Editing Arthur Hailey (section)

==Writing method and critical reception==
[[File:Обложка Артур Хейли На высотах твоих.jpg|right|thumb|201px|The cover of the Soviet edition of Hailey's ''[[In High Places (Hailey novel)|In High Places]]'']]
Hailey would usually spend three years<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4044777.stm |title=Arthur Hailey: King of the bestsellers |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=24 November 2004 |website=BBC News |access-date=14 February 2017}}</ref> on each book. First, he would dedicate a year to research, then six months reviewing his notes, and finally 18 months writing.<ref name=Thurber/> His research was painstaking:<ref name=Scotsman/> he read 27 books about the hotel industry for ''Hotel'',<ref name="O'Donnell"/> he spent months at a Detroit car plant for ''Wheels'',<ref name=Scotsman/> and he spent time—at the age of 67—with rebel guerillas in the jungles of Peru<ref name=Independent/> for ''The Evening News''. Hailey had no discernible literary pretensions; he said, "I'm a storyteller and anything else is incidental."<ref name=Thurber/>

Hailey was not a critical favourite. In the ''New York Times'', Martin Levin called him "a plodding sort of writer."<ref>{{cite news |last=Levin |first=Martin |date=7 April 1968|title=Reader's Report |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/04/07/170453222.pdf|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=5 February 2017 |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> [[Martha Gellhorn]], reviewing ''The Evening News'' for ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' wrote, "This is not a book you cannot put down; it is a book you can hardly hold up. It will sell in millions and be translated into 34 languages. Possibly it is more readable in Icelandic or Urdu."<ref name=Telegraph/> And ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, reviewing ''Wheels'' together with [[Harold Robbins]]'s ''The Betsy'', said, "Yes, junk fans, it is a mano a mano for novelists who are all thumbs. Two of the greatest schlockmeisters in the history of solid waste have just published novels about the auto industry."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Skow |first=John |date=13 December 1971 |title=Books: Internal Combustion |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,910192,00.html |magazine=Time |access-date=13 February 2017 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

But Hailey's ability to tell a story was recognised by some critics. In the ''New York Times'', John Reed conceded, in a review of ''Wheels'', that "Mr. Hailey is nothing if not a competent craftsman."<ref>{{cite news |last=Reed |first=John |date=19 September 1971 |title=Wheels |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/19/archives/wheels-by-arthur-hailey-374-pp-new-york-doubleday-co-795-dont-buy-a.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=13 February 2017}}</ref> [[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]], in his ''New York Times'' review of ''The Moneychangers'' wrote, "What I had in mind was diversion, and, to tell the shameful truth, I found it."<ref>{{cite news |last=Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Lehmann-Haupt |date=28 July 1975 |title=Books of the Times Calculators at 50 Paces |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/28/archives/books-of-the-times-calculators-at-50-paces.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=13 February 2017}}</ref> Reviewing ''Detective'', ''Publishers Weekly'' wrote, "Old pro Hailey... remains adept at hooking readers with his propulsive brand of storytelling."<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Detective |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-517-70025-9 |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |date=30 June 1997 |access-date=13 February 2017 }}</ref>