Shane Stevens
Encyclopedia
Shane Stevens is an American author of crime novels
. His parents are John and Caroline (Royale) Stevens.
His novels include Go Down Dead (1966), Way Uptown in Another World (1971), Dead City (1973), Rat Pack (1974), By Reason of Insanity (1979), and The Anvil Chorus (1985). Stephen King
wrote an appreciation of Stevens in the Afterword of his novel The Dark Half
and paid tribute to him in that book, in which Thad Beaumont writes violent crime novels starring a character named "Alexis Machine," a reference to a character from Stevens' novel Dead City.
In Stevens' novel By Reason of Insanity the serial killer
character, Thomas Bishop, believes he is the son of Caryl Chessman
, who was executed in 1960 for various crimes including rape and kidnapping. The hero of his later novel The Anvil Chorus, a Paris police inspector, is an Alsatian
Jew apparently related to Alfred Dreyfus
.
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
. His parents are John and Caroline (Royale) Stevens.
His novels include Go Down Dead (1966), Way Uptown in Another World (1971), Dead City (1973), Rat Pack (1974), By Reason of Insanity (1979), and The Anvil Chorus (1985). Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
wrote an appreciation of Stevens in the Afterword of his novel The Dark Half
The Dark Half
The Dark Half is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1989. Publishers Weekly listed The Dark Half as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1993.Stephen King wrote several books under a...
and paid tribute to him in that book, in which Thad Beaumont writes violent crime novels starring a character named "Alexis Machine," a reference to a character from Stevens' novel Dead City.
In Stevens' novel By Reason of Insanity the serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
character, Thomas Bishop, believes he is the son of Caryl Chessman
Caryl Chessman
Caryl Whittier Chessman was a convicted robber and rapist who gained fame as a death row inmate in California. Chessman's case attracted worldwide attention, and as a result he became a cause célèbre for the movement to ban capital punishment.-Crime and conviction:Born in St...
, who was executed in 1960 for various crimes including rape and kidnapping. The hero of his later novel The Anvil Chorus, a Paris police inspector, is an Alsatian
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
Jew apparently related to Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
.