The Mystery of the Cape Cod Treatment

​Happy day after Black Friday. It is my hope that none of you had to experience lining up in front of a Walmart before the super sale began. A brain concussion and severe blood loss is not worth a 50-inch flat-screen television. I don’t even know what the latest hot Christmas commodity worth killing yourselves is.  Oh, yeah, now I remember!  SON OF RAVAGE the first edition. The good news is that you don’t have line-up early on Black Friday at Walmart. You can just as easily get up early and order it online…from Walmart! I’m not sure why there is no picture of the book, but here is the proof. If you need something to brawl about, why not that?

​And now, return with me to the thrilling writing adventures of yesteryear.  Here is this week’s blog, The Mystery of the Cape Cod Treatment, Part 1.
 
Okay, the year was 1986 and I was hot off the success of my first option, “The Touristers.” The world was my oyster. I was a movie writer, had representation with the prestigious east coast literary agency, Manhattan Artists. My agent, a gentleman by the name of Russ Kiester, (nice name change, eh?) was on the case. My star was most definitely on the rise.
 
Apparently, my script had been making the rounds in New York where it stumbled into the hands of a producer who owned the rights to the Asey Mayo murder Mysteries. She had secured the rights to the first book, “The Mystery at the Cape Cod Tavern” as a starring vehicle for her friend, star, and mother to Mia Farrow, Maureen O’ Sullivan. The producer, after reading my original screenplay, “The Touristers,” had decided that I was just the writer to bring these sophisticated and distinct New England characters to the big screen. Who was I to disagree?

Now, it is very important to keep in mind, I doubt I had even read a 30’s Agatha Christie type mystery, let alone seen a film treatment of one. Oh, I had read Sherlock Holmes and, as far as 30’s fiction, had immersed myself thoroughly in the hijinks of the Nazi sympathizer P.G Wodehouse. But, in all honesty, I had never heard of Asey Mayo. I was, however, familiar with this old Hollywood actor adage, if you’re auditioning for a cowboy and a producer asks you if ride a horse, you say you ride a horse. I thought it was the same for writing. I never knew how wrong I could be. 
 
To whet your appetite and to prove this literary property really does exist, here is the Wikipedia entry for Phoebe Atwood Taylor’s, “The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern.” 
 
Eve Prence is the glamorous and publicity-seeking owner of the famous Cape Cod Tavern, and uses her publicity to keep the Tavern filled with famous and/or wealthy guests. She has a house-full the night she's found at the bottom of the grand staircase, claiming somebody had tried to kill her. The following day, she is found with a knife in her ribs. Asey Mayo, the Codfish Sherlock, must work out the meaning of clues like a pair of antique pistols that contain a pair of antique daggers, and what exactly the blind boy on the scene of the crime heard, and a pair of dirty indentations on a windowsill before bringing home the crime to a surprising figure.
 
Well, we’ve now established that the stakes are high, the movie star is real, and this writer clearly does not know what he is doing. Sounds like great story elements for the next blog.