THE ADVENTURES OF EVAN TANNER
Tanner lost the ability to sleep when he was
wounded in Korea. He’s been awake ever since—learning languages,
writing term papers and theses for lazy scholars, and supporting
political lost causes and national splinter groups and irridentist
movements. I wrote seven books about him in the late sixties—and an
eighth just in time for the millennium.
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1
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THE
THIEF WHO COULDN'T SLEEP. Fawcett Gold Medal, 1966.
Tanner goes to Balekesir, in Turkey, chasing a hoard of
gold coins stashed at the time of the Armenian genocide.
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2
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THE
CANCELED CZECH. Fawcett
Gold Medal, 1966. Tanner goes to Prague to rescue a
Slovak Nazi war criminal, induces catalepsy, and
smuggles him out in a coffin. Hey, these things happen… |
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3
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TANNER'S TWELVE SWINGERS.
Fawcett Gold Medal, 1967. Tanner liberates the Latvian
women's gymnastic team, and I wanted to call the book
The Lettish Tomatoes. Oh, well. This is the book where
he meets Minna and brings her home from Lithuania. |
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4
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THE SCORELESS THAI. (originally Two for Tanner)
Fawcett Gold Medal, 1968. Tanner meets up with a Siamese
fellow who has no luck with women. I never could figure
out why they called it Two for Tanner. |
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5
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TANNER'S TIGER. Fawcett Gold Medal,1968. Tanner
plays hopscotch with international borders, but in this
book he can't get into Canada. Somehow he manages, and
takes Minna to Expo, and the hazards of the Cuban
Pavilion.
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6
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TANNER’S
VIRGIN. Fawcett Gold Medal, 1968. (originally Here
Comes a Hero.) Set in Afghanistan, with Tanner rescuing
an old girlfriend who's been abducted by white slavers.
Based, believe it or not, on an overheard converartion
in a Lyons Corner House in London… |
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7
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ME TANNER, YOU JANE. MacMillan, 1970. The first in
the series to be published in hardcover. Takes place in
Africa, in the newly independent nation of Modonoland.
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8
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TANNER ON ICE. Dutton, 1998. Tanner's back,
after a quarter of a century in a frozen-food locker in
a sub-basement in Union City, New Jersey. (Hey,
everybody's got to be someplace.) The book's a true
cross-cultural experience, written by a New Yorker in
the West of Ireland and set in Burma. |
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I don’t know what the future holds for Tanner.
The 28-year gap between books 7 and 8 suggest the fellow has the
life cycle of a cicada, which would call for a reappearance in 2026.
I’m not holding my breath…
The links are to Amazon, and at the moment all eight books are
available at reasonable costs in print and as eBooks. Check
LB’s Bookstore for hardcover
first editions of Tanner on Ice.
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