Sharon, this is completely unrealistic. I simply can't
believe your lack of sensitivity to what is and is not
hardboiled. Clearly, HB detectives do NOT use
cellphones.
I haven't chimed in on this "Why are you here?" thread, but
my best guess is that I've got a soft spot for stories
written about or by folks who are alienated. Sometimes the
characters are alienated from society
(hardboiled); sometimes they are alienated from their own
selves (noir). Sometimes society even makes them think they
are alienated from themselves. How evil!
Let me ask: Where else but rara-avis would a book like
Willeford's Burnt Orange Heresy make it to the reading list?
What a corker: Man paints a picture of his true self in a
scheme to pass it off as another man's self. Girlfriend sees
the painting and, more importantly, is able to peer into the
soul of its painter. Frightened, she suddenly knows him for
what he is. Naturally, girlfriend must die.
And you folks apparently like this stuff, too.
Plus, we get to marginalize readers of cozies. I've never
read a cozy . . . and with your help I never will!
Now, if I could just get past page 85 of Red Harvest before
the month is out
. . . and get on to this Anita Blake novel some frail
recommended to the list last month. We'll just see who spills
the most blood: Op or Vampire Hunter.
Greg Swan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sharon Villines" <
sharonvillines@prodigy.net>
> I still skip all the pages of car chases, fist and
foot fights,
descriptions
> of torture or the tortured, and laugh out loud when
the hero survives a
dive
> off a cliff in a car that bursts into flames, to
bound back up the cliff
in
> a single leap, to jump on the car of the escaping
thugs, where he clings
to
> the back bumper while rogue cops in the accomplice
car shoot him several
> times. But he only lets go when they reach their
destination where he
jumps
> off, breaking both legs but only one arm, and rolls
faster than the speed
of
> light down a hill while pulling out his cell phone
to call -- not the
police
> to tell them where he is -- but his girlfriend to
save her before the cops
> torture her. And he lives to star in more storied
after that. I skip those
> too.
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