Parnell Hall
"I don't even think of them
as comic mysteries. I think of them as mysteries where the narrator does
have a sense of humor and the humor in the books is sort of an extra. I
try not to write sit-com funny books. I try to write actual murder mysteries
which do have a humorous element."
from the Mysterious Pen interview
At one time, Parnell Hall's claim to fame was that he was
in Arnold Schwarzenegger's first film. Then he was known as the screenwriter
of C.H.U.D. Neither of those activities did him much good in his next job:
a private investigator. But all three became part of Parnell's latest claim
to fame: author of the Stanley Hastings detective novels.
Hall has mined his own life for the Hastings series and
come up with gold, diamonds and rubies. Like Hall, Hastings appeared in
Arnold's first movie. Like Hall, he wrote a screenplay that wasn't quite
what he had in mind. And like Hall, Stanley is a real private investigator;
something he takes great pains to explain is not like what you see on television
or read in books.
On Stanley Hastings
"Other people sometimes refer
to him in reviews as 'stumbling, bumbling Stanley Hastings,' because he's
not like what they're used to on TV. They don't see him for how competent
he actually is. They see him for being inferior for not being the fictional
detective that, to my mind, does not really exist. He's actually rather
competent and he makes up for the fact that he does not have the tools of
the TV or movie detective by figuring things out, getting around the fact
that he doesn't have a gun. A TV detective has a set of passkeys and knows
how to pick a lock. Failing that, he kicks the door down. [Stanley] has
none of those talents. He's always dealing with these ordinary problems
and solving them and getting around them, so I think he's very ingenious."
from the Mysterious Pen interview
In "Parnell Hall: The Mysterious Pen",
Hall talks about his careers, writers who have influenced him, such as Erle
Stanley Gardner and Robert Parker, and his blending of reality and fiction.
And he sings two of his own songs, including "Signing at Waldenbooks."
To order Parnell Hall : The Mysterious Pen Video, click here.
For Parnell Hall's Bibliography, click here.