Re - RARA-AVIS: Ex-Con Writers

From: james.doherty@gsa.gov
Date: 21 Jan 2000


Another good one is E. Richard Johnson, who was (and may still be) serving a life sentence in Minnesota. He writes a damned fine series of McBain-influenced police procedurals about a tough Homicide detective named Tony Lonto.

The first Lonto novel, *Silver Street* won an Edgar for Best First Novel of 1968. In it Lonto chased down a serial killer. In an ironic twist,
*Silver Street* and another novel, *The Bait*, tied and, consequently, were both awarded Edgars. *The Bait* was also a police procedural and also revolved around the pursuit of a serial killer.

Even more ironically, the writer of *The Bait* was former NYC Transit Police Detective Dorothy Uhnak.

Two books. Both cop novels. Both with urban settings. Both about serial killers. One by a con. One by a cop.

JIM DOHERTY

--
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Jan 2000 EST