Jack wrote:
Another thing I liked in the article was that he names some of the top crime writers today while seeming to declare that a new era is upon us:
"Writers such as James Ellroy, Richard Price, Dennis Lehane, Donald Westlake, Walter Mosley, Laura Lippman, James Sallis, Megan Abbott, and George Pelecanos have managed to infuse crime novels with a quality of writing not seen since the days of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain."I haven't read the article yet, but how can these authors represent a "new era"? Newer than Hammett, Chandler and Cain, sure, but most of these have been around for quite some time. Westlake started publishing hardboiled novels almost a half century ago. Most of the others have been around for decades. I know, for instance, that Pelecanos just shakes his head at being called part of a new generation of crime writers, thinks at least one good generation has grown since he established himself.Just to be clear, this is in now way a put down of any of these writers, quite the opposite. It's just that I see them as grandmasters, not new practitioners. I'd only count Megan Abbott
in this list among some new era.Mark
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