Bob Toomey (btoomey@javanet.com)
Fri, 12 Nov 1999 01:06:33 -0500
> With its dialogue forged from the speech of the
small-town gangsters of
> Massachusetts, Eddie Coyle and its successors set
the pattern for such
> crime writers as Elmore Leonard, aiming to hold the
reader's attention
> not so much with plot and incident as through the
interest inherent in
> the workings of the criminal mind.
In fact, when _The Armchair Detective_ asked Elmore Leonard
to make a list of his favorite mystery writers, this was his
reply:
"My all-time favorite, the one book that has made a lasting
impression, is
_The Friends of Eddie Coyle_ by George V. Higgins. That would
be my list."
Starting, I think, with _La Brava_, you can see how Leonard
has increasingly appropriated Higgins' approach -- telling
the story in highly colloquial dialogue, keeping description
to a minimum. Higgins protested when he was described as a
crime novelist, but that's what he was, at least some of the
time. And although he rarely gets mentioned as a major
influence on modern crime writing, he's probably right up
there with Hammett and Chandler in importance.
BobT
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