In a message dated 19/08/02 7:34:55 PM GMT Daylight Time,
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:
<< I've read a couple of Ian Rankins and have been sort
of on the fence as to whether they're police procedurals.
Rebus has seemed to either take off on his own or be sent
off; he is often only very loosely affiliated with the police
department. I can see that the series isn't the exemplar of
police procedurals while still allowing it in my version of
that category. >>
For my own purposes, I always class this kind of book as a
"Detective Inspector Novel". I feel that police procedurals,
strictly, are ensemble stories, and that they should have a
kind of detached flatness or objectivity to them - the actual
activities of the cops, in a largely unglamourised manner,
should be central to every scene, and pre-eminent in the book
as a whole. On the other hand, Rankin, Reginald Hill, RD
Wingfield, and dozens of others, write about a man (or a duo)
at the centre of everything, and that character's cogitation
is more important than procedure, even though a fair amount
of procedure does occur "on stage". Off hand, I can't think
if there's a US equivalent to "DINs"?
- Mat C
<A HREF="
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/matcoward/myhomepage/newsletter.html">
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/matcoward/myhomepage/newsletter.html>
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