RARA-AVIS: Roads to Epics

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 28 Sep 2004


You mighty also try Thomas Cook's Frank Clemons trilogy, which consists of SACRIFICIAL GROUND (1988), FLESH AND BLOOD (1989) and NIGHT SECRETS (1990.)

Each book stands on its own, but taken together, there's a definite sense of beginning, middle and end. It's more the personal journey of one man than a wide-ranging tale with a cast of thousands, but this tale of a Atlnata cop in freefall following his daughter's death, who ends up a NYC private eye is one powerful chunk of writing.

Is it an epic? I dunno. But then, what's your definition of an epic? To me, part of it has to be some sort of final closure that ties it all together somehow.

Like, I love Max Collins' Nate Heller series, which jim suggested, but I'm not sure it qualifies as an epic, since there doesn't seem to be any end in site at this point (and a few of the books don't really tie in to the epic concept). Does even Collins know where it's ultimately going? Will Heller go on solving crimes, hop-scotching through history, offering alternative solutions to famous crimes? Was James Dean murdered? Who shot JFK? Who killed Laci Peterson? Who killed Lennon? Was Peewee framed?

But then again, his ROAD TO PERDITION series seems to be turning into a real saga, what with three graphic novels and now a prose novel, ROAD TO PURGATORY, expanding and enriching and continuing the original graphic novel (and oh yeah, there was a pretty good film in there somewhere too, with a surprisingly effective Tom Hanks as the Angel of Death.

-- 

Kevin Burton Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site Summer Fiction Issue is out, with new stories by Jim Winter, Ray Banks, Dave White, Tim Wohlforth and Ron Miller. http://www.thrillingdetective.com

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