Lawrence Sanders (1920–1998)
Author of The First Deadly Sin
About the Author
Lawrence Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 15, 1920. He graduated from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1942 and served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946. After years of working as an editor for a number of magazines, including Mechanics Illustrated and Science and show more Mechanics, Lawrence Sanders wrote and published his first novel, The Anderson Tapes (1970), at the age of 50 which won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel from The Mystery Writers of America. It was made into a film in 1971, as was The First Deadly Sin (1973). Sanders died February 7, 1998 (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
aka Lesley Andress, Mark Upton
Series
Works by Lawrence Sanders
Three Complete Novels: The First Deadly Sin, The Second Deadly Sin, The Third Deadly Sin (1993) 71 copies
Three Complete Novels: The Sixth Commandment, The Seventh Commandment, The Eighth Commandment (1994) 22 copies
Three Complete Novels: The Anderson Tapes / The Fourth Deadly Sun / The Tenth Commandment (1996) 13 copies
Three Complete Novels: The Tomorrow File / The Tangent Objective / The Tangent Factor (2000) 13 copies
Four Complete Novels: The First Deadly Sin, The Anderson Tapes, The Sixth Commandment, The Marlow Chronicles (1984) 6 copies
The Lawrence Sanders Thriller Collection Volume Two: The Tomorrow File, The Passion of Molly T., and Capital Crimes (2016) 4 copies
The Seduction of Peter S., The Case of Lucy Bending, and Tales of the Wolf: Three Thrillers in One Volume (2016) 4 copies
?O ?caso tangent 2 copies
Science & Mechanics 1964, Nr. 2 2 copies
The Ninth Commandment 1 copy
O pecado mortal 1 copy
A Prova De McNally 1 copy
Prazeres Privados 1 copy
O Plano De McNally 1 copy
Um Assalto bem temperado 1 copy
McNally's Chance & Alibi 1 copy
The Anderson File 1 copy
Třetí smrtelný hřích 1 copy
Golpe de John Anderson, O 1 copy
O oitavo mandamento 1 copy
The Fourth Procedure 1 copy
Death in the Dordogne 1 copy
OKSE 1 copy
O primeiro pecado mortal 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Andress, Lesley
Upton, Mark - Birthdate
- 1920-03-15
- Date of death
- 1998-02-07
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Wabash College (BA)
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer - Organizations
- US Marine Corps
- Short biography
- Lawrence Sanders was born in Brooklyn. After public school he went to Wabash College where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. He returned to New York and started to work at Macy's Department Store. In 1943 he joined the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1946. Sanders was a former magazine editorial writer and later turned to a full-time fiction writer. Sanders wrote his first novel, the Anderson Tapes in 1970 at the age of 50. It deals with a plot by a group of criminals to rob a luxury apartment building. In 1971, Sanders received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best first novel.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Pompano Beach, Florida, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- aka Lesley Andress, Mark Upton
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
This cheeap and tawdry little work is nearly too disgusting for words. Five minutes into the abridged audio version, we find the protagonist (a 22 year old woman) having sex with her own father, something she's been doing with enthusiasm since the age of 17. By 20 minutes into the tape, my skin was crawling and I felt like I needed a bath. Everyone in the story seems to be having loveless raunchy sex with everyone else without regard for gender, age, race, or class. As a result, the reader show more is immersed into a messy stew of incest, infidelity, impotence, hetero- and homo- sexual escapades, and 'daring' interracial couplings, as well as suicide, blackmail, and financial shenanigans. The bare bones plot acts as filler between gratuitous sex scenes that could hardly be any less erotic.
The second of the two tapes either wasn't as bad as the first, or I'd grown numb and uncaring about its content. Some reviewers at Amazon express doubt that this book was written by Lawrence Saunders; it reportedly was published posthumously under the author's name by his heirs who sought to cash in on the man's reputation. The best one can say about the abridged audio version is that at 3 hrs, it is mercifully short. Even so it's too long. Ugh!!! show less
The second of the two tapes either wasn't as bad as the first, or I'd grown numb and uncaring about its content. Some reviewers at Amazon express doubt that this book was written by Lawrence Saunders; it reportedly was published posthumously under the author's name by his heirs who sought to cash in on the man's reputation. The best one can say about the abridged audio version is that at 3 hrs, it is mercifully short. Even so it's too long. Ugh!!! show less
Palm Beach denizen Archy McNally is the "son" of McNally and Son, Attorney-at-Law -- his father, Prescott, is the actual attorney at the head of the firm. Archy is the head and sole employee of the Discreet Inquiries department, which specializes in investigating cases that require a little more delicacy than a typical police investigation. In this first installment, Archy is tasked with investigating the disappearance of a block of four "Inverted Jenny" stamps from the home of one of the show more firm's wealthiest clients, Lady Cynthia Horowitz. Along the way, Archy gets himself into some romantic entanglements and finds out a few secrets he perhaps did not want to know.
The story is told in first person. Archy is a very droll fellow, almost congenitally incapable of being serious in his writing. Some may find it irritating (and I will concede that this is probably not something to be reading if you're feeling extremely grumpy), but behind that flippant exterior lies a sizeable intellect (he did go to Yale for a time) and a very kind heart. Even when he's riling his old man with his outlandish sartorial style, he addresses McNally Senior as "sir" and values his advice and wisdom. He is also candid about his errors and motives; at one point he finds out a piece of information but thinks his motives in divulging it would be selfish and not really serve a useful purpose.
The rest of the characters are just as colourful: his "Lord of the Manor" father, his doting mother, the staff at the Pelican Club, and the various eccentrics that people Palm Beach society. The tone is breezy and the mystery feels a bit more leisurely, partly because of the setting and partly because this was written in the early 1990s -- Archy states that the telephone directory is "a detective's best friend", which it is because the Internet, and particularly the Almighty Google, was not much of a force. Archy would probably be just as happy without it; like Aurelio Zen (of the Michael Dibdin novels), Archy is a touch old-fashioned and prefers a more low-tech approach to crime solving.
If you like light-hearted mysteries, especially those with a touch of sand, surf and glamour, give this one a try. show less
The story is told in first person. Archy is a very droll fellow, almost congenitally incapable of being serious in his writing. Some may find it irritating (and I will concede that this is probably not something to be reading if you're feeling extremely grumpy), but behind that flippant exterior lies a sizeable intellect (he did go to Yale for a time) and a very kind heart. Even when he's riling his old man with his outlandish sartorial style, he addresses McNally Senior as "sir" and values his advice and wisdom. He is also candid about his errors and motives; at one point he finds out a piece of information but thinks his motives in divulging it would be selfish and not really serve a useful purpose.
The rest of the characters are just as colourful: his "Lord of the Manor" father, his doting mother, the staff at the Pelican Club, and the various eccentrics that people Palm Beach society. The tone is breezy and the mystery feels a bit more leisurely, partly because of the setting and partly because this was written in the early 1990s -- Archy states that the telephone directory is "a detective's best friend", which it is because the Internet, and particularly the Almighty Google, was not much of a force. Archy would probably be just as happy without it; like Aurelio Zen (of the Michael Dibdin novels), Archy is a touch old-fashioned and prefers a more low-tech approach to crime solving.
If you like light-hearted mysteries, especially those with a touch of sand, surf and glamour, give this one a try. show less
I read a lot of Sanders in the 70's and 80's because of the great character of Edward X. Delaney in the Deadly Sins series. As a result, I ended up buying a few bad books by him. This isn't one of the bad ones. In fact, the plot was mostly well designed, there were some excellent characters and it had a nice suspenseful feel. I first read it around the time it was published in 1979 and I probably liked it pretty well back then. But BOY, is it dated!!! Casual (and sometimes not so casual) show more misogyny and ludicrous amounts of alcohol being imbibed just took the bloom off the rose for me. Add to that, a bit of an anti-climax to end the book and I'm letting this book find a new home at Goodwill. show less
When Sunny Fogarty, the chief financial officer of Whitcomb Funeral Homes, comes to McNally and Son with concerns that the firm is making too much money, both Prescott McNally and his Son, Archy (our humble narrator) aren’t sure there’s much to find out. But oh boy, does Archy ever land himself in a tangled mess.
This book was a re-read—I read the series about 20 years ago—and this installment was a charming one for me. I come more for Archy’s unique narration and the recurring show more cast of characters. As I was going through the list of characters in my head, I just realized that gossip columnist Lolly Spindrift never did find out from Archy how this case went down. I suppose he’ll get that information from the other papers and get annoyed with Archy off-page about not letting him in on the scoop. Or maybe he got the scoop off-page.
I also enjoy Archy’s meticulous chronicling of food; we both march on our stomachs, so mine was constantly growling at the thought of cheeseburgers at the Pelican Club and the wonderful meals Ursi Olson, their live-in cook, turned out on the regular. I did despair for Archy’s liver, though, with all the drinks he knocked back over the course of the book. I’d like to see the British Medical Journal analyze his alcohol intake like they did with James Bond.
On this reading I found it interesting that this book, published in 1995, talks about how computerizing information will compromise privacy. I have to wonder how Archy would have dealt with social media and the almighty algorithm. show less
This book was a re-read—I read the series about 20 years ago—and this installment was a charming one for me. I come more for Archy’s unique narration and the recurring show more cast of characters. As I was going through the list of characters in my head, I just realized that gossip columnist Lolly Spindrift never did find out from Archy how this case went down. I suppose he’ll get that information from the other papers and get annoyed with Archy off-page about not letting him in on the scoop. Or maybe he got the scoop off-page.
I also enjoy Archy’s meticulous chronicling of food; we both march on our stomachs, so mine was constantly growling at the thought of cheeseburgers at the Pelican Club and the wonderful meals Ursi Olson, their live-in cook, turned out on the regular. I did despair for Archy’s liver, though, with all the drinks he knocked back over the course of the book. I’d like to see the British Medical Journal analyze his alcohol intake like they did with James Bond.
On this reading I found it interesting that this book, published in 1995, talks about how computerizing information will compromise privacy. I have to wonder how Archy would have dealt with social media and the almighty algorithm. show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 87
- Members
- 14,992
- Popularity
- #1,529
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 125
- ISBNs
- 815
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 13