Some of the comments Mr. Pelecanos made regarded Spenser got
me thinking about the notion of "dated" books. I'm not
talking here about "dated" in the sense of old-fashioned or
quaint, but rather "dated" in the way Mr. Pelecanos seems to
mean it -- that is, books that were great when they first
came out, but now, after countless repetition of the plot
devices, just don't work the way they once did.
I just read Cornell Woolrich's STRANGLER'S SERENADE
(published under his William Irish pseud.). I'm not a big
Woolrich fan, but I rather liked this: there's some credible
attempts at humor, the writing is sharp, and the moody
emotionalism is there but doesn't swallow things whole, as I
think it does in some of his other books (I MARRIED A DEAD
MAN, for instance.)
Unfortunately, though, the plot twists that govern this book
have been used and reused so much that you can see 'em coming
a mile away. The central plot revolves around that moldy-oldy
the tontine, which was showing its age when Wilkie Collins
used it. Even worse, though, is the plot twist that kicks off
the climax: I don't want to give anything away to those who
haven't read this, but let's just say it's a stock situation
that's been reused many many times in movies and TV shows.
Now, it may well be that Woolrich was the first who used this
particular plot twist, but it doesn't really matter: I knew
the trick and it just killed the final third of the book for
me.
Maybe straight suspense thrillers suffer from this the most?
The more original and effective the plot or
"gimmick", the more likely they are to be imitated?
Just thinking aloud here,
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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