Re: RARA-AVIS: The Great Wrong Place

From: Mark Sullivan ( AnonymeInc@WEBTV.NET)
Date: 10 Feb 2000


Kevin wrote:

"By the way, the whole idea of a great wrong place is, at least now, something of, if not a myth, at least a dated notion. It's the soulless suburbs, with the endless cookie cutter malls, herd mentality and bored kids with the dead eyes that seem like the truly wrong places to me. And those Stepford-Wives-type guarded communities are even worse.
 
"As I've said before, I could see Spade and Marlowe's descendants wearing Nikes, using a cellphone, or even being married, but it's really hard to picture any of them mowing the lawn.

"Generally, the 'burbs have been the domain of mostly more traditional mysteries and cozies. But suburban noir--think about it. Now that would be cool to see."

This reminds me. I've seen several very good reviews of a "Suburban Detective Mystery" series by Jon Katz, the first of which is "Death by Station Wagon." The back jacket copy on the paperback is entitled: "The Mean Streets of Suburbia." However, it goes on to describe the protagonist as "a soft-boiled detective." I've got this book, but never seem to get to it. Does anyone know it? How soft is the PI? The cover painting looks very ominous, but is the book that dark, I hope? Are they as good as reviews have led me to believe?

Mark

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