RARA-AVIS: Grafton & Paretsky

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Fri, 07 Aug 1998 22:23:12 -0500 I wouldn't say that Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millone series is hardboiled -
the reason being that the characters, especially the protagonist, are
not hardboiled. She is a fine writer, who always comes up with ingenious
plots. However, I find Millhone a totally unappealing character. In some
of the novels, the plot is so good and the narration so smooth that I
have been able to overlook this problem. But as the series went on, the
problem became irritating and I couldn't continue reading it.

Paretsky is much more hardboiled in characterization and situations, but
in my opinion V.I. Varshawski never came together as a character. The
plots aren't as good as Grafton's, but her action scenes are usually
powerful. I don't think Paretsky has fulfilled the great hopes raised by
her first couple of books.

Among current female authors I have read, I especially like Teri White,
Sandra Scopettone, and Nancy Pickard. White is hardboiled (or noir...),
and the other two are not but write mysteries that are rich in
psychology and observation of the human animal. Another good hardboiled
writer is Julie Smith. Her "Axeman's Jazz" is a fine novel set in New
Orleans. I have been disappointed time after time with Marcia Muller - I
find very little to enjoy in her books and I definitely don't like
McCone. The introduction of "issues" into her mysteries is particularly
irksome. It's possible and even likely that there are virtues I'm
overlooking.

The way I see it, Leigh Brackett stands head over shoulders above every
other female mystery writer I've read with the exception of Patricia
Highsmith (and maybe Dorothy Hugues and Josephine Tey, but Hughes was
not always hardboiled, and Tey was not hardboiled though she could be
dark enough). I recently read Brackett's "An eye for an eye", a fine
dark suspense novel without an ounce of drippiness despite the
possibilities of the central situation.

Regards, and apologies for the length of this.

MT
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