I've been traveling, Bouchercon and thereafter, so I'm just
catching up as this month's invited "author" participant.
Some thoughts on the posts I've read:
1) Robert B.
Parker: If you want to compare Bob to Chandler, that's fine.
But stop after seven books, which was Chandler's output. And
many of Chandler's best novels (e.g., THE BIG SLEEP) were
lifted from pulpy novellas he'd done in the 1930's. That Bob
could produce four times Chandler's output, and still have
loyal readers on one character, and new fans for two newer
series characters is, I think, astonishing.
2) Films: My
favorite remains GET CARTER, the Michael Caine version, with
scenes that American Codes would not let appear in
theaters.
3) Boston:
The entire city is becoming gentrified, and a lot of the
things about some ethnic neighborhoods that I wrote about in
the 1980's and Dennis Lehane has more recently are probably
more evocative than accurate. But, in my opinion, you have to
be authentic only when you're trying to be authentic. And
that allows for the creation of fictional, though evocative,
towns so that the story can run the way you want it to. Among
mine are YESTERDAY'S NEWS ("Nasharbor" as a cross between
Fall River and New Bedford), RESCUE (a fictional "Mercy Key"
in the Florida chain), and INVASION OF PRIVACY (a fictional
"Plymouth Mills" to capture the sense of a South Shore
town).
Best,
Jerry
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