----- Original Message ----- From: "Andres Kabel" <
kabel@bigpond.net.au>
> I've been hearing about Russell James for a while
now but his books are
> difficult to get in Australia. He is apparently
dubbed 'the Godfather of
> British noir' so when I laid my hands on his latest
"Pick Any Title," I
> assumed I was in for a dark treat. Not so at all.
The book is a manic
caper
> novel, very witty, very well done, but noir it is
not. Are his other books
> more serious?
His latest is actually "The Annex", a reworking of a Jacobean
drama
(Middleton's THE CHANGELING). It's dark, but not hardboiled.
The one before "Pick Any Title" is "Painting In The Dark",
which, despite having the word "dark" in the title, isn't
dark at all. It is serious, though, and has received the best
reviews of any of his work, so what do I know. It's the only
one of his novels I haven't liked. Anything pre-"Painting" is
hardboiled or noir. If you want noir as serious as broken
knuckles, I'd recommend "Payback," "Slaughter Music" and
"Count Me Out." "Count Me Out"
(Serpent's Tail) was still in print last time I looked.
Al
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 Nov 2002 EST