Many thanks to Jim and gary for their deifintions. Most
useful. It has also been suggested that I have look at John
Cawelti's 'Adventure mystery and romance' (1976) which
examines genre fiction. Does anyone have any views on the
book, on how good, or whatever, it is? On the subject of
fiction genres, the public libraries here in the UK have
developed a scheme of classification for fiction to be used
by all participating libraries. Not a bad idea I suppose, but
I have second thoughts when I see Tom Clancy is in the crime
list!
It is not noir, but I have just read James R. Langham's
'Pocketful of clues' (UK 1943, US 1941). I really enjoyed the
book with Sammy Abbott, who works for the LA Attorneys
Office, and his wife Ethel. Sammy discovers a murder which is
seemingly insolvable and finds himself caught up in a second
murder which takes precedence over the first. The twists and
turns which solves the crimes are great and, though the book
is not considered a great crime novel, I was surprised to see
it was the author's second and last crime novel. It's not
often I pick up a comparatively unknown crime novel and find
it hard to put down. But do any of the historians amongst us
know anything about Langham, apart from the fact he is
supposed to have been born in 1912. I presume WW2 cut short
his writing career? Seems probable, which is a shame as he
had a certain style which would surely have improved if he
had carried on writing.
Thanks John
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