In the November 25-26 DorothyL digest, Marshall Moseley posed
the
question "What's the best hardboiled novel you've ever read?"
He listed
a few titles that he said 'came to mind' - all written in the
1990s.
Naturally I couldn't resist and sent off a reply making (so I
thought) a
case for Hammett, Chandler and Ross MacDonald and named two
or three of
each of these authors' novels that I think are among their
better
efforts.
There has been no response to my posting while the rest of
the list has
named books written in the last couple of decades. I don't
have anything
against the authors and books they mention, but to me the
very heart and
soul of hardboiled fiction is the work of the authors I
listed above.
Q: Have things gotten to the point that mysetry readers,
present company
excepted, think the best hardboiled novels are being written
by
contemporary authors? I wonder if the people who are
mentioning authors
like Parker and Lee Child have read the classic hardboiled
novels but
prefer the contemporary authors or if they haven't read them
and thus
don't even think of Hammett, Chandler, MacDonald et al when
they hear
the term "hardboiled"?
Q: If so it's a sad state of affairs, and I wonder how it has
come
about.
"Yea, though I walk through streets mean and gritty, my rod
and my gat
shall comfort me"
- from The Hardboiled P.I.'s 23rd Psalm
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