Thanks to Mark Sullivan for his kind words about my genre
bender, ANGRY MOON.
and then Reed Andrus cracked:
> > And Terrill
> Lankford deserves a place in this category (but only
with one book; T.O.
> when are the next ones due?).
To which I reply, "Never!" Aside for a few people of
superlative taste (most of which are mentioned above) no one
noticed that book existed. Thus New York has yet to demand a
sequel. Ry Caulder's adventure ends with ANGRY MOON. Hard
Boiled Noir Horror Supernatural Suspense Thrillers are even
harder to sell than they are to identify. That's why I love
it when I find a guy like Lansdale working that mine so
successfully.
The article on Musso and Frank's in today's L.A. Times is not
only really cool, but it was written by none other than Tom
Nolan, author of the Ross Macdonald bio, so there is a
decidedly hard boiled slant to the content.
I've always been surprised that Jim Thompson favored Musso's
over the cheaper Hollywood dive across the street,
Boardner's, which is more like something you would find in a
Thompson book. While Musso's is without a doubt classier,
Thompson's low income (on average) would mark him as a
potential Boardner's customer. Maybe Thompson took his hoity
toity meetings in Musso's then did his serious, private,
drinking across the street where drinks were cheap. I'd like
to think so at least.
The article fails to mention another great bookshop that was
across the street from Musso's for many years, Larry Edmund's
Bookstore, which specializes in movie related books and
memorabilia. I worked there when I first lived in Hollywood
back in '81 and drank at Musso's only on payday when the
paycheck was looking particularly swollen. The rest of the
week belonged to Boardner's. Larry Edmund's moved a block
down the street a few years ago, but the connection between
the customers of that bookstore and Musso's is undeniable. I
watched many people stagger from the doorway of one of those
buildings to the other in my time as a mail order
clerk.
On a weird related note (which almost ties these two threads
together, the supernatural and the hard boiled), I was in
Musso's a few months ago with Mike Connelly and a French
journalist who was interviewing us for a magazine. We, of
course, mentioned to him that Thompson had frequented the
place in his day. As we were leaving, just in the doorway
about to step outside onto Hollywood Boulevard, the intercom
blared, "Jim Thompson, paging Jim Thompson."
We all got the chills. True story.
TL
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