Created by Karl Alexander
“Tequila? It’s a little early for me. It doesn’t go with toothpaste.”
In the 1980 novel A Private Investigation, young widow SARA SCOTT takes a job as a Venice, California private eye so she can continue to search for her late journalist husband’s killers (he wrote for Rolling Stone). Not as sappy as it sounds, it’s an ambitious, if not always successful read, as Sara, obsessed with her husband’s murder, slowly comes apart, even as she gets closer and closer to the killers. The effects of crime upon its victims are well-drawn, and add depth to the story.
The novel, by Karl “Time After Time” Alexander was met with mixed reviews (Newgate Callender in the NYTBR was particularly savage),but was turned into a pretty good 1983 made-for-television movie, Missing Pieces, with Elizabeth (Bewitched) Montgomery dishing up what I thought was a convincing performance as Sara. And some of the dialogue was quite snappy, too. Or maybe it was just me. Did I mention it starred Elizabeth Montgomery?
UNDER OATH
- “The trouble…’ is that Sara Scott is not a very interesting woman and Mr. Alexander not a very stimulating writer. Some of the book reads like a bad soap opera.”
— Newgate Callender on the novel (February 1981, The New York Times Book Review) - “… an engaging above average thriller.”
— Leonard Maltin on the TV movie
NOVELS
- A Private Investigation (1980) |Â Buy this book
TELEVISION
- MISSING PIECES
(1983, CBS)
96 minutes
Based on the novel by Karl Alexander
Screenplay by Mike Hodges
Directed by Mike Hodges
Produced by Barry Krost and Doug Chapin
Starring Elizabeth Montgomery as SARA SCOTT
Also starring Ron Karabatsos, Louanne, John Reilly, Robin Gammel, Julius Harris
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
