Guns in non-gun books, ones you liked, ones you laughed at.

[G36-UK]

Red X AK?

Don't know if this is a funny one or not.

In the second novel of the Descent trilogy, Descent: Stealing Thunder, one of the main characters, Sierra Taurus has a "Kimber Custom Royal .45 handgun, a deep blue slugshooter with hand-checkered double-diamond rosewood grips.", which cost him "almost three grand Global".

He blinds a few mechs with it, before being disarmed by a Programmer and brainwiped.

 

[redactor]

I don't remember which novel it was, but Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp character once had the need (for some reason) to switch to a sub-sonic round in the chamber of his glock, and he needed to do it quietly...

So Rapp drops the mag, quietly locks back the slide... Drops a subsonic round in the chamber, inserts the mag full of subsonic rounds, then slowly walks the slide into battery.

Funny. In the book, it didn't even cause a double-feed.

 

[MikePGS]

I'm currently re-reading Stephen Hunter's "Point of Impact" (unfortunately it has that guy from those underwear ads on the cover) and this time around i noted something particularly amusing that didn't catch my attention the first time. Hunter, as i'm sure many of you know is a firearms enthusiast, deliberately misidentifies a Bolt Action rifle when weaving into the story the "articles" from newspapers around the country. One refers to it as a .38 special rifle, and another an assault weapon. Hunter is himself a journalist (well, film critic... same thing sort of) so its particularly amusing to me to see him poking fun at his peers.

 

[rocinante]

I read last week "Red River". It is a novel about the Colfax Riot and a black family chronicle. What got me going with a *** was she said they had "9mm sharpies". So they were defending themselves with very big permanent ink markers? She did a pretty good job describing the drill for loading a springfield except during the most intense part of the battle she said the men's tongues were swollen with gunpowder from biting the paper. Another ***.

 

[ilbob]

I don't know if Tom Clancy's fiction would be considered gun related, but I've always liked his stuff.

He does a pretty fair job of describing guns and gun usage in his novels. Its not a huge part of his books, but what is there is generally reasonably accurate.

 

[Ash]

Webley provided versions of their Mk IV 38 revolvers with safeties. Many, many Belgian and Spanish revolvers have safeties, too. Here are several.

Ash

 

[Checkman]

rocinante

I read last week "Red River". It is a novel about the Colfax Riot and a black family chronicle. What got me going with a *** was she said they had "9mm sharpies". So they were defending themselves with very big permanent ink markers?

OMG I'm ROTFLMAO. Okay that's enough Internet acronyms and smilies.

 

[Prince Yamato]

In China, certain S&W model 10 copies given to railroad workers have manual safeties as well.

 

[MikePGS]

John Sandford seems to put a good amount of thought into what he arms his characters with. One bank robber had signature duel Bulldog .44's, while Lucas Davenport often has his HK P7 nearby.

 

[wuluf]

i HATE when it happens!

i'm rollin' along, readin' a good book, engrossing plot,,when: "he pulled his .44 mag Colt Python out from under his seat". and i'm no longer quite as engrossed. how hard is it to check a simple fact?????

 

[bwavec]

possum:

I would have to take Mr Cussler to task for his description of and the use of the "Stoner weapon" that the SEALs carried in "Raise the Titanic !" (1976).

He describes it as a multi barrel fleschette firing weapon. Uhm....no. The Stoner that the SEALs carried in Vietnam was the predecessor of the SAW that is in use today. The might have read somewhere about SEALs carrying Stoners in Vietnam......but what he describes is something all together different....and not real.

 

[Checkman]

I admire the author who elects to just use the generic terms: gun, rifle, revolver,shotgun. If they haven't done the research or are unsure then don't try to sound technical. Of course in this day and age it isn't a tough thing for a writer to jump onto the Internet and do some simple research. Like right here on the High Road.

Alistair Maclean and Bryan Forbes were also guilty of making up firearms and strange details.

 

[grumpycoconut]

I like gun fight stories that result in the "smell of cordite" but don't involve WWI artillery

 

[Crunker1337]

I really like Alex Rider series books... but a mini Uzi in 19mm?

 

[mgregg85]

I like gun fight stories that result in the "smell of cordite" but don't involve WWI artillery

The british used cordite in .303 ammo, who knows what else.

 

[mainmech48]

To keep it short, I liked the mention of the Webley Fosberry in "The Maltese Falcon" even though they got the capacity wrong for the caliber that the victim was supposedly done in by. .455 was six, only the rare .38 Auto model had eight. I was very young when I read it, but it made me do some more reading to learn about the model, which l'd never heard of before.

Ian Fleming gets my vote for the "Most Consistently Lame and Ignorant: Firearms category" award.

007's original side arm: a Beretta "Minx" .25 ACP with the grips replaced with adhesive tape and the front sight filed off resting in a chamois skin shoulder rig. On top of it all he was supposed to routinely drop the baddies at 40-50 yds with a single hip shot. Even at 13 I LMAO.

Then the Big Switch to the Walther PPK - in .32 ACP. The comment Fleming had a couple of other characters making on it ("Yeah, that's a stopper alright.") is a classic of unintentional Brit comedy..

I could go on and on.

 

[Gunnerpalace]

Saw a book about a professional assassin....on the cover was a Remington 710

 

[MBane666]

A few years back, I hosted and participated in a huge luncheon panel on gun bloopers for a Mystery Writers of America convention. Was big fun.

I can't remember the name of the book, but I opened the panel by reading a selection where the protagonist, in order to prove that he was a "shooting expert," borrowed a 30-06 and shot a balloon tethered to the top of a church steeple "almost a mile" away. This was, of course, in a heavily populated area.

I said there were so many things wrong with that 3-sentence paragraph that it was almost breath-taking. It was a GREAT panel!

AMERICAN GUN FIGHT was writtten by Stephen Hunter of "Bob the Nailer" fame. Steve's a gun gun, a graduate of Thunder Ranch and a relentless researcher...I wouldn't bet against him on a piece of gun trivia. He also knows the best bars in the D.C. area...

Robert Crais is also a big time hunter and gun guy. He and I have discussed doing a SHOOTING GALLERY episode where we tour Los Angeles' most favorite mystery novel haunts and discuss the "gats" each fictional PI chose.

Michael B

 

[foreveryoung001]

I'm reading the series Presidential Agent by W.E.B. Griffin. He goes into some quite detailed descriptions of some of the characters weapons... I keep looking for mistakes, but he seems to right on most/all of it. After researching the author, I found out he spent many years in the U.S. Military so he did come from a background with some firearms experience.

For the Dirk Pitt fans, Griffen's series is written in the same style, easy to read, get totally engrossed, can't put it down type of thing. I got into this series while I was waiting for the Cussler's to come out with the last Pitt novel.

 

[novaDAK]

After reading the title of this thread, I thought this was going to be a thread about those hollowed out books to keep a gun inside

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I have several favorites. One was a typical British picture book on "how it works." Under "guns" they showed an M1911A1 -- and told us the gun is loaded with a "handle clip" and identified the beavertail as the "firing pin."

In another crime and adventure story, the hero "clicked the trigger at" the bad guy to intimidate him.

And in another one, a character armed with a Colt Detective Special prepares for a confrontation by carrying a spare loaded cylinder (along with a couple of speed loaders.)

 

[Coastie2010]

I've always loved how the newspapers tell us how someone was shot with a 38mm saturdaynight special or a 40mm glock. I'd like to see someone try to carry that.

 

[Johannes_Paulsen]

The beginning of Ian Fleming's Dr. No always cracks me up, where James Bond is forced to give up his preferred weapon (a .25 Beretta with silencer(!)). Major Boothroyd then famously dismisses the Beretta as a "Ladies' gun" and introduces Bond to his new sidearm:

"Walther PPK. 7.65 mil. with a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window."

Yup. Brick through plate glass. Exactly what I think of when I think of a .32....

(Can't remember if that exact quotation is from the novel or the film...either way, it always makes me smile.)

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I also recall he had "personally sawn off the front sight" of that Beretta (okay, but ....)

And he had "filed the firing pin to a needle point."

 

[17asleep]

Read a book by Tedd Dekker a while back where this sniper was shooting 2000 yards and holding five feet high with a 308. The rifle was zeroed at 400 yars and had 18 inches of drop at 1000 yards.