Just gave up on Max Byrd's CALIFORNIA THRILLER, a rather dull
detective novel dealing with a missing newspaper man in San
Francisco. The influence of Robert Parker is strong here --
our hero is a tough guy with a sensitive, literate streak,
the kind of guy who can beat the hell out of a lowlife and
still find time to appreciate a "fine set of Boswell's
Johnson", for instance.
Reading Byrd, though, made me appreciate Parker more. I'm no
fan of the Spenser books, not by any means, but at least
they're funny -- indeed, sometimes the humor manages to carry
some weak stories (EARLY AUTUMN, CEREMONY). The Parker
imitators that I've read (like Byrd, and Jeremiah Healy also
comes to mind) take themselves far too seriously. In my
opinion.
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
-- # 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 : 28 Jan 2000 EST