Books, the second largest indie bookstore in the state. Bear Pond showcases local authors, intelligent kids books and works about adventuring and nature. That’s where I grabbed my holiday read: Trail of the Lost by Andrea Lankford. 

I’m fascinated by stories of mysterious disappearances, especially people who vanish in the wilderness. (See my previous blogs, The Riddle of Julian Sands and The Cold Vanish.) Andrea Lankford, author of Trail of the Lost, worked for 12 years as a park ranger with the USA’s National Park Service, leading search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful – and dangerous – places. Her bestselling book shines light on the unsung heroes of search-and rescue: the many volunteers who end up devoting their lives, often over many years, to locate people who walked into nature and were never seen or heard from again.

Lankford investigates the cases of three young men who went missing while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches 2650 miles from California to the Canadian border. It’s the west coast twin of the Appalachian Trail, celebrated by Bill Bryson in his hilarious book, A Walk in the Woods, which captures perfectly the utter misery of hiking. The Pacific Crest Trail is perhaps the more remote and more dangerous of the two.

Chris Sylvia. 28, was an unemployed artist living in California. After suffering a few emotional setbacks, he decided to do a 2-week hike  on the PCT to find himself. Since it was February,  he headed south toward the Mexican border. Only four days in, he phoned his best friend, Min, to pick him up, but he never showed. Worried, Min reported him missing. Sometime later, his hiking gear showed up at a gear exchange facility along the trail. The hikers who turned it in found the gear lying on the trail… 

On the other hand, Kris Fowler, 34, was an experienced woodsman. He’d already completed 2000 miles of the PCT and was making for White Pass and the end of the trail at the Canadian border when he vanished without a trace. The October weather was cold and dreary and at higher altitudes there was always the threat of snow…

David O’Sullivan, 25, was an Irish citizen out for adventure and determined to complete the full PCT. He started his trek from Campo, near the Mexican border. Though it was April, hikers reported icy spots in the higher, steeper regions that could lead to serious accidents. David vanished near Mile 179 …

Trail of the Lost: Highly recommended. Five stars! A poignant portrayal of hiking, its euphoric highs, the sacrifice and heroism of participants and volunteers and the dark dangers inherent in nature and the occasional human.

THE RIDDLE OF JULIAN SANDS – Part 2 / Eat This Book: The Cold Vanish

On January 13th, acclaimed British actor, Julian Sands, disappeared while hiking alone near Mt. Baldy, California  The search for him resumed after the winter snows melted though deep patches still linger.  Last week hikers stumbled across a set of human remains in the area where Sands’ cell phone last pinged, remains now confirmed to be his.

In Part One, I introduced Dr. Robert Koester, an expert on the behavior of people who get lost in the wilderness. Now, in Part 2, I’m recommending an excellent book about searching for missing people in the wild, The Cold Vanish, by Jon Billman.

Eat This Book!

Jon Billman, an athlete, creative writing teacher and contributor to famed Outside Magazine, uses his decades of personal experience in search and rescue to create a compelling and thought-provoking narrative on how and why people go missing in the wilds.

Billman shares representative cases of missing persons, from a runner murdered by a serial killer to deaths by falls, exposure and other misadventures to the miraculous rescue of a yoga teacher in the remote forests of Hawaii. And yes, she’d wandered off the beaten path and yes, she’d ended up many miles in the opposite direction from where logic dictated she’d be. She was spotted by mere chance by a search plane which, ironically, had also flown off course.

The overarching story that ties Billman’s book together is the case of Jacob Gray, a young man on a solo journey of self-discovery. Jacob was reported missing after his bicycle was discovered abandoned in Olympic National Park. Billman became close friends with Jacob’s father, Randy Gray, who spent years searching tirelessly for his son. Initially searchers feared that Jacob had fallen into a nearby fast-flowing river, but when divers came up empty, Randy and Billman together explored a gamut of wild possibilities, including Jacob’s joining a cult. In the end, Jacob is found, but no spoilers. Eat the book!

Missing people are located largely due to the efforts of volunteers. Billman introduces colorful characters who have made finding lost people their life mission: Duff, the blood hound handler; Michael Neiger, bushman and self-taught expert; and David Paulides, ex-cop and dedicated Bigfoot researcher.

Sadly many times the outcome is tragic. The classic scenario is that hikers or hunters stumble over the missing person’s skeletal remains, exactly the way Julian Sands was eventually found. Often it’s in a spot far from where the person initially disappeared.

The takeaways from Billman’s book reinforce Dr. Koester’s warnings: don’t stray off the main path, tell people where you are going and if you get lost, stay put!  Best advice of all, don’t go out into the wilderness unprepared and alone.

SURREAL TRAPDOOR The Riddle of Julian Sands Part 1

I’ve had a lifelong fascination with people who mysteriously disappear, especially those who get lost in the wilderness. On January 13th, British actor Julian Sands was reported missing by his family. Sands, an experienced hiker and mountaineer, had set out alone for the San Gabriel Mountains , 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles.  He never returned. On January 18th his car was located near Mt. Baldy , one of  his favorite trails.

Julian Sands

Julian Sands is/was 65 years old and made his home in North Hollywood. His break-out role was in the British period piece, A Room with a View , which coincidentally starred Helena Bonham Carter as an ingenue -before she found her goth persona and her partner, Tim Burton.  Sands continued to work in many diverse films and series, including The Killing Fields, The L Word, Smallville, 24 and even Dexter! 

How could he simply disappear? How could a seasoned climber come to grief?

Dr. R. J. Koester

For answers, I looked to my friend, bear biologist, Sarah Poole. She told me about search and rescuer, Dr. Robert J. Koester, who’s an expert in understanding the behavior of lost people.

Here’s what I learned from his video, which you can watch here on YouTube.

 

      • It is very easy to get lost. Dr. Koester describes a case of an experienced 65 year old hiker who had a habit of walking 80 steps from the trail for a washroom break. (That’s right, eighty not eight!)  Her skeletal remains were found two years later.
      • Lost people DO tend to wander around in circles. People wander in random patterns and can travel great distances. They are often found far from the area where they were supposed to be.
      • Lost people tend to travel downhill rather uphill. People believe that down is  safer and that they will be more likely to find help there. Sadly that is not necessarily true.
      • People get lost by making a mistake. At first, they believe their instruments or maps are faulty so they can travel a significant distance before they realize they are lost.
      • People get an adrenalin rush when they discover they are lost. This is a normal physiological response. The worst thing one can do is to panic. The first thing to do is to calm down; a simple drink of water can be enough.

So what happened to Julian Sands? The San Gabriel Mountains are about an hour’s drive from LA, stretching between the city and the Mohave Desert. Winters are wet and snowfall can be heavy.  Ice-climbing and snow trails are popular with mountaineers and Baldy Bowl is a favorite. This is where Sands was headed.

 

Mt. Baldy

Mt. Baldy’s real name is Mt. San Antonio. At over 10,000 feet, it’s the highest peak in the mountain range.  Winter climbing on the Baldy Bowl requires ice axes and crampons with ascents of 45 to 50 degrees. Rockfalls and avalanches are common. This January severe storms in the area led to extremely dangerous avalanche conditions and search and rescue operations had to be curtailed. Julian Sands remains missing.

Not long after, a number of bogus reports surfaced, claiming that Sands had been spotted alive and well.  Unfortunately, this is a common scenario, born of romanticism and desperate hope – and perhaps too much bingeing on Netflix.

One hiker, 75 year old Jin Chung, was rescued from Mt. Baldy around the same time after he went missing for two days. He’d gone off on his own leaving his  two hiking companions on another route. Fortunately, after they alerted search and rescue, Chung was found with only mild injuries.

As Dr. Koester warns hikers: tell people where you are going; take emergency survival supplies with you and never hike alone.

More to come in Part 2!

EAT THIS BOOK: Five Moves of Doom by A. J. Devlin

Great news, Readers!

I just finished Five Moves of Doom, the third book in the PI “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead series – and it’s terrific! Set in gritty East Vancouver, protagonist Jed has an unusual occupation: he’s a retired professional wrestler.

What makes for a gripping story, as in Fellini’s classic film La Strada and even hit Canadian comedy series, Trailer Park Boys, is the classic trio of characters representing brains, brawn and heart. Hammerhead Jed embodies all three in one person– and author A.J. Devlin pulls this off brilliantly. Jed is first and foremost a physical person. That, sometimes to his detriment, is his self-identity. But clients and bad guys tend to underestimate his intelligence – and that is always to their detriment.

In Five Moves of Doom, Jed is hired by former UFC fighter, Elijah Lennox, to find Elijah’s million dollar, diamond-encrusted championship belt. Trustingly, Elijah had it on display at his martial arts studio, but now it’s gone missing. Jed recovers the belt thanks to his smarts and underworld contacts, though finding it seems too easy. Then Elijah ends up dead and Jed’s heart drives him to find the murderer and bring them to justice.

Jed’s quest draws him into the murky realm of illegal fighting.  Devlin has created an ogre of a villain in Cassian, the ringleader, who wears the dog tags of his victims round his neck as trophies. (To me they’re more like the shrunken heads worn by a cannibal king!) Taking on Cassian draws Jed into some very dark places, many within himself. It takes a skilled writer to draw the reader along to explore Jed’s troubled path and Devlin pulls it off.

There are two aspects of the Hammerhead series that I especially enjoy. The first is the sheer physicality and choreography of the fighting scenes. Too often, fights in crime fiction are a bit predictable resulting in an urge to flip the page. Not so here.  Devlin knows fighting and that shines through in every scene. (Learn more about AJ’s fighting background on Cyber Café here.)

I also love Devlin’s secondary characters like Jed’s cousin, Declan, Irish barkeep and former IRA commando, who always has his family’s back. The chapter written from Declan’s POV is a tour de force of writing. My personal favorite is Sykes, Jed’s shady entrepreneur and informant, who in the previous book was bookmaking on dachshund racing.  This time out, Sykes has taken up goat yoga. That’s right goat yoga.  Both are comedy gold and even better, Readers, both weird activities are real.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

FIVE STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

MOST IMPORTANT: WHERE TO BUY THE HAMMERHEAD JED SERIES!

Five Moves of Doom, as well as Cobra Clutch and Rolling Thunder, are available for purchase on Amazon, Indigo, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and anywhere paperbacks and eBooks are sold.

In addition, Cobra Clutch is now available as an audiobook on Audible and wherever audiobooks can be found.

Order the “Hammerhead” Jed mystery-comedy series through bookshop.newestpress.com, which features a Find Your Local Bookstore link to support indie bookstores and shop local.

Finally, AJ is proud to have partnered up with his friends at the terrific Western Sky Books in Port Coquitlam, where copies of all three “Hammerhead” Jed books with personalized inscriptions can be requested and purchased online exclusively through their website WesternSkyBooks.com.

EAT THIS BOOK: Lost in the Valley of Death by Harley Rustad

I am an intrepid armchair adventurer. One of my earliest memories is listening to a report that Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary had summited Mt. Everest - on the radio. (Yes, I'm that O-L-D.)

Mt. Everest has fascinated me all my life. I devoured John Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, about the notorious 1996 climbing disaster and became a long-time subscriber to Outside Magazine. In 1997, my daughter and I heard Krakauer speak at OISE about another of his books, Into the Wild. He  changed our thinking forever.

Into the Wild is the story of 19 year old Christopher McCandless, who, disillusioned by modern life, turned to a nomadic existence and changed his name to Alex Supertramp. He ended up dying in an abandoned school bus in Denali National Park, Alaska after a failed attempt to live off the land. Before I would have written off McCandless as a victim of misadventure (he ate a poisonous plant), but Krakauer illuminated his tragedy. Nature isn't a gentle spiritual healer: nature just is.

When Amazon recommended, Lost in Valley of Death by Harley Rustad, it took me a whole two seconds to buy it. Rustad's book struck me as a fusion of Into the Wild  and The Cold Vanish, a gripping collection of true stories about people who'd vanished in the wilderness by a search-and-rescue expert, Jon Billman,  

Rustad, like Krakauer and Billman, is a writer for Outside Magazine which values excellence in non-fiction writing. Even better, he's Canadian!

His beautifully written and meticulously researched book examines the tragic life of another lost soul, Justin Alexander Shetler, who vanished in India's Parvati Valley or the  "Backpackers Bermuda Triangle". There are definite similarities between McCandless and Shetler, but at age 35, Shetler was older and more experienced and what happened to him underscores the downside of living in the digital age.

The Parvati Valley lies in Northern India in the Himalayan Mountains. This remote and rugged region is a spiritual destination for Sikh and Hindu pilgrims: legend has it that Shiva, the Destroyer God, meditated there for 3000 years. What is also true is that the valley is a source of potent black hash. Though marihuana and hash are illegal in India, local authorities turn a blind eye to its use, at least by the locals. Not only do the police lack the resources for enforcement, the hash brings in Western tourists and significant economic benefits to the area. The Western search for spiritual enlightenment is big business.

Several travelers go missing every year in the Parvati Valley.  Some disappear intentionally and reside there illegally before being discovered and deported. Others are victims of hiking accidents or fall afoul of bandits and/or drug dealers. The ferocious rapids of the Parvati River ensure that the bodies of the disappeared are rarely recovered.

Shetler was far from being a wide-eyed tourist. He'd travelled throughout Asia and made many friends there. An accomplished nature guide and tough survivalist, he'd survived the break-up of his parents' marriage, sexual abuse and a near-fatal car accident. A keen, deep-set spiritual void turned him into a nomad, constantly seeking fulfillment from the world around him. He assumed and shed many identities in his short life: environmentalist, Buddhist monk, IT entrepreneur, motorcycle rider and sadhu disciple. 

His emptiness was fueled by an obsession to document his adventures on social media. Far from healing him, the pressing demand for content from his followers let the demons of marketing invade his soul.  He became a brand in pursuit of an identity. Perhaps this desperation is why he resorted to buying and selling hash to finance his spiritual journey and to trusting the wrong people. 

Rustad's book is a cautionary tale for those who fail to understand what Western tourists represent to an impoverished population.  And a warning that even the mightiest man may be slain by one arrow.

RATING: 5 STARS!!

EAT THIS BOOK: HELL and GONE by Sam Wiebe

Eat this book!

I was delighted when author friend, Sam Wiebe, announced his latest Dave Wakeland thriller, Hell and Gone, the third in the series about the introspective Vancouver private investigator (Harbour Publishing). 

The first two Wakeland books were stand-outs: Invisible Dead was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award and Cut You Down was short-listed for both the Hammett and Shamus awards. But Hell and Gone is the best Wakeland novel yet!

The book opens with a harrowing robbery and shoot-out, one of the most gripping action sequences I’ve read in recent memory. Wakeland witnesses the crime, tries unsuccessfully to help the victims and struggles with PTSD as a result.  He’s determined to bring down the perpetrators, but this puts him in conflict with his business partner, Jeff Chen.

Hell and Gone focuses on Jeff, who up till now was more Wakeland’s foil: the moral, stable, non-violent half of the partnership. Sam delves into the intricate historical ties to crime in Vancouver’s Chinese community and the traps that can befall the modern generation of business owners like Jeff. His portrayal of Wakeland’s PTSD is especially believable.

The plot offers enough twists and betrayals to rival Dashiell Hammett himself. (Sorry no spoilers!) You’ll stay up all night to get to the last page.

And for emerging writers, I highly recommend Sam’s online Mystery Writing Mastery courses. The 14 beginner’s lessons are free.

My rating: Five Stars!

 

EAT THIS BOOK: Forgotten Writers #8 – Robert Ray – Murdock PI Series

More shelf clearing, Readers!

Next up: Murdock for Hire, Book 2 in the hard-boiled PI series by Robert Ray,   featuring boat- building private eye,  Matt Murdock.

Author Robert Ray is a pretty cool guy.  Born in Texas in 1935, which makes him 86 years old, he describes himself as “author, teacher, dangerous thinker”.  In university he majored in languages, learning Russian, Chinese and Hindustani!  He bagged a PhD and has spent his professional life teaching writing at the college level.

Penguin published Ray’s first books in the Murdock series from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. I remember their witty titles: Bloody Murdock, Dial M for Murdock, Merry Christmas Murdock and Murdock Cracks Ice.  Then there’s a 20 year gap before the next two books in the series: Murdock Tackles Taos (2012) and Murdock Rocks Sedona (2015). Also a change of venue from California to New Mexico and a change in publishers to Camel Press Publishing  a mid-list publisher of genre fiction located in Washington State.

So what happened?  A familiar and unhappy scenario for many writers.  They publish a series of books then the publisher drops them because (a) their editor and in-house champion left the company or (b) the books didn’t sell quite enough. Quality doesn’t count, not even Hammett nominations, only biz revenues.  Authors’ careers increasingly resemble the business curves of  commodities.

So what happened to Ray in the intervening 20 years? Quite a lot as it turned out.

He returned to his teaching roots and with co-author, Bret Norris, created The Weekend Novelist, a step-by-step manual for wannabe authors busy with their day jobs.  It proved to be such a huge success that Ray went on to write two more follow-ups: The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery with his friend, Jack Remick as well as  The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel.  Ray believes that  the books have taught more than 10,000 people how to write!

Ray also wrote a standalone thriller, The Hitman Cometh as well as several business texts and a book on tennis.

Today, with the help of Jack Remick, he maintains a vibrant blog on his website. Every Tuesday and Friday they write together at Louisa’s Bakery and Cafe in Seattle, a city where he and his wife live with three cats…so far.

I like this guy!!

Re-reading the opening chapters of Murdock for Hire, I’m struck by Ray’s spare, journalistic prose,  which zips you through the pages. The subject matter is pure “Wolf of Wall Street” stuff. Hapless businessman Eddie Hennessey tries the kinky sex and drugs of an exclusive hookers’ club and ends up unpleasantly dead. Murdock, who more than a little resembles Travis McGee (he loves boats and hot women), is asked to investigate.  It’s an enjoyable pulp read, the same but different.

BOTTOM LINE:   My copy of Murdock for Hire  is paperback, not first edition.  Prices on Abe Books, Amazon and Biblio range from $2 to $6.  Thierry value: $11.30US*

DECISION: Donate to Little Library

*Thierry value = most outrageous price you can humanly get away with. Named in honor of Mr. Brainwash who sold old used T-shirts for $500+. (See Banksy’s documentary, Exit through the Gift Shop.)

 

 

 

EAT THIS BOOK: Forgotten Writers #7 – Stephen Paul Cohen

Back to clearing my book shelves, Readers!

Next up: two books by Stephen Paul Cohen, featuring investigator Eddie Margolis: Heartless (1986)  and Island of Steel (1988). Both published by William Morrow.

Stephen Paul Cohen is/was a real estate lawyer living in Minneapolis. His two private eye thrillers earned rave reviews in leading US publications. The New York Times called his writing “smart, desperate, gritty”. The Wall Street Journal gave it the ultimate praise:  “literate”.   I remember the emotional intensity of Cohen’s writing, something all we writers strive for.

Flipping through Cohen’s books 30 years later,  I realize that he’s writing noir – and nice juicy pulp fiction, too. The gritty street life he creates feels very real.  Just the same, he relies on many PI thriller tropes, which readers expected and wanted: Eddie Margolis, the hero, is a a desperate alcoholic who decides to avenge his best friend’s murder. He deals with corrupt rich and powerful men and beds deceitful dames. He’s betrayed by a lover. You know how it goes.

But that doesn’t mean the books are bad. Far from it. Genre publishers look for “the same but different”. By that criterion, Cohen’s books certainly deliver.

So what happened to Stephen Paul Cohen? There’s very little about him on the internet.  His books are available on Amazon.ca, but only as used copies.

One source of information is Allen J. Hubin’s review of Island of Steel on the Mystery File website.  Comments suggest that publishers may have dropped hard-boiled fiction in the early 1990s, because cozies sold better.  A fair observation, but I also believe that Cohen’s writing was ahead of its time. He was writing noir, which wasn’t popular then, but has since had a big resurgence .

I further suspect that unfavorable reviews may have played a part. In 1989, the year after Island of Steel came out, Cohen co-authored a speculative fiction thriller, Night Launch, with then Senator Jake Garn. The book should have been a slam dunk for both authors, but  Publishers Weekly gave it a thumbs down.  Did William Morrow drop Cohen because of that?

Ten years later, Cohen apparently tried writing again. His drug trade thriller, Jungle White, was published in Thailand by White Lotus Press, but not elsewhere. (Did Cohen move to Asia, the way a few of my friends have done?) A reviewer on the Things Asian website hated Jungle White so much he wrote a lengthy and damning review, renaming the book, “A White in the Jungle”.  I haven’t read it so I can’t comment either way.

All writers get the rare bad review. Most of the time the reader simply didn’t “get” the book. But when they feel compelled to vent to the whole world about it, I suspect a more self-centred motive is at play.  I have to ask the question: Did the Things Asian review make Cohen quit writing for good?

BOTTOM LINE:   My copies of Heartless and Islands of Steel are used Avon paperbacks, not first editions.  Prices on Abe Books, Amazon and Biblio range from $4 to $12.  Thierry value: $18.97US*

DECISION: Keep as rare books. 

*Thierry value = most outrageous price you can humanly get away with. Named in honor of Mr. Brainwash who sold old used T-shirts for $500+. (See Banksy’s documentary, Exit through the Gift Shop.)

 

 

 

EAT THIS BOOK: Forgotten Books #6 -The Neon Flamingo by W. R. Philbrick

Eat This Book

 

 

 

 

I read my first T.D. Stash novel  while vacationing with the family at a tourist lodge on Lake Temagami. Despite being exhausted after canoeing with a 3 year old, I sat up all night to finish The Neon Flamingo. Its Florida Keys setting was as removed from Northern Ontario as you can imagine.

Gripping and smoothly written, W.R. Philbrick’s book has stayed with me, mostly because its hero, T.D. Stash, was so unusual for the late 1980s. He was a screw-up – a  stoner and sometime fisherman desperate enough for cash to do favors for friends – legal or not so much. He often made dire situations worse.

I quickly read the next two books in the series, The Crystal Blue Persuasion and Tough Enough. Then waited in vain for more.

A few years later I met W. R. Philbrick at a crime writers’ conference. He happily signed my copy of The Neon Flamingo then passed on the bad news that his editor didn’t want any  more T.D. Stash novels. A damn shame!

I suspect that TD Stash series was too dark. In other words, too intense, truthful and violent for 1990s readers. Like Liza Cody’s Bucket Nut, the books were fine examples of noir – and thus decades ahead of their time.

So what happened to W. R. Philbrick? I’m happy to tell you that he’s written over 30  novels under three pseudonyms, including the Connie Kale and J. D. Hawkins crime series.  He’s had great success as a YA author, winning multiple awards.  His YA adventure story, Freak the Mighty,  was translated into several languages and is studied in classrooms throughout the world. Later it became a successful film.

BOTTOM LINE:

The T.D. Stash books are not  available on Amazon in print or digital form. Abe Books carry only a very few used paperbacks listed between $3 to $8US.

DECISION: Keep this rare book.