Bill wrote:
"If anyone wants to take a writer X or book Y and suggest,
with reasons, a handful of writers or books to try if you
liked X or Y, we could make up a list that would probably be
handy for us and newcomers to the field. Heck, we could
identify some salient elements of hardboileditude and pick
the five books that best represent each aspect."
Okay, since Bill wrote this in response to an email from me,
I'll start:
If you like Richard Stark's Parker series . . .
I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'm a sucker for a
good caper book. Some of the best of them, in my opinion, are
entries in Richard Stark's Parker series.
The real joy of these tight novels is the planning and
execution of the jobs. Westlake once said that after having
written a few of the Parker books, he realized they were
about "work." The books offer the thrill of watching a team
of master craftsmen at the top of their game. Well, at least
until they are sabotaged by unprofessional, personal
concerns. The capers always go sour, somehow, either because
of a double-crossing partner or due to someone letting their
personal life impede upon their professional life.
However, with very few exceptions, Parker is a consummate
professional. He would never double-cross his partners, not
due to any loyalty or morals, but due to professionalism. As
a matter of fact, Parker is entirely amoral. There are
several times in the series where he must decide whether or
not to kill someone. Parker never even considers questions of
right and wrong, but on the action's cost effectiveness, pure
situational ethics. Will the killing further his ends or will
it bring him even more trouble? And Parker pays for those
very few times he shows pity; in almost every case, the
spared comes back to get him and Parker regrets not having
killed him/her when he had the chance.
Okay, if you like these books, I'd also recommend:
The Name of the Game is Death and The Endless Hour by Dan J.
Marlowe -- Earl Drake almost makes Parker seem nice, although
part of that is because Parker's cold professionalism is
replaced with a burning rage. Getting even is not a business
decision for Drake, it's a way of life.
Four For The Money by Dan J. Marlowe -- a one-off caper book
about a crew of ex-cons who team up for an armored car
heist.
The Wyatt series by Garry Disher -- simply the Parker series
updated and transplanted to Australia. As with the recent
Parker books, the hardest part of the job is often finding a
target with enough cash vs. credit card receipts. Also like
the recent Parkers, the older professional is dismayed by the
drop in craft as junkies on smash and grabs give thieves a
bad name.
Max Allan Collins also did a professional criminal series
featuring Nolan. I enjoy these, but Nolan's younger partner
goes even further in lightening the books than Grofield does
in later Parkers. So I'm not quite sure they fit with these
others.
White Merc With Fins by James Hawes -- also a bit too
humorous to fit with Parker, but good fun with a nice caper
at its core as a group of British young plan and commit the
"one caper and I'm set for life." Good suspenseful fun in a
kind of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels kind of
way.
Mark
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Jul 2000 EDT