David wrote:
"I like your stuff a lot too, Jim, although I must confess I
read them all back-to-back in a two-week-long debauch a while
back, after which I spent a few months reading some of the
names you'd dropped."
I've read the series over the years, starting with
Long-Legged Fly when it came out as a MASS paperback. And I
must admit that it sometimes takes a bit for me to place some
of the references to events in past books in Ghost of a Flea.
However, I have enjoyed the series so much that I intend to
go back through it again to fill in those blanks and draw it
all together (and, as obnoxious as I am, pick out
inconsistencies), though maybe not back-to-back. I have the
feeling I'll end up appreciating one of my favorite series
even more.
"This may be part of the appeal of your stuff for me, working
as a readers' advisor in a library - I love those associative
links..."
I also enjoy the allusions. However, they raise a couple of
questions from me for Jim -- are all of the sources public
domain? Otherwise, the acknowledgement and/or permission to
quote pages would be almost as long as the book itself.
Also, given how careful you are to credit most of the quotes
and references, why do you choose to make just a few of your
allusions illusive? For instance, "I'd been listening to
Mahler's Ninth, reading a novel set in Washington by some guy
with a Greek name, . . ." Gee, whoever could that be?
Oh, is the "new publishing house in Scotland, run by a bunch
of kids, .
. . but they seem to know what they're doing" a reference to
Canongate Books? Are they Jim Sallis's publisher in the UK as
well as Lew Griffin's?
Mark
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