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Summary
Author Notes
Stephen J. Cannell was born in Los Angeles, California on February 5, 1941. He was dyslexic and struggled through school. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he drove a truck for his father's home-decorating business and wrote TV scripts at night and on the weekends. His first writing successes were story ideas sold to Mission Impossible. Four years later, he sold a script for It Takes a Thief. In 1966 a script he submitted for Adam 12 so impressed the producers at Universal that they offered him the position of head writer. At Universal he wrote and helped create several TV shows including The Rockford Files, Baretta, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.
He started his own production company in 1979, generating The A-Team, Riptide, Hunter, and 21 Jump Street. Other credits include Wiseguy, Renegade, and Silk Stalkings. He has scripted over 1,500 TV episodes and created or co-created over 40 programs.
His first novel, The Plan, was published in 1995. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 15 novels including Final Victim, King Con, and the Shane Scully series. He died of complications associated with melanoma on September 30, 2010 at the age of 69.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Smart, fast, funny and teeming with appealing characters, this thriller by novelist (Final Victory) and TV writer (The Rockford Files, etc.) Cannell has all the marks of a hit. Beano X. Bates, a member of a clan of "nomads" (not gypsies) whose "family business" has long been con games, received a serious setback when New Jersey mobster Joe Rina used a nine-iron to put him in the hospital after a crooked card game. Beano retaliated with a criminal complaint (using the alias Frank Lemay), but his scheme backfired. Named "King Con" on America's Most Wanted, Beano sensibly eloped from the hospital and slipped off to Florida, where he is now hiding out, appropriately selling used cars. Back in New Jersey, however, Assistant Attorney General Victoria Hart has a surprise eyewitness to the beating. But an antiseptic hit (no bodies, blood or clues) wipes out Victoria's case, and she's just about fired by her smarmy, ambitious boss. Eager to get revenge against the Rinas and seeing a chance to pull off a multimillion-dollar scam, Beano enlists Victoria's aid, using his formidable grifter's charm. With help from dozens of Bateses, the pair run an escalating series of cons (including "The Most Valuable Dog in the World" scam). In a plot that never stops for breath, Vicky learns a great deal: dressed as a bimbo, for example, she discovers why "girls in five-inch platform shoes all looked stupid. It was impossible to walk." Major ad/promo; author tour. (May) FYI: Cannell is to write and co-produce an MGM film production of King Con, starring John Travolta. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Breezy, novelized screenplay from TV screenwriter Cannell (Final Victim, 1996, etc.) almost makes crime cute. When charming card cheat and confidence man Beano X. Bates takes too much money out of the pocket of Armani-draped New Jersey mafia boss Joseph Rina, Rina nearly beats him to death with a golf club. Rather than testify against Rina in an upcoming trial, Bates leaves the hospital and disappears, leaving feisty, terminally beautiful state prosecutor Victoria Hart without much of a case. Then Carol Sesnick, a protected witness in the Rina trial, is found murdered, along with her two state-police bodyguards, at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a Trenton apartment building. Hiding out as a used-car salesman in Florida, Beano, who's also on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, feels bad seeing his face flashed on television. He wants to quit being a con man and live easy with his cute terrier Roger-the-Dodger, but, having descended from a family of grifters, Bates can't quite ignore the calling of his blood. The murder of Sesnick, who's descended from a family of gypsies that has intermarried with the Bates clan, gives him the excuse to use his nefarious skills to bring Rina to justice. He teams up with Hart and teaches her a thing or two about small-time scams and the joys of preying on the deservingly dishonest. The two fall in love and wind up sufficiently imperiled (having successfully duped Tommy ""Two Times"" Rina, Joe's homicidal brother) to justify a slam-bang, ultraviolent finish just before the wedding bells ring. Cannell shows off his skill at Elmore Leonard-style plot twists and slangy street dialogue, but his blend of cinematically detailed violence and pointless Hollywood fairy-tale scenes fails to convince. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Beeno Bates is King Con, the most infamous grifterin America, but that doesn't stop him from making a deadly mistake: he tries to cheat Mob boss Joe Rina in a poker game. Rina catches him and savagely beats him with a golf club. When the mobster is brought to trial, Bates' favorite cousin comes forward to testify as a witness. Rina has her murdered and is acquitted. Bates swears revenge and masterminds an elaborate con game to trick Rina's pathologically homicidal brother, Tommy, into turning state's evidence against Joe. Bates' plan is aided by beautiful and intelligent prosecuting attorney Victoria Hart, who is bitter over Rina's escape from justice. Also joining the scam are a score of Bates' colorful relatives from across America, all of whom are con men. With the sting swinging into full gear, Bates must evade not only the Mob but also the FBI, which has him on their Ten-Most-Wanted list. King Con suffers from many of the problems that plagued Cannell's earlier works (The Plan, 1995, and Final Victim [BKL Jl 96]): flat characterizations, unlikely plot twists, and jargon that bogs the story down. This reads like a plot treatment for a movie (which is currently in the planning stage) rather than a novel. But, there is enough story and fast-paced action to make it a popular summer "beach read." --Eric Robbins
Library Journal Review
New Jersey mobsters Tommy and Joe Rina kill the star witness in the state's case against them, and "King Con" Beano X. Bates plots revenge in the form of an elaborate "sting." Aiding him is former New Jersey prosecutor Victoria Hart, prim, upstanding, and dedicated, who's drawn into the sting unwillingly, then takes glee in committing felonies and telling lies right and left. Screen- and TV writer Cannell's second novel (following Final Victim, LJ 4/15/96) is pure delight; its well-developed plot line has nice detours here and there so the reader cannot quite foresee the conclusion. The entire Bates family, criminals all, are wonderful characters, and although some of the action is far-fetched and the sting dialog gets boring in its technicality, the wry humor will keep readers enthralled. Great summer reading for all libraries. (Cannell is making this into an MGM movie with John Travolta as Beano.) [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/97.]Alice DiNizo, Raritan P.L., N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
