Richard S. Prather
Richard Scott Prather was an American mystery novelist, best known for creating the "Shell Scott" series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms David Knight and Douglas Ring.
Biography
Prather was born in Santa Ana, California and spent a year at Riverside Junior College. He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II, from 1942 through the end of the war, in 1945. That year he married Tina Hager and began working as a civilian chief clerk of surplus property at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. He left that job to become a full-time writer in 1949. The first Shell Scott mystery, Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published in 1950. It would be the start of a long series that numbered more than three dozen titles featuring the Shell Scott character.At Prather's death in 2007, he had completed but not published his last Shell Scott Mystery. His final novel, The Death Gods, was published October 2011, in print and ebook formats by Pendleton Artists, with permission of the Richard S. Prather Estate and Linda Pendleton.
Publisher
Prather had a disagreement with his publisher, Pocket Books, and sued them in 1975. He gave up writing for several years and grew avocados. In 1986, he returned with The Amber Effect. In 1987, Prather's penultimate book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover by Tor Books. He donated his papers to the Richard S. Prather Manuscript Collection at the University of Wyoming, in Laramie, Wyoming.Personal life
Prather's wife, Tina Hager, died in April 2004 after 58 years of marriage.Awards and honors
- Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award
- Twice served on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America
Shell Scott novels
Case of the Vanishing Beauty — 1950Bodies in Bedlam — 1951Everybody Had a Gun — 1951Find This Woman — 1951Dagger of Flesh — 1952Darling, It's Death — 1952Way of a Wanton — 1952Always Leave 'em Dying — 1953Ride a High Horse a.k.a. Too Many Crooks — 1953Pattern for Panic — 1954Strip for Murder — 1955The Wailing Frail — 1956Have Gat - Will Travel — 1957Three's a Shroud — 1957The Scrambled Yeggs — 1958Slab Happy — 1958Take a Murder, Darling — 1958Over Her Dear Body — 1959Double in Trouble — 1959Dance with the Dead — 1960Dig That Crazy Grave — 1961Shell Scott's Seven Slaughters — 1961Kill the Clown — 1962Dead Heat — 1963The Cockeyed Corpse — 1964Joker in the Deck — 1964The Trojan Hearse — 1964Dead Man's Walk — 1965Kill Him Twice — 1965The Meandering Corpse — 1965The Kubla Khan Caper — 1966Gat Heat — 1967The Cheim Manuscript — 1969Kill Me Tomorrow — 1969The Shell Scott Sampler — 1969Dead-Bang — 1971The Sweet Ride — 1972The Sure Thing — 1975The Amber Effect — 1986Shellshock — 1987The Death Gods — 2011Other novels
Lie Down, Killer — 1952Novellas
The Sleeper Caper — 2009As David KnightPattern for Murder — 1952 Dragnet: Case No. 561 — 1956
As Douglas RingThe Peddler — 1952