RARA-AVIS: Re: Ross Thomas

From: Moorich2@aol.com
Date: 05 Sep 2003


In a message dated 9/4/03 11:47:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:

<<
 Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 23:39:32 -0400 (EDT)
 From: William Denton < buff@pobox.com>
 Subject: RARA-AVIS: Ross Thomas
 
 I've just started reading THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE (1970) by Ross
 Thomas. There's a big, expensive new trade paperback edition out. Thomas
 is well-regarded on the list, and I looked through the archives and found
 a number of mentions:
 
 Mr. Moore during Washington month:
  http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200112/0216.html
 
 Some people mentioned this ATLANTIC article:
 http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96nov/hiss/hiss.htm
 
 Lots of talk about CHINAMAN'S CHANCE when it was a book of the month:
 http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200008/
 
 No-one ever mentioned meeting Thomas, though, and it's always interesting
 to hear what a writer was like. Did any of you know him or meet him?
 What sort of a gee was he?
 
 Bill >>

He came to one Bouchercon that I attended but I did not meet him. I did attend the question and answer session conducted by our own Bill Crider. He seemed rather formal, a bit stiff and I remember wondering if this was due to a background in some form or fashion of our intelligence service. His fiction and his biography certainly made me suspect that he had, at the very least, served as a contract agent. Whether that was actually the case I don't really know.

A friend of mine (and Bill's) Steve Stilwell did have the wonderful experience of spending an evening or two with him when he came through Minneapolis on book tours. Steve said he was a great guy and not surprisingly, a great story teller.

Richard Moore

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