Re: RARA-AVIS: Philip Atlee again

From: James Reasoner ( james53@flash.net)
Date: 03 Oct 2000


I just read _The Death Bird Contract_, the first Joe Gall novel I've read in several years, and while it had a fairly coherent plot from beginning to end
(a rarity in the Joe Galls I've read) I found it a pretty unpleasant experience. This is the one where Gall voluntarily becomes a heroin addict in order to carry out a contract. He also comes across as very bitter and unlikable. None of which makes this a bad book, of course. In fact, I thought it was very well written. It certainly won't keep from reading other books in the series. But it might make me wait a while before I pick up another one.

Best, James

----- Original Message ----- From: < abc@wt.net> To: < rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 3:34 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS: Philip Atlee again

> I've been reading that interview in Espionage magazine again, and, as I
> said, it's very interesting. Atlee seems to have gotten along fine with
> his brother, David Atlee Phillips, who was in the CIA. They had no
personal
> contact and did not correspond for years because Atlee was afraid his
brother
> would get accused of giving him information for the books. Atlee didn't
> want his brother to get in trouble, or at least that's they way he tells
> it. He also tells about his work with John Wayne of BIG JIM MCLAIN and
> with Robert Mitchum on THUNDER ROAD (a classic!). He actually visited
> the places he wrote about, and says that the Gold Medal editors didn't
> even know where he was most of the time. He used the books to finance
> his travels. If you can get a copy of the interview, by all means read
> it.
>
> Bill Crider
>
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