Let me recall, approvingly, that Joseph Shaw spoke of
"hardboiled characters" rather than "hardboiled fiction". To
me, a novel that has a high percentage of hardboiled
characters is hardboiled. A hardboiled character is a tough,
action-oriented character (good or bad guy, it doesn't
matter). Such a character is ready to kill if needs be. By
this primitive definition:
Paul Cain = Ultra HB George V. Higgins = Ultra HB E. Richard
Johnson = Ultra HB James Ellroy = Ultra HB Richard Stark =
Ultra HB Dashiell Hammett = HB Chester Himes = HB Walter
Mosley = HB Joe Gores = HB Elmore Leonard = HB, sometimes
Ultra HB James Lee Burke = HB Loren Estleman = HB James
Crumley = HB, sometimes Ultra HB Jon Jackson = HB Robert
Parker = HB Lawrence Block = HB (Scudder, Keller, early work)
Jeremiah Healy = Not HB Sue Grafton = Not HB
By the way, I do distinguish hardboiled from noir (the
latter, being a concept covering more a situation or
atmosphere or era rather than a quality of the
characters).
Regards,
MrT
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