--- Mark Sullivan <
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net> wrote:
> dc wrote:
>
> Finally, as for Etienne's implication about
series
> characters being a
> concession to US readers, I don't notice any
dearth
> of them in other
> countries: Simenon, Malet, Rankin, PD
James,
> Christie, etc.
>
No, not at all- I didn't want to be restrictive there.
Series: It's a kind of intercontinental disease!
[On the contrary of the decline of readership for HB that was
a fact already in those days in the USA].
If you remember, we previously spoke here about series and
the dangers and pitfalls writers are going through when they
stick to an overlong series of novels with the same
character(s)... and we concluded that very few went through
with flying colors. I still share this opinion.
I do not consider, for example, all novels of the Maigret
series worth the time to read them (he wrote close to 80 of
them). The real good Simenon is in his other novels he wrote
after WWII (he called them the
"though novels"- and some really were... His best is
there).
Malet was not too bad with his Nestor Burma series
(15 novels-)some being really good ones. But Malet was a
quite prolific writer producing a lot of books under
pseudonyms, and crime novels without Burma. Quality is very
variable, but when he is good he's very good...
And IMO, in our modern days, the pushers are now Hollywood
and cable TV(s)... up to the point that most of the
publishing houses ask more and more for series, even to new
writers- especially for crime/mystery novels.
E.Borgers Hard-boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
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