RARA-AVIS: Um, ahem, er

Alison Gordon (aligor@interlog.com)
Tue, 27 Oct 1998 23:32:22 -0500 I've been lurking here for a month or so, directed by the worthy Kevin
Smith, and now step forward with a really dumb question. With all the talk
about Dead on Deansgate, I wonder where you lot place Ian Rankin and Val
McDermid. Not private eye writers, but, to my mind, beautifully noir (in
McDermid's case, the last two featuring Tony King). I guess what I am
really asking is what contemporary writers do people on this list favour?
I'm fine with Chandler, Hammett, Cain, raise an eyebrow at the concept that
there would be anything worth reading in the Matt Helm series (but, then I
am probably a tiresome snob.) I would put Deaver there, I guess, although
there is something about him that I can't quite admire -- a certain
slickness perhaps, a certain cynicism and market-driven quality I may be
only imagining. Lehane, certainly. Elmore? The Canadian Laurence Gough --
anyone read him? Or do you folk only like dead guys?

Alison Gordon
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