A reply to Bill Denton from Ralph Wilett in the UK (writer on but sadly not of HBF). I don't know what a B-girl is , but feel she ought to be a girl in a film noir. Most of them were B movies. On Paretsky see Chapter 7 in Naked City (St Martins Press) by yours truly. It may answer the question : Is Warshawski hard- boiled? It may not. She operates in the mean streets, she's tough, independent, courageous and has moral concerns, indeed more social concerns than Marlowe.I think the series ran out of steam and VI became something of a pain. Cheerybye. - # RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" # to majordomo@icomm.ca