Jim Blue asserts that "the world of
hard-boiled 'needs' a largely independent protagonist whose
principle strengths are courage, a strong code that he/she
lives by, wits and resourcefulness . . ." I don't think I can
argue with that on its face. However, I don't agree with
the
*implication*, if not the explicit statement, that such a
hero must be free from any institutional constraints or
loyalties. The Op works for a large, world-wide detective
agency. The boys of the 87th for the NYPD (sort of). Matt
Helm for US Counter-Intelligence. I could go on. I might
prefer to say that the hero should be independent *minded*,
rather than wholly autonomous.
Jim goes on to say "that the more
'scientific' professional crime fighting becomes, the further
it moves away from the hard boiled world." Here I think I
have to fundamentally disagree. The very first Op story (or
at least one of the first) was "Slippery Fingers," which
revolved around the camparatively new crime-fighting
technology of finger-printing. To the degree that the polce
procedural is included in the HB universe, and the general
consensus on this list seems to be that it is, most police
procedural writers have tended to present scientific
crime-fighting in some detail. Real-life LAPD crime lab tech
Ray Pinker was a semi-regular on
*Dragnet*. Capt. Sam Grossman, commander of the Crime Lab,
fills a similar role in the 87th Precinct series. In Lawrence
Treat's police novels and stories, lab cop Jub Freeman often
carries the ball as the hero. It's worth noting that Treat,
often listed as the creator of the procedural school, was a
pulpster in the days when the HB mystery was being
defined.
On the private side, it could be
argued that *Barnaby Jones* was not exactly HB, but certainly
his *modus operandi*, the operation of a private crime lab,
could have been presented with the toughness, terseness, and
colloquialism which is really all that is required for entree
to the "HB World."
Other examples: the film *The Kid
Glove Killer* featuring Van Heflin as tough police lab
cammander who solves a political murder (Fred Zinneman's
first film).
*Dead Man* by Joe Gores, featuring an
extraordinarily tough PI who specializes in computer
investigations.
*Deceit and Deadly Lies* an
Edgar-winner for Best PBO novel by Franklin Bandy, deaturing
a PI who specializes in a the use of a new kind of
lie-detector called the Psychological Stress Evaluator. For
all the technological details, the hero is tough, cool,
independent, and hard-edged. I don't think the novel deserved
its Edgar, to be frank. But it certainly stands firmly in the
HB world.
I don't want to belabor the point,
which is simply this. A protagonist can be tough and
colloquial, can prowl the "Mean Streets" with the best of
them, and his use of the technological aids available to him
doesn't make him or her any less HB.
JIM DOHERTY
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