Jane, There was quite a bit of discussion of God Is A Bullet
on the list, with a split decision on its merits. You can
find it in the archives throughout the months of March and
April 1999.
Series I came to hate -- I'd have to say the Spenser series
by Robert B. I really liked the early novels, which I saw as
nice Chandler homages, but by the time of Early Autumn and
Rachel Wallace I had so tired of the macho posturing I had to
quit the series. And I've never understood Grafton's appeal.
I read the first and found it completely non-memorable. Later
someone said I should try the second. By then I had
completely forgotten the first, so I reread A and moved on to
B, which was no better in my mind, totally faceless. And this
is not a problem with female PIs, there are quite a few of
those I like: Lydia Chin, V.I. Warshawski, Kat Colorado,
Carlotta Carlyle, among others.
Acquired taste -- I know this is probably sacrilege on this
list, but I'd have to say Killer Inside Me. I just didn't
think much of it first time around; of course at the time, my
mystery reading was almost exclusively PI fiction, had not
moved on to noir. Upon re-reading it after trying a couple of
other Thompsons, I came to understand why it is so highly
regarded, though I still don't think it's his best. As a
matter of fact, I prefer all three of the others in the Black
Box anthology -- Pop. 1280, Getaway and Grifters. I gave
Thompson that second chance because I liked so many movies
based on his work, two of which were in the anthology I had
bought but not read many years before.
Finally, two series that had to grow on me -- Amos Walker and
Matt Scudder. For some reason I picked up several of each
series before starting them, so I didn't just stop after the
first book (I would not have gone out looking for more). The
Walkers each got just enough better to go on to the next. I
think it was either Midnight Man or Glass Highway that
finally moved me beyond mild generic interest. Same for the
Scudders, then 8 Million Ways to Die blew me away and Sacred
Ginmill was just as good; I was hooked.
Mark
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