RARA-AVIS: Robin Cook (was: Mark Timlin)

Frank Glenewinkel (Frank.Glenewinkel@Uni-Koeln.DE)
Tue, 25 Nov 1997 20:30:18 +0000 > i have always been a big, big fan of RobinCook, the uk version, who
> died a few years ago, unfortunately, who was noir/hardboiled to me
> and to french critics...is he still read in uk???

Derek Raymond's (aka Robin Cook's) Factory books are some of the
mystery books that I have read and re-read several times.
IMHO Cook's stories belong to the gloomiest and most noir works ever
written.
What I find especially convincing in his books is not so much the
storyline but the atmosphere of general uneasiness, coldness and
decay he creates and which starts with the weather and the office
furniture in the Factory and does not stop at the description of the
seedy parts of London in which the action takes place but gets hold
of the past and current life of the protagonist.
In comparison with the reflexions of Cooks hero are the views of
Chandlers Marlowe more those of an optimistic chap out of a novel
by P.G.Wodehouse.

I don't know if Cooks books (which were mostly published under
the pen name Derek Raymond) are still read in the UK.
At least two of his works have been translated into German recently
which is not very common for a newer British author.
Oddly enough they are both from the factory serial (I Was Dora Suarez,
Dead Man Upright) but one is published under the name Cook and one
under Raymond.

BTW there are two excellent CD's read by Raymond/Cook on the market.
On one CD he reads excerpts from "I Was Dora Suarez", the other one
features a story called "Changeless Susan".

In re Mark Timlin: I think the quality of his stories change to the
extreme.
When he writes a good book like "Ashes By Now", he is very good
but when he writes an inferior book he is next to unreadable. His short
stories as featured in "Sharman and Other Filth" are perfect.
Wonderful trash in the tradition of the 1930's pulp writers like Paul
Cain.

Frank
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Frank Glenewinkel
frank.glenewinkel@uni-koeln.de
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
#
# 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/.