Order of Shell Scott Books
Shell Scott is the protagonist in a series of hardboiled detective fiction novels by American novelist Richard S. Prather. Shell Scott works as a private eye. He’s an ex-Marine, standing 6’2″ tall. But unlike other masculine P.I.’s, he is more about enjoying life than beating up bad guys, or searching for vengeance or justice. This usually includes having his way with women whenever possible. The novels are humourous in a way that wouldn’t be considered politically correct in this day in age.
Richard S. Prather began his Shell Scott series in 1950 with the novel The Case of the Vanishing Beauty. The series lasted over 40 books, concluding with the posthumously published The Death Gods in 2011, which was the first book to be published in over two decades. The books can be read in any order. Below is a list of Richard S. Prather’s Shell Scott books in order of when they were originally published:
Publication Order of Shell Scott Books
The Case of the Vanishing Beauty | (1950) | |
Bodies in Bedlam | (1951) | |
Everybody Had a Gun | (1951) | |
Find This Woman | (1951) | |
Dagger of Flesh | (1952) | |
Darling, It’s Death | (1952) | |
Way of a Wanton | (1952) | |
Pattern for Murder / The Scrambled Yeggs | (1952) | |
Always Leave ’em Dying | (1953) | |
Ride a High Horse / Too Many Crooks | (1953) | |
Pattern for Panic | (1954) | |
Strip for Murder | (1956) | |
The Wailing Frail | (1956) | |
Have Gat – Will Travel | (1957) | |
Three’s a Shroud | (1957) | |
Slab Happy | (1958) | |
Take a Murder, Darling | (1958) | |
Over Her Dear Body | (1959) | |
Double in Trouble | (1959) | |
Dance with the Dead | (1960) | |
Dig That Crazy Grave | (1961) | |
Shell Scott’s Seven Slaughters | (1961) | |
Kill the Clown | (1962) | |
Dead Heat | (1963) | |
Joker in the Deck | (1964) | |
The Cockeyed Corpse | (1964) | |
The Trojan Hearse | (1964) | |
Dead Man’s Walk | (1965) | |
Kill Him Twice | (1965) | |
The Meandering Corpse | (1965) | |
The Kubla Khan Caper | (1966) | |
Gat Heat | (1967) | |
The Cheim Manuscript | (1969) | |
Kill Me Tomorrow | (1969) | |
The Shell Scott Sampler | (1969) | |
Dead-Bang | (1971) | |
The Sweet Ride | (1972) | |
The Sure Thing | (1975) | |
The Amber Effect | (1986) | |
Shellshock | (1987) | |
The Death Gods | (2011) |
Publication Order of Shell Scott Collections
Hot Rock Rumble & The Double Take | (1994) |
Notes: Ride a High Horse is also known as Too Many Crooks. Pattern for Murder is alternately titled The Scrambled Yeggs (and written as David Knight).