The Cold War Swap by Ross Thomas

Over the weekend I read a highly entertaining book by an author I had read only once before and long ago: Ross Thomas. Titled The Cold War Swap, it is Mr. Thomas's first book - written when he was 40 - and it won the 1967 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. 

It surely gets my vote. 

Most of the action takes place in Berlin - on both sides of The Wall - during the Cold War. There is an international cast of characters as befits a lively spy novel. The main fellow, Mac McCorkle, is an American saloon owner in Bonn. His business partner, Mike Padillo, is an on-again-off-again U.S. spy and when he sends out a call for help, Mac responds. All sorts of devious goings on ensue that include getting two American defectors over/under/around The Wall, agents and double agents, car chases, bombs, and lots and lots of cigarettes and bottles of Scotch.

The action moves quickly along with enough character description and local details to keep the book grounded in The Cold War and enough history to refresh my hazy memory of that era. 

Mac is quite the witty fellow and a loyal friend and not too bad a shot when needed. There are a couple of shootings - bang, bang you're dead - the cracking of a few heads, and a sucker punch or two but no torture or stomach-turning scenes that so many thrillers seem to rely on nowadays.

Mr. Thomas wrote twenty of his tongue-in-cheek, noir-ish novels between 1966 and 1994, the year before his death. He also wrote five novels under the name of Oliver Bleeck.  These concern a fellow - Phillip St. Ives - who serves as a go-between for owners of stolen goods and the thieves who stole them in the first place. 

Many years ago, when I belonged to the Mystery Guild Book Club, I ordered and read Thomas's Chinaman's Chance but don't remember anything about it. I am sorry to say that it is no longer on my shelves; a victim of one of many culls.

But, I am happy that my library has quite a nice selection of these suspense novels to choose from. Apparently, after Ross Thomas's death, his works went oh-too-quickly out of print but were recently brought back to life by St. Martin's Minotaur division that publishes mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. 

I thank you for that, St. Martin.

Desert Isle Addendum

A fingerpost in Great Britain

Yesterday I posted about the "Crime on Desert Island" essay by Bill Ott in the mystery and crime issue of Booklist, the book review magazine published by the American Library Association.

I was so busy thinking about which mysteries I would want with me if stranded on a desert isle that I didn't let you in on the books Mr. Ott chose. He decided to focus on style not suspense. So here goes. 

1.  The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler - Mr. Ott felt that the titles of Chandler's other mysteries - The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep, and  Farewell, My Lovely - were not words that someone stranded on an island would want to see.

2.  The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammett - Another classic. He is entranced by Kasper Gurman's line: "I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk."

3.  Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell - The story of a woman longing to escape from a place she no longer wants to be. "Woodrell writes some of the funniest, most musical, most double-edged prose being written by anyone in any genre."


4.  Out on the Rim by Ross Thomas - This book stars characters Artie Wu and Quincy Durant. "Thomas's plots are like cathedrals, masterworks of architectonic design and things of beauty in themselves."

5.  An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears - This is a historical mystery set in Restoration England and offers "a mix of politics and passion, sex and science, revenge and religion."

High praise for all.

Now of course I have heard of Chandler and Hammett and I believe that at one time I owned a copy of Chinaman's Chance, the first Artie Wu/Quincy Durant mystery by Thomas. But Mr. Woodrell and Mr. Pears are totally unknown to me and their books sound intriguing. 

I will put these on my TBR list and maybe one of them will make the cut on my own Desert Isle List.