>OK, I'm a little behind, but during the discussion of
hardboiled books about
>conmen, did anyone mention Stephen J. Cannell's KING
CON? I haven't read
>it, and maybe it's not even hardboiled, but it sounded
like a pretty neat
>idea.
Actually, I read it, and I'm the one who started the thread.
It started out
great, and the early beating of the character made me think
we were heading
into some real hardboiled territory, but the second half of
the book was
sorta disappointing, puffed out and way too TV-ish. And I had
high
hopes--Roy Huggins and Cannell's Jim Rockford (and the lesser
known
Tenspeed and Brownshoe) were pretty good at scams and cons
(as was, come to
think of it, Huggins' Maverick).
Doubly disappointed, actually, because I think Cannell can be
a very good
writer, though he seems to be having a bit of a struggle in
print.
Kevin Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
The January issue is out, with new fiction by Duane
Swierczynski and Hugh
Lessig,
and The 1998 Cheap Thrills awards continue in our P.I. Poll.
What were your
P.I. favorites last year?
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