he Last Score (1964)
Leslie Gibson was a wealthy, beautiful, seventeen-year-old brat - out for kicks at any price! And Leslie had decided that Reid Rance, adventurer and travel guide extraordinaire, was just the man to show her the hot spots of Mexico. But touring led to trouble with a capital T, and Reid was soon minus one debutante, but plus several unwanted corpses, and desperately wanted by the Mexican and American police as well as the Mexican underground. Could Reid evade the cops and rescue Leslie from the underground abductors before time ran out for them both...? Had girl, will travel...Reid Rance was a travel agent. The kind who would take
you where the tourists seldom went. But when Mrs. May Gibson asked him to chaperon her
wild daughter Leslie around Mexico, he begged off. "Why me?" he asked. |
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Tough tourist guide Reid Rance is
hired to chaperon a wealthy teen-age sexpot on a journey through Mexico.
When the girl is kidnapped and held for ransom, our macho protagonist
doesn’t bother to notify the local authorities but launches a one-man war
against the abductors. Nevins states that the background is vividly evoked, the descriptions of a marijuana “high” ring true, and despite some implausibilities in the slender storyline this is a model of the men’s-magazine adventure novel. Anthony Boucher (January 24, 1965) rightly called it “a straight-out adventure thriller,” “Good violent excitement,” he said, “tightly told.” Cast of characters included. Ghostwritten by Charles W. Runyon. In a 2007 interview by Ed Gorman, Charles answered this to the question which of his novels he would most like to see reprinted and why? "There are at least three that might go down well with today's readers. 'The Last Score' was rushed to completion as a work-for-hire, for Manfred Lee and Fred Dannay, and published under their byline of Ellery Queen. I still have a paternal affection for the book, and would like to see it reprinted under it's 'rightful' parentage." |
Other articles on this book (1) Casual Debris (April 28. 2011) |
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