Mark, I had no sense from your original post that Ken Bruen
was doing a Brit sendup of Ellroy. I also did not have that
sense from reading him. If it was meant as absurdist comedy,
it missed the mark with me. Not a glimmer of a smile crossed
my face as I struggled through the tired seriel killer plot
and a gaggle of unbelievable characters. I was actually
intrigued by the thought of using a cricket background but he
wasted it.
I am tempted by the novel by Bruen you mentioned with the
manic depressive lead character and may give it a try if I
can forget the one I read by him. Perhaps I will try it after
my next electro shock therapy session.
Oh, and I mentioned Pelecanos because I did not want you to
think I disliked the tough stuff. I almost used Ellroy or
Derek Raymoned, two other favorites who might have served my
purpose better. They can be tough, they can be bleak but
their characters also come to life.
My current reading has marked a return to Michael Collins.
Just finished THE BRASS RAINBOW (1969) and very much enjoyed
it. The plotting was a bit flawed here and there and too
complicated by half but I loved meeting Dan Fortune again and
I think I appreciate the attitude expressed more than I did
twenty years ago. Next up is Collins' BLUE DEATH
(1975).
Richard Moore
-- # 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 : 05 Sep 2001 EDT