Here's my belated response to Miker's holiday hardboiled
query. I've read some great stuff lately. In no particular
order:
The Killing of the Tinkers - Ken Bruen: Wow. The second Jack
Taylor story is lean and mean. Bruen has quickly become a
favorite. As an aside: I always like it when a book's
characters are into hardboiled books. Taylor likes Pelecanos
and Sallis.
A Place of Execution - Val McDermid: I've had friends
recommending this one since 2001 and for some reason I never
got around to it. This is a terrific book. It starts as a
fictional version of a true crime book and takes off into
something else for the final 100 pages or so. I need to read
more McDermid soonest.
A Murder of Justice - Robert Andrews: I enjoy this series,
now in its third installment. Andrews doesn't fall into my
Blown Away category, but he writes good, solid books.
Dirty Sally - Michael Simon: A nice debut. One of the blurbs
compares Simon's Austin with the L.A. of Ellroy's Quartet,
but I was reminded much more of Ellroy's Clandestine as I
read this one. I'll look forward to future books from
Simon.
Earthquake Weather - Terrill Lankford: It's been praised here
already, but let me add my voice to the chorus. One of the
best elements is the way Lankford is funny throughout the
book without being goofy like so many crime stories that aim
for humor and miss the mark.
I also had a chance to read Black Money. It's only my second
Ross Macdonald book and I was under whelmed. When I began
reading crime fiction (Robert Parker and James Ellroy were my
main introductions, followed later by Connelly), I enjoyed
going back and reading Chandler and Hammett. I don't think
the Lew Archer books will be as enjoyable for me, though it
is easy to spot why they were so influential. Maybe I'm the
hardboiled lit equivalent of the kid who frustrates his
elders because he doesn't appreciate the Beatles or Led
Zeppelin due too over familiarity with their
successors.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03 Jan 2005 EST