Re: RARA-AVIS: Australian hardboiled ?

From: Rene Ribic ( rribic@optusnet.com.au)
Date: 19 Mar 2003

> I'm looking for some information on Australian hardboiled,
> authors both contemporary and vintage. I searched the
> archives back a few years and came up with these names:
>
> Carter Brown, Larry Kent, Marele Day, Peter Doyle, Shane
> Maloney, Jon Cleary, K.T. McCall, Carl Dekker, Peter Flynn,
> Marc Brody, G.G. Bleeck (mostly pseudonyms)
>
Carter Brown, Larry Kent, K.T. McCall, Carl Dekker, Marc Brody & G.G. Bleeck were all writers who helped to feed the Australian digest machine in the 1950's. Mostly they were pastiches of the American hardboiled style, the Carter Brown books, for example, all being set in fictional American cities. I've only skimmed through these authors' works but I suspect that they are more of academic interest than really vital works in the hardboiled canon.(And they generally had really cool covers which is mainly why I collect them). Luca mentions Bant Singer, a contemporary of Carter Brown et al. I've read the first of his Delany series, You're Wrong, Delany which I enjoyed greatly. Obviously influenced by American hardboiled but still very much Australian, set in a rural town, I've mentioned this book here before. Peter Doyle I haven't got around to reading yet but it was an article that he wrote that first alerted me to Bant Singer. Another author that wasn't mentioned (& also one I haven't gotten around to) is John Dale, whose Dark Angel has drawn praise from several folks here, including Al, IIRC. Peter Corris writes a p.i. series very much in the Chandler vein but with an antipodean accent.

Rene

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