Sometime ago, a thread on J.C. Constantine got me interested,
so I checked
out _Joey's Case_, when I saw it in the library at Stuart,
Va.
I say "thanks" to the several of you who promoted JCC,
especially this fine
novel. It's almost mandatory for successful series detectives
to have
interesting private lives, but how seldom does it occur! With
Streeter
(_The Long Reach_), the question is whether he will ever have
a private
life; on the other hand, Chief Balzic has home and personal
problems that
loom so large that they co
and his demeanor as a policeman. They're not just background
coloring
(which several have complained about with other "newbies").
Garnish those
with all the crazy things people bring to their local police
department.
And then there's the tortured Catholic consciousness of the
Chief himself,
which regularly erupts in mental "rants." The one on the
hormone potency
pill in _Joey's Case_ is as good as anything Chandler pulled
in _The Long
Goodbye_.
[Perhaps someday we should share our favorite "rants" from
hard-boiled novels.]
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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