Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: list from over-the-pond Times

From: Patrick King ( abrasax93@yahoo.com)
Date: 23 Apr 2008


--- Eric Chambers < nqexile@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
 Why is Christie
> constantly in print while, say, Gardner's Perry
> Mason books, which I am sure would appeal to the
> same reader base, are not?
***************************************************** For one thing, Christie is taught in colleges & universities throughout the United States, Canada, and Britian. She's considered a pivotal popular novelist and the inventor of "the cozy" form of murder mystery.

Gardener probably did invent the courtroom drama. But if his books are no worse than Agatha Christie's, there are also no better. Garderner's plots and characters are so brittle they often do break. Some of his books don't end at all. It's like he got tired of writing it and decided, "Screw it! Publsih it as is. These idiots will buy anything with my name on it."

On the other hand, which of his Perry Mason books are oop? There are several Perry Mason Omnibuses by Avon Press which I own and I think are in print. There may be some of the more obscure titles that are hard to get. But THE MOTHEATEN MINK, THE DEMURE DEFENDANT, THE WAYLAID WOLF, THE SUNBATHER'S DIARY, THE VELVET CLAWS, were all readily available last time I looked. The bigger question is who's buying them? If the answere is, no one, that's the answer to your question.

Patrick King

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