I know of two books of Hack Bohannon stories: BOHANNON'S
BOOK: FIVE MYSTERIES (1988) and BOHANNON'S COUNTRY (1993). I
do not know if they are still in print. The one I have handy
is a Penguin paperback of the second collection but I believe
they also reprinted the first. They should not be hard to
find a cheap used copy on-line.
BOHANNON'S COUNTRY has an introduction wherein Hansen
explains the origin of the series. In it he pays tribute to
the late Eleanor Sullivan of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Fred Dannay in 1973 turned down a Dave Bransetter story
saying EQ readers "were not ready for homosexuality" in their
stories. Nearly a decade later Sullivan said that was still
true but she wanted to publish Hansen. They worked together
on a non-series story, which Hansen said "gained me my first
and only nomination for an Edgar Award from the Mystery
Writers of America." I was thinking over the weekend that the
MWA had neglected Hansen and this confirms that hunch (and it
certainly had not gone unnoticed by Hansen). I am pleased
that the Private Eye Writers of America gave him a lifetime
achievement award.
In any event, Sullivan wanted more stories and Hansen
remembered a character he had created for a potential novel
series with Playboy Press. The character was Hack Bohannon, a
modern-day sheriff along the rugged central coast of
California. "It's colorful, dramatic country--the ocean to
the west, in many places crashing against tall cliffs, the
mountains to the east, slashed by rugged canyons. Cattle
graze by the sea, horses along the ridges of the foothills.
Sea lions roar and sea otters dive for abalone among the
rugged offshore rocks, where cormorants and brown pelicans
perch to dry their wings."
A native of North Dakota, Hansen says he had always been a
fan of western writers like Luke Short, Will Henry and Ernest
Haycock and had never lost "the hankering to write westerns."
The Bohannon stories gave him that opportunity and they have
a definite, and to me very enjoyable, western flavor.
After publishing two Bohannon stories in Ellery Queen,
Sullivan became concerned about the 10,000 word length and
passed the series over to sister magazine Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery Magazine, where it flourished. I have to say that
I've always believed the 10,000 to 15,000 word is a great
length for a mystery/detective story--long enough for some
character development and to establish a sense of place but
too short to allow for the padding that ruins many a
novel.
Oh yes, one of the stories in BOHANNON'S COUNTRY features a
homosexual character and Hansen sent it to Sullivan at EQ to
test the old barrier. She accepted it despite it being beyond
EQ's normal length, which pleased Hansen "as it meant I'd
broken down a literary barrier against me and my kind."
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Susan Evans Shaw"
<susan@n...> wrote:
> I too am saddened to read about the passing of
Joseph Hansen. I
vividly remember the special atmosphere of each of his
Brandstetter novels although I haven't gone back to them in
many years. Hack Bohannon I never heard about. Are they still
in print?
>
> Susan Evans Shaw
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Richard Moore
> To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 10:04
PM
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: RIP Joseph Hansen
>
>
>
>
> Jim, I completely agree with your praise for Joseph
Hansen's Dave
> Brandstetter novels. They were excellent PI novels,
period.
> Brandstetter came across to me as a very human
character as
Hansen
> did such a good job with his personal life and the
various
boyfriends
> who came went in the series. I also enjoyed his
series featuring
ex-
> sheriff Hack Bohannon.
>
> Checking just now I see he was 81 in July. He
wasn't, IIRC, a
> regular at mystery conventions although I met him
once at one of
the
> California Bouchercons a decade or so ago. I am
sorry to hear of
his
> death.
>
> Richard Moore
>
>
>
>
> RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~-->
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Nov 2004 EST