Our resident historian, who likes cars, discusses his one-off novel…
I have been reading novels for what, 70 years? One series I fell in love with about 40 years ago was the ones by John D MacDonald, a WWII vet (Pacific Theatre) who had created a rough and tough hero who could get things done. That hero, Travis McGee, stars in 21 books. He has been described as a “knight in slightly tarnished armor.” I wrote a novel in the same vein, and actually published a few dozen copies, but not sure if I got a character more lovable than McGee.
And I didn’t find a publisher.
Similarly to MacDonald’s hero, in my novel, the lead character, the private eye, lives on a boat. And while McGee had a Rolls Royce pickup truck, (as improbable as that sounds, some prewar Rolls were converted by owners into pickups). In my book, my hero has a imitation Bizzarrini, though most people wouldn’t know what a real Bizzarrini was (Italian car, Chevy engine , from ’60s)
There have been several attempts to make a series of films on MacDonald’s lead character but somehow the casting just wasn’t right, no sequel was planned and each movie was “one off.”
Unfortunately the books were written before cell phones, before computers, so now if a filmmaker wants to re-activate a series on McGee, the decision would have to be made whether to update it to the present day.
I chose the name for my hero to be Steadman because it’s a pun on “steady man” a man who sticks to his guns, not easily thrown off the trail.
My book’s hero, Michael Steadman. is a former Navy SEAL (Gulf War). And a former Newport Beach PD detective who describes himself to those he meets casually as a “beach bum.” To most observers he’s a bit of a mystery, living on a huge yacht in Newport Harbor when his only source of income seems to be working on occasion as a private detective. He turns down more cases than he takes. Others know him as a “barn finder” hunting down rare cars, either buying and selling them himself or in finding cars for collections and brokering them.
I got that part of the hero’s background in person from my own stint as a barn finder where I bought Ferraris, Maseratis, Bizzarrinis, Rolls Royces, Bentley, Ghia 450SS, an Iso Grifo and assorted other cars, traveling the country coast to coast to root them out. Similar to MacDonald’s Travis McGee, who has a buddy, Steadman has an older man who works with him on many cases.
In my book, Ferrari Hunters, the buddy is a war vet, and former ex-CIA pilot, who is an independently wealthy consultant in aerospace, but who enjoys working .
A CARJACKING
The plot of my novel, Ferrari Hunters, is basically about a carjacking. Not an ordinary car , mind you, but a prototype, still unreleased on the market. As an automotive historian for half a century I have run across many big automakers but some so tiny they are in a place smaller than a MacDonalds. One I remember vividly was a guy from my home State , Michigan, who wanted to build an exotic car. Every major car show I would go to in California, from 1970 to the early 2020s, he would be there, but each time, when I asked him what’s going on he would pull me aside and answer in a conspiratorial tone, as if there were spies everywhere.
He finally got his super car in production, with an Indonesian investor , but they threw out his American made engine and put in a Lamborghini engine. He had a protracted argument with them and finally won his company back but only a few models had been sold. He died recently, which I didn’t find out about until I called him to congratulate him for selling two of his prototypes and found out he didn’t live long enough to enjoy the millions he had always dreamed of.
My novel starts with the deadly carjacking of a small firm’s million prototype from the desert test track Steadman is hired by an old girlfriend, the daughter of the automaker’s chief security man, to wrest it back at any cost before the public finds out about the theft and the firm’s still-to-be issued stock is impacted.
He soon finds out there is already a ransom demand and the CEO of the auto firm is insistent on giving in so they can get the car back before his scheduled plant opening. Steadman is against payment but begrudgingly obeys his client. Another fly in the ointment is when a Russian, the brother of the CEOs much younger girlfriend, tries to steal the ransom. Steadman’s yacht is sunk in the attempt. But the ransom is paid and the car returned but Steadman, angry at having to obey the thieves, decides to recover the money too. He gives chase and there is a series of shoot-outs. The car is recovered.
Steadman eventually discovers the automaker’s CEO was the mastermind—that the carjacking was just a way for him to loot his stockholder’s money and with an escape plan in place to flee the country with the firm’s cash.
The book ends as Steadman, having refloated and refurbished his yacht, is on a celebratory cruise with his old girlfriend. Of course there’s a hint dropped of the next assignment in the series, a trip to Europe to be a ‘bodyguard” for a billionaire’s rare Ferrari being raced in a vintage event. Naturally the car is imperiled….
ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ARTIST: Wallace Wyss (rhymes with "Reese"), the author of 18 automotive books - now a fine artist - depicts postwar sports cars in oil on canvas. Wearing his artist hat, Wallace Wyss says, if art galleries, exotic car stores and car museums want to talk the possibility of taking art on consignment, he can be reached at photojournalistpro2@gmail.com