SMART-ALECK P.I.s
Jim Gormley said in his recent post:
> [Lahane] was promising when he started out but
SACRED
> adopts the smart aleck Spenser, Crais, Coben,
Womack
> type of pi.
Having just read the first three books in Steven Womack's
Harry Denton
series, I want to comment that the smart-aleck P.I.s Jim
lists aren't of
a type, really. I put Spenser and Elvis Cole in the same box,
and I have
to say I haven't read enough of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar
to form an
opinion, but I don't see Harry Denton cracking wise so much
as just
making remarks and comments about Nashville and the
situations he finds
himself in. Now, I haven't read CHAIN OF FOOLS yet nor MURDER
MANUAL,
which will come out in June, and perhaps--though I doubt
it--he gets to
be more of a smart-aleck in those books.
Another thought on this is that smart-aleck, wise cracking
P.I.
tradition comes form the pen of Hammett, Spillaine, Chandler,
etc.
right? What matters isn't that the character has a wiseacre
streak, but
how the author handles it.
By the way, my column "In the Past Tense" in the May-June
Mystery News
is on the Womack books.
SERPENT'S TAIL
Speaking of Serpent's Tail, I bought a copy of Charlotte
Carter's RHODE
ISLAND RED. The books are the sixe and format of a Hardy Boys
hc, with
no dust jacket but seem to be adequetly bound. Only problem I
had was I
didn't like this particular book very much, didn't manage to
get past 40
pages, which is where I stop if I'm still forcing myself to
read.
RICHARD PRATHER
Thanks to Gary Warren Niebuhr who sent it to me, I've finally
read one
of Prather's books, THE CASE OF THE VANISHING BEAUTY, a Shell
Scott.
After the discussion here in the list, I was expecting
something
different. It didn't seem particularly screwball, funny or
wierd, just
an old fashioned (Gold Medal, 1950) detective story with the
requisite
booze, broads, killings and an entertaining if unbelieveable
plot. It
takes place in L.A. and I was able to follow the streets and
so forth,
finding myself every now and then pausing to realize how
different the
city is nearly five decades later. A nice enjoyable read,
just fine for
a rainy afternoon or two.
Rick
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