>It was the inclusion of her work that got me too ...
definitely amongst the
>private eye greats, but not truly
hard-boiled.
We've never really been able to work out a real definition.
Like you said,
the Amazon list is based on sales, and I guess they have to
include Grafton
somewhere. I think, though, someone can be self-deprecating
and
introspective, and still be hardboiled. Macdonald's Archer,
Pronzini's
Nameless and Greenleaf's Tanner come to mind, and I'm sure
there's lots
others. Does this mean they're not hardboiled? (As opposed to
noir, which
is something very different).
I think if Kinsey were a man, it might be easier for some of
you to
consider her hardboiled. I like Millhone too, and part of the
reason is
that she's not quite the hardboiled dame she thinks she is,
but she's
always a bit tougher than the reader thinks she is.
But the whole hardboiled thing is a matter of attitude,
anyway. You can
have some very hardboiled characters in a pretty genteel book
(there's a
Pronzini locked room book I seem to remember), and you can
have some pretty
wimpy types in some very nasty, hardboiled scenarios. Both
types of books
could be considered hardboiled, or not, depending on where
you draw the
line.
Of course, then there's the purists who think everything past
Mike Hammer
(or Marlowe, or Spade, or Jim Thompson, orJohn Carroll Daly,
or whoever) is
for sissies.
So, the question is, who are some hardboiled female private
eyes? Two that
spring to mind immediately are Lee McGraw's Madge Hatchett
and Max Allan
Collins' and Terry Beatty's Ms. Tree. Any others?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
No Business For a Lady? Women detectives in this month's P.I.
Poll!
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