Born: October 31, 1944, Culver City, California
Died: December 15, 2020 (aged 76)
Strangler was the first of Parnell Hall’s Stanley Hastings mysteries I read, way back in January of 1991. That book was quickly followed by Detective, the first book in the series. And as they say, the rest is history! The last Stanley Hastings mystery I read was 2015’s A Fool for a Client. I love everything about the Stanley Hastings mysteries — the major and minor characters, and the stories themselves. And while the Hastings mysteries are my favorites, the Puzzle Lady Cora Felton has definitely grown on me through the years.
From ParnellHall.com…
Readers of my Stanley Hastings private eye series may be surprised to learn I was influenced by Robert B. Parker. I read his Spenser books, and was blown away by them. Shortly thereafter I saw him interviewed on TV. He was asked why people like his books. He said, “I think they like the way the words sound.” The interviewer was taken aback, but I looked at his books again and he was absolutely right. There was a flow, a cadence — the words jumped off the page.
When I started my first book, Detective, I wanted it to sound good. It must have worked. The book was nominated for the Edgar and Shamus awards. Subsequent reviews referred to my “trademark, zippy, witty dialogue.”
Readers of my Puzzle Lady series may be surprised to find the books were written by the same person. The original manuscript even had a woman’s name as the author. Cora Felton, a charming fraud, who has been described as “Miss Marple on steroids” and “Jessica Fletcher meets Groucho Marx,” was voted the Best New Discovery by the Mystery Guild.
Final Thoughts About Parnell Hall’s Books
As I was creating this page, I discovered a few things. First, there’s one Stanley Hastings book I missed — Caper, Parnell’s 2015 release. Secondly, considering I’ve only read seven Puzzle Lady books, that leaves 13 more to go! And finally, from 2016 to 2020, Parnell collaborated with Stuart Woods on four books featuring Teddy Fay. Those definitely need to be checked out!
Detective, Hall’s first book, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America, and a Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America. The Stanley Hastings novel Movie was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel of 1995, as well as a Lefty Award for the funniest mystery novel of that year. His novel Scam was also a Lefty nominee.
Links for Further Exploration of Parnell Hall’s Books
Parnell Hall – Stanley Hastings
