While Kinsey gets knocked about a bit, and she is 'tough
and
unsentimental' about men in general and her two previous
husbands in
particular, she really doesn't fit the bill.
I think that Amazon is using 'hard-boiled' to distinguish
books that are
not "cozies" or spy thrillers. The term would seem to be
totally
exclude detectives of the female persuasion since none of
them take a
matter-of-fact attitude towards violence. It would also, for
the same
reason, exclude the likes of Inspector Dalgleish, or Hercule
Poirot.
Would it include, though, Inspector Jane Tennison? And what
about
Inspector Moss? Or does the genre exclude cops altogether? Is
Alex
Delaware "hard-boiled"?
Certainly, if we use Marlowe and Spade and Archer as
bench-marks, the
answer is obvious.
Which is probably why taxonomists keep reclassifying things
so
frequently.
Will Sue Grafton be read or reprinted 50 years from
now?
Dick Tartow
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