“If You Have Another Hobby, Take That Up”: The Thrillers of Harrison Arnston

“If You Have Another Hobby, Take That Up”

The Thrillers of Harrison Arnston

by Ben Boulden

Harrison Arnston – Harry to his friends and pretty much everyone else – wrote nine published novels between 1987 and 1994. The critic Jon L. Breen, in his Armchair Detective column “Novel Verdicts,” called Arnston’s 1991 legal thriller, Act of Passion, “unusually well plotted” with a trial that “is expertly covered…with some terrific Q-and-A along the way.” Arnston followed Act of Passion with another excellent legal thriller, Trade-Off, in 1992, but his work wandered across the genre in unexpected ways. He turned the 1991 techno-thriller The Big One – where a super-secret government agency is covering up a new discovery for predicting earthquakes – into an enjoyable and outlandish detective story, and The Venus Diaries, Arnston’s final published novel, is a swift tale about an extraordinarily beautiful and effective assassin for hire, raised in post-World War 2 France by an embittered veteran of the communist partisans.
      Harry’s widow, Theresa Sandberg-Arnston, told the St. Petersburg Times, that he began writing a novel when he was 21, but life and work encroached, and it was never finished. Arnston founded a successful “auto-accessory company” in Toronto, Canada, which was later relocated to California. He sold the company in 1984 and retired to Palm Harbor, Florida “to pursue his dream of becoming a novelist.” After completing his first novel manuscript, an agent told him, “If you have another hobby, take that up,” but Arnston ignored the advice and kept writing. His third effort, The Warning, was purchased by Zebra Books and released as a paperback original in 1987. Over the next seven years two publishers – first Zebra and then Harper – issued another eight paperback originals by Harrison Arnston.
      According to Theresa, during his lifetime Arnston saw his books “published in 17 countries, including China, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania.” But he never forgot that agent’s cranky response to his first manuscript. As a kind of cheery revenge, Arnston sent each of his books to the agent as they were released. It was Arnston’s way of turning a discouraging interaction with an industry professional, which could have wrecked his writing dreams, into a mischievous incentive, which fits with what Theresa told the St. Petersburg Times in 1996: “[Harry] had the greatest sense of humor. He could find something positive in anything.”

 His early stuff, especially the first three Zebra titles – The Warning, Death Shock (1988), and Baxter’s Choice (1988) – relied on paragraphs of dialogue to advance the plot, but his writing steadily improved, and the four novels published by Harper in the 1990s – Act of Passion, Trade-Off, The Third Illusion (1993), and The Venus Diaries – were markedly better in both style and plotting. After reading The Third Illusion, I contacted Arnston and told him, “I loved it” and was looking forward to reading Baxter’s Choice since both books shared a hero, David Baxter. Arnston’s response was honest: “I’ve learned a few tricks since writing Baxter’s Choice and it’s not a book you need to track down.” 
      Act of Passion – discussed more fully above – is a fine example of a legal thriller where a mistreated wife is accused of murdering her unfaithful husband. The courtroom scenes are top-notch and while the ending isn’t a big surprise, it doesn’t matter because the story comes together so nicely. Arnston’s next effort, Trade-Off, which is his only other legal thriller, came out a year later. Laura Scott is a public defender facing a nasty divorce in her personal life and defending a drifter, John Slocum, accused of murdering a well-liked teenage girl in her professional life. What she discovers while defending Slocum changes everything she knows about justice. The characterization is a touch better than that of Act of Passion, especially Laura, and the plotting is just as strong. Arnston’s use of Central Florida’s suffocating summer heat – “a steaming Friday night in August” – as an uncaring emotional antagonist is both effective and different from his earlier work.
      In The Third Illusion, David Baxter is hiding from his enemies – a terrorist group is trying to kill him for past transgressions – in a California mountain town. Baxter is outed when a politically ambitious millionaire tracks him down and asks for his help finding his missing daughter. Baxter’s angry about his comfortable life being exposed, but he reluctantly accepts the job and soon finds more going on than a missing daughter and a concerned father. Publishers Weekly called The Third Illusion “[an] improbable but fast-paced formula novel,” which is true. But there is also tight plotting, a couple of well-placed surprises to keep it interesting, and a well-concocted and satisfying bit of techno-style justice.
      Arnston’s final novel, The Venus Diaries, is a sleek and entertaining thriller about greed, old grudges, and a beautiful assassin named Josephine. Its roots are in the Second World War’s French resistance, but it plays out in the America of 1994. The characterization is limited but adequate for a thriller, the pacing is strong, and the plotting is precise. According to Theresa, Arnston was dissatisfied with the published version of The Venus Diaries because of the changes his editor at Harper wanted. Harry felt “the book lost a lot of punch” because the editor required “the bad guys” be changed from Russians – the Soviet Union had recently fallen – to French. Theresa continued, “No one likes the French, I guess.”
      As enjoyable as Arnston’s books are to read, his most lasting influence may have been as a writing coach and mentor. In the late-1980s and early-1990s, Arnston gave writing advice – from nuts-and-bolts craft to finding agents – on the Prodigy Online Service, which was a pretty cool precursor to the internet. He had his own “board” on the service, called Harry’s Bar & Grill. In an email, Theresa wrote, “The Prodigy years were some of his happiest” because he loved sharing what he knew with other writers. This enjoyment can be seen in his dedication to The Third Illusion: “For my pals on PRODIGY.”

In the mid-1990s, Arnston published a free writing guide online titled, Novels 101, which was an edited compendium of his posts on Harry’s Bar & Grill. Arnston also “lectured” – according to the St. Petersburg Times – “at the University of Georgia.” He taught at the South Coast Writers Conference “and participated in the Times Festival of Reading…at Eckerd College [in St. Petersburg, Florida].” Arnston was involved with professional writers’ organizations, too. He co-founded the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America in 1992 and served as the organization’s “vice president for two years and published its newsletter.” But, Theresa noted, “[Harry’s] other legacy was to me.” He taught Theresa “to write” and she went on to publish “five books under the pen name Catherine Arnold.” Arnston edited the first Catherine Arnold novel, Due Process (1996), and he likely wrote the final Arnold novel, Journey (2003) – see “a little more about Harrison Arnston…” below for more about this.
      Harrison Deroche Arnston died eight weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer, on February 2, 1996, at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. He was 59 years old. He was born to Joseph H. Arnston and Dorothy V. Tierney in Toronto, Canada on September 19, 1936. Arnston enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force “before graduating from high school” and served for five years. He never attended college, which didn’t seem to hinder his success in either business or writing. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Arnston’s only formal writing instruction came from “a creative writing class…at Countryside High School” in Clearwater, Florida. Arnston lived in Canada, Michigan, Costa Mesa, California, and Palm Harbor, Florida. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1987; the same year his first novel, The Warning was released by Zebra Books. According to Theresa, “[Harry] was from Toronto, Canada but proud to be an American citizen.” He married the love of his life Theresa A. Sandberg – “who taught me how to love again” – on October 22, 1988.

a little more about Harrison Arnston…   ·         Theresa Sandford-Arnston wrote four legal thrillers featuring lawyer Karen Perry-Mondori – Due Process (1996), Imperfect Justice (1997), Wrongful Death (1999), and Class Action (1999) – using the nom de plume Catherine Arnold. A fifth novel, Journey, as by Catherine Arnold, was published in 2003. Arnston’s St. Petersburg Times obituary (4 Feb. 1996) identified Journey as a completed manuscript by Harrison Arnston, which his agent was trying to sell at the time of his death. So, it is likely Journey is actually Arnston’s final published novel rather than The Venus Diaries. ·         There is at least one completed and unpublished Arnston manuscript: American Terrorist. According to Theresa, in a 2008 email: “I tried to sell it but no one was interested in publishing a deceased author; no more manuscripts to come and they felt the subject was too frightening – blowing up the capital in Washington D.C.” Adding credibility to the idea that Arnston wrote Journey – but was published as by the more marketable (at that time) Catherine Arnold – Theresa told the St. Petersburg Times in a 2001 interview that she was attempting to sell American Terrorist as by Catherine Arnold: “Sandberg-Arnston is trying to market a book called American Terrorist. It is a deviation from her series. The protagonist was taken from a bit character in one of her husband’s books.” ·         Arnston wrote the novelization of the underwhelming Madonna film, Body of Evidence (1992). The book’s title was changed to Deadly Evidence to differentiate it from Patricia Cornwell’s bestselling Kay Scarpetta novel, Body of Evidence, published in 1991. According to Theresa, he “hated [Deadly Evidence] with a passion.” ·         Arnston’s article about mysteries and mystery writers in Florida in the 1990s, titled “The Florida Mystery Scene,” was included in The Fine Art of Murder: The Mystery Reader’s Indispensable Companion, edited by Ed Gorman, Martin H. Greenberg, Larry Segriff, with Jon L. Breen (Carroll & Graf, 1993). ·         Arnston’s title for Death Shock (Zebra, 1987) was Wiseman’s Last Case. In a 1988 interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Arnston “said he set out to write a book about the dope business, to show that even important people – ‘people with secrets in their head’ – can get hooked on cocaine, with tragic results.” The same article provided Arnston’s per unit royalty payout for Death Shock: $0.24 for each $3.95 book sold, which is roughly a 6-percent royalty rate. ·         Theresa is quoted in The St. Petersburg Times as saying, “He was fortunate and he loved every minute (of his writing). He was the most disciplined person I knew. To be able to sit down at the word processor . . . when it flowed, he’d work 10 hours.” ·         Theresa Sandford-Arnston died December 22, 2016. According to her obituary in the Tampa Bay Times: “Theresa was born August 14, 1939 in Brooklyn, NY, the daughter of Joseph and Theresa Sicignano… She was a graduate of St. John’s University School of Pharmacy and School of Law.”   Harrison Arnston’s Bibliography…     The Warning (Zebra Books, Dec. 1, 1987)   Death Shock (Zebra Books, June. 1, 1988)   Baxter’s Choice (featuring David Baxter; Zebra Books, Nov. 1, 1988)   The Big One (Zebra Books, Dec. 1, 1989)   Act of Passion (HarperPaperbacks, Feb. 1, 1991)   Trade-Off (HarperPaperbacks, Mar. 1, 1992)   Deadly Evidence (novelization for the film, Body of Evidence; HarperPaperbacks, Feb. 1, 1993)   The Third Illusion (featuring David Baxter; HarperPaperbacks, Mar. 1, 1993)   The Venus Diaries (HarperPaperbacks, Jan. 1, 1994)   “Novels 101” (online, mid-1990s)   Journey (published as by Catherine Arnold, but it was likely written by Arnston; iUniverse, Sep. 17, 2003)   American Terrorist (unpublished; written in the mid-1990s)

 

Sources:

 

Arnston, Harrison, Death Shock, Zebra, 1988

Breen, Jon L., “Novel Verdicts,” The Armchair Detective, Fall 1991 (v24, n4)

Farley, Robert, “Writer Hopes Novels Just Prologue,” St. Petersburg Times, 22 Jan. 2001

Heaton, Paul, “Author Keeps Thriller Close to Hometown,” St. Petersburg Times, 4 June 1988

Pelamati, Lisa, “‘Harry’ Arnston, dies at 59, writer of mystery novels,” St. Petersburg Times,

   4 Feb. 1996

Publishers Weekly, “The Third Illusion by Harrison Arnston,” 1 Mar. 1993

Sandberg-Arnston, Theresa, email to Ben Boulden, 26 Jan. 2008

Sandberg-Arnston, Theresa, email to Ben Boulden, 31 Mar. 2008

Sandberg-Arnston, Theresa, (obituary), Tampa Bay Times, 25 Dec. 2016

U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 

Copyright © 2022 by Ben Boulden / All Rights Reserved

If you knew Harrison Arnston or Theresa Arnston, please leave a comment or contact me at zulu1611@yahoo.com. I would love to hear your stories. I’m also interested in finding a copy of Arnston’s “Novels 101,” so, if you have one...  Check out Amazon’s page for Journey, as by Catherine Arnold