HARRY O: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING (1976) ***
by Lee Hays
This paperback edition published by Severn House, 1978, 159pp
First published in 1976
© Warner Bros., Inc. 1976
ISBN: 978-0-7278-0342-9
Blurb: Oliver Wasko was one of Hollywood’s brightest young directors, and the film he was shooting bore his special brand of genius. It was a murder mystery and not even the cast knew who was supposed to be the screen killer. Wasko was saving the last scene for a bizarre surprise. But it was Wasko who got the surprise when a murderer started writing a real-life script that left corpses all over the film set. It was at this point that Hollywood’s master sleuth Harry O was called in. The murder trial was to lead to one of the most ruthless and surprising assassins that he had ever had the misfortune to meet.
Comment: Along with The Rockford Files, Harry O was perhaps the greatest ever private eye TV series. Like many popular series of the 70s, in the pre-home video era, fans were given original novels or novelisations of scripted episodes, to help satiate their appetite. Lee Hays wrote two original Harry O novels and this is the second. The plot is misleadingly described in the book’s blurb as Harry has been hired to find film director Oliver Wasko’s wife, who has gone missing, by the woman’s rich mother. The plot thickens the deeper Harry probes. The book progresses more in the style of a 1940s Raymond Chandler novel but lacks Chandler’s expertise for witty dialogue and lyrical prose. Any reader familiar with Chandler’s The Big Sleep will immediately spot elements borrowed from that novel and will not be surprised at the outcome. Hays’ writing is clunky in places, but he manages to keep the story interesting. The feel of the book does not quite match that of the TV series – notably the Harry/Lt. Trench interactions, on the screen these are significantly helped by the strong performances and excellent interaction of actors David Janssen and Anthony Zerbe. What we do have is a solid mystery that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
