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) 7 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 Anderson File 1 copy
O Plano De McNally 1 copy
Prazeres Privados 1 copy
A Prova De McNally 1 copy
El caso de Lucy Bending 1 copy
O pecado mortal 1 copy
O segredo de McNally 1 copy
B©en c♯aos roubadas 1 copy
Um Assalto bem temperado 1 copy
O oitavo mandamento 1 copy
Třetí smrtelný hřích 1 copy
Golpe de John Anderson, O 1 copy
Death in the Dordogne 1 copy
The Ninth Commandment 1 copy
OKSE 1 copy
The Fourth Procedure 1 copy
McNally's Chance & Alibi 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, 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
For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. I certainly do. A friend recommended the McNally series when I told her that I was in dire need of purely escapist reading, and it has filled the bill. This third episode starts off with Archie undertaking an investigation of someone's undesirable daughter-in-law-to-be, but soon evolves into a twisted tail of murder, mayhem and eventual heroics on Archie's part.
Much of the fun in this series is observing the gradual show more unfolding of Archie's distinctly eccentric personality: this is NOT your usual PI hero. Archie is the son of a wealthy Palm Beach lawyer, but is not a lawyer himself, having been kicked out of Yale Law for streaking. Instead, he works as the "Discreet Enquiries" branch of Dad's law firm, said discreet enquiries involving the rich and respected of Palm Beach. He lives happily with Mum and Dad, untroubled by his lack of worldly success, and with no visible ambition to change anything. He loves the ladies, one in particular, but ends up following a maxim from "Finian's Rainbow" -- 'when I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near.' He loves food, and clothes, and his red Miata, and is a delight, particularly when he waxes a tad (only temporarily) melancholy. show less
Much of the fun in this series is observing the gradual show more unfolding of Archie's distinctly eccentric personality: this is NOT your usual PI hero. Archie is the son of a wealthy Palm Beach lawyer, but is not a lawyer himself, having been kicked out of Yale Law for streaking. Instead, he works as the "Discreet Enquiries" branch of Dad's law firm, said discreet enquiries involving the rich and respected of Palm Beach. He lives happily with Mum and Dad, untroubled by his lack of worldly success, and with no visible ambition to change anything. He loves the ladies, one in particular, but ends up following a maxim from "Finian's Rainbow" -- 'when I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near.' He loves food, and clothes, and his red Miata, and is a delight, particularly when he waxes a tad (only temporarily) melancholy. 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
I first read this decades ago, but it mostly holds up. Yes, it's a little dated but it rings true for the time in which it was written. Not a whodunit at all, Sanders is more interested in probing the psychology of both killer and cop. Edward X Delaney is not a cardboard cutout but a multi-faceted individual who isn't particularly likable. But he is very compelling. Daniel and his group are the stuff nightmares are made of. The sexual component of the story can be disturbing, but it was easy show more enough to skim through that. The book is long but well-written and worth it once one gets past the first section and Delaney is introduced. The characterizations and motivations are what made this book a best seller back in the day. show less
Archy McNally, the “son” of McNally and Son, Attorney-at-Law, is the head of the firm’s discreet inquiries department. In this capacity he resolves sticky situations for the firm’s wealthy clients with minimal publicity or police involvement. In this case, the Forsythe family is being plagued by thefts of jewellery, rare books, and other valuables that could only be stolen by a family member. Archy is brought in to investigate and has as his cover the cataloguing of the Forsythe show more family’s books. But before he can figure out who’s committing the thefts, the Forsythe patriarch is murdered. And there’s a lot of weird dynamics in this household that Archy wishes he didn’t have a ringside seat for…
I always enjoy spending time with Archy, and this book is no exception. His delicious dinners, his turns of phrase, his conversations with his father, his collaboration with Sgt. Al Rogoff...all of these are what you come to expect from this series. And this is one of the ones actually written by Lawrence Sanders, so it has more zip than the later installments do (at least to my thinking). show less
I always enjoy spending time with Archy, and this book is no exception. His delicious dinners, his turns of phrase, his conversations with his father, his collaboration with Sgt. Al Rogoff...all of these are what you come to expect from this series. And this is one of the ones actually written by Lawrence Sanders, so it has more zip than the later installments do (at least to my thinking). show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 90
- Members
- 15,052
- Popularity
- #1,524
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 125
- ISBNs
- 815
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 13