I finally finished reading the four books by Jack O'Connell
about the imagined Massachusetts city of Quinsigamond. Talk
about 'dark and sinister'. These books create a world of
hopelessness, corruption, violence and despair that's never
explicitly stated - it's just there. The main characters -
different ones in each book - are trying to cope as best they
can. But there's some kind of deteriorating development from
Lenore Thomas in 'Box Nine' to Gilrein in 'Word Made Flesh'.
Lenore is a tough 'narc' who at least thinks she's in control
of things. Hannah Shaw - in 'Wireless' - once had Lenore as
her mentor. She's tough like hell, but never thinks she
controls anything. Then you get to Sylvia Krafft in 'Skin
Palace' who's just one of those girls in numerous crime
novels who gets involved in things she doesn't understand.
And then Gilrein in 'Word Made Flesh' who's given up when the
novel starts. All these protagonists live in the same city of
Quinsigamond.
In describing the city, O'Connell's very consistent. The same
city in all the books. And all the four books have a
different main theme - from drugs/language to radio to
film/photo to books/linguistics. But the city is the
same.
And the details - the facts. He must have done a hell of a
research from book to book. I've tried to check him out, and
where it's not fiction, it's correct. But that's the funny
thing - you never know when it's fact and it's fiction.
I'm not sure if O'Connell planned it this way from the start.
There's an interview with him in 'Crime Time' where he states
that after 'Skin Palace', he just planned to write a short,
hard-boiled novel a-la Hammett. It just didn't work out that
way. I'm not sure I believe him. At the start of the
interview, he says 'just don't take anything I say
seriously'.
These are the best 'crime novels' I've ever read besides the
books by Jim Sallis. I even think those two have got
something in common - though I need some more time to figure
out what it is.
Regards, Geir Glosvik
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