AUTHOR FAVOURITES: RUMRUNNERS by ERIC BEETNER

Eric Beetner has been described as ‘the hardest working man in crime fiction.’ As well as writing numerous noirish thrillers and award-winning short fiction he’s ventured into western territory with the ‘Lawyer’ series.

Eric tells me that RUMRUNNERS ‘is the one most people have responded to of my novels’ and that ‘writing about the McGraws is a lot of fun.’

The McGraws, whilst calling themselves outlaws not criminals, have made a living driving for the Stanleys, the main criminal gang in their part of the Midwest (mostly Iowa and Illinois.)

Unlike his father and grandfather Tucker McGraw wants nothing to do with hauling dubious loads for criminals and is trying to go straight. But when his father, Webb, vanishes after a job, and with him a truck load of drugs, the Stanleys want their drugs back or their money – and they want it from Tucker.

So Tucker - with the help of his grandfather, Calvin - finds himself sucked back into the family business and heading down a highway that just might get him killed.

A Peterbilt truck, such as Webb drives when he vanishes:

Trucks and truckers have featured in many movies.

In the classic French thriller ‘The Wages of Fear’ (1954) Yves Montand and others take a (literally) explosive ride in trucks transporting nitro-glycerine over treacherous roads.

A sticky moment for a truck laden with explosives in ‘The Wages of Fear:’

Kris Kristofferson (on left, below) is a trucker in ‘Convoy’ (1978) whose rebellious spirit causes him to end up being pursued by the law.

Lone motorist Dennis Weaver is pursued by a monstrous truck determined to crush him beneath its many wheels in ‘Duel’ (1971.) In this early effort by Steven Spielberg, the truck played the role later taken up by the predatory shark by ‘Jaws’ – but for me ‘Duel’ is the better, grittier and more suspenseful movie.

Dennis Weaver looks back...

And he’s still being pursued.

Back in the classic film noir era, truckers involved in crime featured in such movies as ‘Thieves Highway’ (1949) with Richard Conte

and ‘They drive by Night’ (1940) with (below from left) Humphrey Bogart and George Raft.

In ‘I Walk Alone’ (1947) Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster (below, left to right) start out as bootleggers transporting their illegal cargoes by truck.

The vast highways and vast landscapes of the U. S. A. (particularly the west) lend themselves very naturally to trucker movies. The UK couldn’t match that scale and had to make do with movies like ‘Hell Drivers,’ a relatively obscure 1957 thriller starring Stanley Baker.

The illustrious (or soon-to-be-illustrious) cast of ‘Hell Drivers'

It’s most notable for its supporting cast, including character actors like Herbert Lom, William Hartnell, (the first Dr. Who) Jill Ireland, Gordon Jackson, Sid James and Alfie Bass. But it also features some up-and-coming young actors who went on to be major stars on film and TV in the 60s: Patrick McGoohan, David McCallum and – in one of the smallest parts – the actor who went on to be the biggest star of the lot: Sean Connery.

From left: Stanley Baker, Sid James, Patrick McGoohan and Sean Connery

REVIEWS of RUMRUMMERS:

‘I stayed up half one night reading Rumrunners… Terrific. Dark magic.’

‘Few contemporary writers do justice to the noir tradition the way Eric Beetner does… Beetner just takes the form and cuts his own jagged, raw and utterly readable path.’

‘Fast and funny and dark all at once.’

‘Fun plot + believable characters + witty dialogue + breakneck pace = novel that knocks your socks off.’

‘Pretty much the spiritual heir to Elmore Leonard.’

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072YZC9NH/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

and https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072YZC9NH/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: THE MOSES DECEPTION by STEPHEN MERTZ

Stephen Mertz writes thrillers (sometimes with a political tinge) as well as westerns. He tells me THE MOSES DECEPTION is ‘State of the Art Mertz,’ not a bad place to begin investigating his work.

Archaeologists Adam Chase and Lara Newton, excavating in the mountains between Turkey and Syria, discover an 11^th Commandment to add to the 10 Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. And then they're caught up in the bloody civil war gripping the region.

All of which made me think of Indiana Jones, of course, and CHARLTON HESTON (below) as Moses in the 1956 film ‘The 10 Commandments.’

I thought for this blog I’d have a brief look at Indiana Jones (with the help of Wikipedia.) Here Charlton Heston features again, in a different guise.

Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., 1930s archaeologist and adventurer, is a character created by GEORGE LUCAS.  He was portrayed by HARRISON FORD in four movies directed by STEVEN SPIELBERG – ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981) ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ (1984) ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,’ (1989)  and ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Cave’ (2008.) A fifth film is scheduled to be released in mid-2021.

The young Jones has been portrayed by RIVER PHOENIX (in The Last Crusade) and in the TV series ‘The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles’ by COREY CARRIER, SEAN PATRICK FLANERY and GEORGE HALL.

Although Ford was Spielberg’s initial choice for the role, Lucas and Spielberg auditioned many actors, and finally cast TOM SELLECK. However, CBS refused to release Selleck from his contract to his hit TV show ‘Magnum P.1.’ Subsequently PETER COYOTE and TIM MATHESON auditioned. In the end it went back to Spielberg’s original choice and Ford got the part less than three weeks before filming began.

Indiana Jones has become one of cinema's most famous characters. In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked him the second greatest film hero of all time, second only to Atticus Finch, as portrayed by GREGORY PECK in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (1962.)

The character was originally named Indiana Smith. Spielberg disliked the name Smith, so Lucas casually suggested Jones as an alternative. In ‘The Last Crusade’ script Jones's father reveals his son's birth name was Henry, and that he somehow acquired the nickname Indiana after a dog they had.  

The character is modelled on the action heroes of 1930s film serials and pulp magazines both Lucas and Spielberg enjoyed in their childhoods. Spielberg was interested in doing a fun adventure similar to ‘Dr. No,’ SEAN CONNERY’s first outing as James Bond. So it was something of an in-joke when Connery appeared as Indiana’s father in The Last Crusade.’

HARRISON FORD and SEAN CONNERY in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’

Here Charlton Heston re-appears. ‘Raiders’ costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis said the inspiration for Indiana's costume was the outfit worn by the character Harry Steele, played by Charlton Heston in the 1954 adventure movie ‘Secret of the Incas.’ Throughout the film Steele looks very much like Jones, wearing a brown leather jacket, fedora, tan pants, and carrying an over-the-shoulder bag and revolver. He’s also a cynical American ex-patriot with a sarcastic sense of humour in a far, exotic place.

Landis said, ‘We did watch this film together as a crew several times, and I always thought it strange that the filmmakers did not credit it later as the inspiration for the series.’ She added Raiders was ‘almost a shot for shot’ remake of the Heston film, stating that Indiana Jones was ‘a kinder, gentler Harry Steele.’

Other fictional inspirations for the Jones character were Sir H. Rider Haggard’s safari guide/big game hunter Allan Quatermain in the novel ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ and Professor Challenger in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel ‘The Lost World.’

Real life archaeologists and adventurers that helped inspire the character might include:

American scholar and archaeologist VENDYL JONES (below) who led digs in Israel from the 1960s to the 1990s searching for the Holy Ark. (Not too great a leap from ‘Vendy’ to ‘Indy’ Jones!)

Yale University professor, historian, US senator, and explorer HIRAM BINGHAM the 3^rd, who rediscovered – in 1911 - the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.

FREDERICK RUSSELL BURNHAM, the celebrated American scout and British Army spy who heavily influenced Haggard's fictional Allan Quatermain character and also became the inspiration for the Boy Scouts.

British archaeologist PERCY FAWCETT (below) who disappeared in the Amazon jungle in 1925, after spending many years exploring the region.

American archaeologist and adventurer WENDELL PHILLIPS who led well-publicized expeditions in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula in the 1940s and 1950s.

Although Indiana Jones made archaeology ‘cool’ the archaeological fraternity gave a mixed response.   

Archaeologist Anne Pyburn described the influence of Indiana Jones as elitist and sexist. She argued the film series had caused new discoveries in the field of archaeology to become oversimplified and over-hyped in an attempt to gain public interest, negatively impacting archaeology as a whole. Eric Powell, an editor with the magazine Archaeology, disagreed, saying ‘O.K., fine, the movie romanticizes what we do’, and that ‘Indy may be a horrible archaeologist, but he's a great diplomat for archaeology. I think we'll see a spike in kids who want to become archaeologists.’

REVIEWS for THE MOSES DECEPTION:

'A real page turner.'

‘A great premise for the plot. Excellent story telling with good characters and action. A good read with a satisfying ending.’

‘Hooked me in right from page one. A riveting, mysterious plot line.’

https://www.amazon.com/Moses-Deception-Stephen-Mertz-ebook/dp/B0719B6GFL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1507374829&sr=1-1&dpID=51xW4qJcK-L&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=detail