If it is true that some of the Crane series are minor, do not
reject Latimer so quickly. In the better part of his
production you will discover he's one of the great American
writers of the genre. OK, maybe not on par with Hammett and
Chandler, but not too far behind. Of course one must accept
off-beat humor, slight surrealism and derision to enjoy his
novels...
I suggest you try the following titles: THE LADY IN THE
MORGUE (1936) RED GARDENIA (1939) MURDER IN THE MADHOUSE
(1934)
And of course, re-read: SALOMON'S VINEYARD , his most
off-beat novel
In his later production, two good novels: SINNERS AND SHROUD
(1955) BLACK IS THE FASHION FOR DYING (1959)
There's a book he wrote under the pseudonym of Peter Coffin:
SEARCH FOR MY GREAT UNCLE'S HEAD (1937), that I never found
and for which I have no information. Does somebody on the
list know more about it?
In a certain way, Latimer was a moralist with his novels
showing open transgressions of some of the 1930s American
taboos like booze and other bigoteries.
E.Borgers HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
At 22:55 15-11-02 -0500, Bill Denton wrote:
>Well, Latimer has defeated me. I gave up on HEADED
FOR A HEARSE. I was
>hoping it'd be a real pippperoo for 1930s month, but
half-way through I
>started skimming and then I just flipped to the end
to find out who done
>it.
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