Paul Bergin's recent comments about how technology might make
the professional less interesting than the amateur, and other
comments about realism vs. persuasiveness, got me to thinking
that one of the things I really like about HB is that it
usually involves a pro, who's involved in the crime for
professional reasons. The presentation of the profession may
be fantastic (i.e. Mike Hammer or Satan Hall), but the
professional status gives the character a convincing reason
for being involved.
Amateurs *don't* have a reason. Cops investigate crimes
because it's their job. PIs because they're hired by private
clients. Spies because it's their mission. Reporters because
they have to write articles about (or in the case of Jack
"Flash" Casey or provide photographs of) them for their
publications. Lawyers because they're either prosecuting the
offenders or defending wrongfully accused suspects. Even
Parker, on the other side of the law though he is, is a
*professional* practitioner of the craft of armed
robbery.
Now an amateur who gets involved in one single case, because
he's wrongfully accused, because he's in the wrong place at
the wrong time, or because of some other odd circumstance,
may be credible for a single book, but not for a
series.
Cozies, whatever their merits or faults, are generally the
province of amateurs like Lord Peter, Ellery Queen, or
Jessica Fletcher. Hard-boiled characters, or at least
hard-boiled *series* characters, are pros, and, in
consequence, have an automatic level of believability that
their amateur brethren lack.
The HB tends to be an American form, and Americans have
always been fascinated by fiction that describes how jobs are
performed. This tradition can be traced back to *Moby Dick*,
which gives very accurate accounts of how whalers worked
whatever else it does, to *The Virginian*, which is one of
the most accurate fictional presentations of what cowboys do,
to *Life on the Mississippi* which describes riverboating,
and to
*Come and Get It* which described logging.
Not surprisingly, then, the HB crime story has tended to be
less about the solution of the crime than it has been about a
professional preforming a job of work that *happens* to be
the solving of cime.
JIM DOHERTY
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