The UK writers I've stumbled across in various anthologies
are, for the
most part, harder boiled than most US writers currently
publishing. They
have a fresher or at least sharper-edged take on the genre, I
think; I'm
not sure why, unless most US publishers have little interest
in straying
from the obviously popular soft-boiled formula (I'd include
in this mode
writers such as James Lee Burke and Lawrence Block). I get
the feeling
that most of the new UK hard boiled writing is coming from
smaller
presses. Most small presses in the US seem to be devoted to
literary
writing rather than genre or hardboiled writing.
At any rate, I also recommend the _Fresh_Blood_ anthology
(I'll have to
look for the second one) and Maxim Jakubowski's
_London_Noir_. I also
agree with your assessment of Chaz Benchley. I've enjoyed his
short
stories but haven't found any novel-length work by
him.--Duane
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.