> <<Don't many of the excellent Gold Medals
we're discussing
> this month come under this
category?>>
>
> Not the good ones. Take Aarons: he does not try to
rope the
> reader in through trickery. He tells a plain story,
with a
> beautiful technique but without demagoguery or
facile
> appeal to emotions. I am beginning to think that
Aarons was
> a great writer, strange as that may
sound.
Not strange at all. I just read Aarons' GIRL ON THE RUN,
which I thought was really good. It's not a Sam Durell, but
it almost might as well have been. Instead of globe-trotting
CIA agent Durrell, the hero is globe-trotting engineer Harry
Bannock, who answers a call for help from an old flame and
winds up chasing and being chased all over France and Spain.
The plot is a little reminiscent of THE MALTESE FALCON, with
everybody looking for a treasure hidden by one of
Charlemagne's knights (there's a more modern--in this case
1954--version of the MacGuffin, too). Not a wasted word in
the book. Aarons could really tell a story.
Best, James
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