Donald Slitheran Bain

Background

Donald was born on March 6, 1935, in New York, United States.

Education

Donald studied at Purdue University, Indiana, United States.

Career

Donald Bain began ghost writing when a cousin, writer Jack Pearl, gave some of his own assignments - articles for men's magazines - to Bain. His first published book was a history of stock car racing written for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. In addition to books, Bain also ghost-writes corporate speeches and columns. Among his most popular works have been the pseudonymously published Coffee, Tea or Me?: The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses, as well as several volumes in the Murder She Wrote mystery novel series featuring fictional television sleuth Jessica Fletcher.

Books written under Bain’s own name include The Case against Private Aviation, wherein Bain, an experienced pilot, argues that the federal government should exercise more control to eliminate the dangers of commercial flying brought about by poorly trained private aircraft personnel and increased air traffic. Bain discusses industry agencies and groups, including the air traffic controllers, the Air Transport Association, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Following the publication of The Case against Private Aviation, Bain was invited to appear on the radio talk show of Long John Nebel, who had been broadcasting from New York City since the early 1960s. His relationship with Nebel deepened over the two hundred guest appearances Bain made on the show, resulting in Rain's biography of the radio celebrity. Long John Nebel: Radio Talk King, Master Salesman, and Magnificent Charlatan tells of Nebel’s life, from dropping out of eighth grade to become a peddlar to his life as an auctioneer, which led to his radio show.

War in Illinois: An Incredible True Story from the Roaring Twenties is Bain's account of the gang war between the Shelton brothers and fellow bootlegger Charlie Birger in Williamson County, Illinois, during the Prohibition era. Vincent P. Schmidt noted in Library Journal that the book was planned as a novel and that it “has kept much of that style.” The rivals employed bombing, homemade tanks, and armored cars as they fought to control the profits from their sales of illegal liquor. Both gangs were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, which opposed bootleggers and gamblers, as well as Jews and Catholics, in advancing their law-and-order agenda.

In the 1960s Bain wrote Coffee, Tea or Me? under the pseudonyms Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones. As Baker and Jones, he writes of the romantic encounters and party lifestyle of the airline attendants, then called stewardesses. When Coffee, Tea or Me? proved to be a bestseller, Bain wrote three sequels. The book details the fictitious duo's escapades in Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo, and other flight destinations. Baker and Jones discuss the “New Morality” of the sexually liberated sixties and seventies in The Coffee, Tea or Me, Girls Lay It on the Line. The book includes explicit sexual discussions and pokes fun at old-school moral signposters Helen Gurley Brown, Emily Post, and Sigmund Freud. The Coffee, Tea or Me, Girls Get away from It All finds the high-flying duo vacationing in foreign lands in search of romance. The Coffee, Tea, or Me? series sold over seventeen million copies, prompting Bain to copy his successful formula in stories about teachers, nurses, and the women of Wall Street.

Bain wrote several novels under the pseudonym Mike Lundy. In Raven, detective Fred Raven and his partner, Lee Higgins, pursue a trio of rapists who abduct young women from a local lovers' lane. One of the rapes ended in murder, and the victim’s innocent boyfriend is being accused. A lack of evidence hampers the rapists’ arrest, and Raven uses bribes and strong-arm methods to extract their confessions.

Some sources also claim Bain is the author of most of the mystery novels attributed to Margaret Truman.

Achievements

• During his 40-year career Donald wrote over 115 books, most famous of which is a spin-off book series based on the Murder, She Wrote American crime drama television series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher.

Works

More photos

• book

  • San Juan Shootout

    (Bullets are flying over San Juan silver! Hired to protect...)

  • Dying to Retire

    (Jessica Fletcher is in a Florida retirement community for...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: A Fatal Feast

    (The bird is the world in the USA Today bestselling series...)

  • Coffee, Tea or Me? The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses

    (Remember when flying was glamorous and sexy, even fun? Wh...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Design For Murder

    (In this mystery in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She ...)

  • The Ghost Mine

    (Doc and Raider, Pinkerton agents, investigate the mysteri...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: A Little Yuletide Murder

    (Jessica Fletcher unwraps the deadly puzzle of who killed ...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Highland Fling Murders

    (Jessica Fletcher and a group of friends from Cabot Cove t...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Hook, Line, and Murder

    (The USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote mystery serie...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: The Ghost and Mrs. Fletcher

    (Now in paperback in the USA Today bestselling series - Je...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Manhattans & Murder

    (The USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote mystery serie...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayed

    (New in the USA Today bestselling series—Jessica Fletcher ...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Blood on the Vine

    (Jessica Fletcher must solve a wine country caper when she...)

  • The Buffalo Soldier

    (Doc and Raider, two Pinkerton agents, are assigned to hel...)

  • You Bet Your Life

    (When her old friend Martha decided to get married in Las ...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: A Palette for Murder

    (Jessica Fletcher must solve a homicide in the Hamptons in...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: A Deadly Judgment

    (The USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote mystery serie...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Killer in the Kitchen

    (In the newest mystery in the USA Today bestselling series...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Brandy and Bullets

    (Jessica Fletcher must catch an artistic killer in this my...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Gin and Daggers

    (Jessica Fletcher is off to London to deliver the keynote ...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: The Queen's Jewels

    (Jessica Fletcher has always wanted to take a transatlanti...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Coffee, Tea, or Murder?

    (A brand new mystery in the USA Today bestselling series f...)

  • Murder, She Wrote: Madison Ave Shoot

    (It's lights... Camera... Murder! The USA Today bestsellin...)

  • The Coffee Tea or Me Girls' 'Round-the-World Diary
  • The Coffee Tea or Me Girls Get Away from it All
  • The Coffee Tea or Me Girls Lay it on the Line
  • Blood in Big Hatchets
  • Gentleman Brawler
  • Train Ride to Hell
  • Murder on the Rails
  • The Northland Marauders
  • Colorado Silver Queen
  • The Fort Worth Cattle Mystery

Connections

Spouse:

Renee Paley

Daughter:

Pamela Bain

References

• Murder, He Wrote: A Successful Writer's Life In Murder HE Wrote, Bain takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey from the rousing loops of Coffee, Tea or Me and the best selling comedy series it spawned to the gravity-defying biographies of Veronica Lake, legendary talk show king Long John Nebel, and top model and CIA mind-control subject Candy Jones.
  2006