Juri wrote:
>I've now read my first Graftons and I must say that I
quite liked them
>(well... the first novel and one short story, in "The
Mammoth
>Book of Private Detectives, but I intend to read
more). Grafton seems to
>have developed a balance between the supposed
harshness of the PI character
>and her actual softness.
Well, it's a start. I think Millhone hit her stride a few
more books into the series, but that's one of the things I've
always enjoyed about the character -- the play between the
expectations and limitations placed on the character by
readers and herself, and the actual reality. In other words,
she's never quite as smart and tough as she thinks she is,
but she's usually smarter and tougher than we expect.
And her "softness" has more to do with compassion and
sensitivity, rather than weakness, I think. And if it is a
weakness, it's a weakness that Mac and Fortune and Archer and
Marsh and Nameless and countless others suffer from as
well.
I also think "She Didn't Come Home," the story Juri read, is
just a classic P.I. short story, well worth searching out.
Fortunately it's been anthologized almost as much as
Chandler's" Red Rain".
Oh, and Juri, if you're going to read Delores Hitchen, read
SLEEP WITH SLANDER and SLEEP WITH STRANGERS, both featuring
private eye Jim Sader. These are just great, under-rated
reads, easily on a par with Brackett's NO GOOD FROM A CORPSE
or Evans/Browne's Paul Pine books.
-- Kevin -- # 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/ .
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