Richard S Prather		Strip for Murder

A "Gold Medal" paperback by Fawcett Publications Inc, published in Britain by Frederick Muller Ltd. Originally published in 1955, but there is no such information in the book itself - the copyright is undated. A recent reprint may still be available from online retailers.

Sheldon "Shell" Scott is a Private Investigator working in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and Richard Prather wrote dozens of books about him (averaging one a year from 1950 to 1987). Scott's investigating consists mainly of tapping sources in the police and criminal underworld, who provide virtually all the important information. The police are amazingly co-operative, even to letting Shell inspect the bank accounts of all and sundry. Our hero gets involved in many scrapes and japes, a certain amount of brawling and shooting goes on, and the story proceeds at a brisk pace.

When Shell Scott has to meet his employer's daughter at "Fairview", he is surprised to find that it is full of (in his words) "nudists". The members correct him - they are "naturists". Perhaps inevitably, love blossoms between the PI and a beautiful naturist. As well as bopping the ungodly and getting bopped, Shell has to spend a lot of time at Fairview, and decides that maybe naturism is for him after all. No reader is going to be surprised that by the final page all the bad guys are locked up or six feet under, all the good guys are triumphant (if a bit battered), and Shell is getting a wonderful tan alongside his girl. Anybody with politically-correct sensitivities should avoid the book, as "gals" are expected to be good looking, while men are only real men if they can get a gal, and can beat all comers in a brawl.

I fully expected the naturism in this book to be comparable with that in the Pink Panther film "A Shot in the Dark" - titillating, mildly amusing, the basis of a range of gags and some minor plot twists. The publisher's blurb concludes: " ... I'd been hired to find a killer in a nudist camp and I was going to look pretty damned silly wearing nothing but my gun!", which doesn't inspire confidence. My expectations were confounded, and comprehensively so. Whatever my reservations about Richard Prather as a thriller writer, he writes authoritatively and persuasively about naturists and naturism (apart from using poetic license to populate his naturist club almost exclusively with young and good-looking bodies). Cliches related to social nudity are aired and debunked. One of the characters suffers exposure in the tabloids with typically prurient coverage. Shell keeps the nature of Fairview secret from his police colleagues as much as possible. Both textiles and newby nuddies blush a lot, feel awkward and don't know where to look. All these aspects are covered by the extracts.

Prather was hugely popular - selling tens of millions of Shell Scott books - and Strip for Murder is a very easy and undemanding read. These days his reputation has dimmed, and you won't find many of his books in public libraries (although they are fairly easy to pick up second-hand). On the strength of Strip for Murder, I won't be trying any other Shell Scott adventures, but I will certainly hang on to this book, and recommend it for a view of organised American naturism in the 1950s.

More information on Richard S Prather and Shell Scott on Dean Davis's comprehensive site and from the Thrilling Detective

Ratings:

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2002 December 21.
 
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