[Bill -- I've cc'd this message to you, because my last post
disappeared into thin air. Maybe it's my mail client, but it
used to work -- no ASCII I hope.]
For this month's theme, I inadvertently read "A Clod of
Wayward Marl" by Rick DeMarinis (published by Dennis
McMillan). It's not entirely hardboiled, nor noir, but it is
a novel with crimes set in a fictional El Paso (more or
less).
Anyway, I liked it quite a bit -- very highly
recommended. The protagonist is a writer of crime novels who
has landed an interim teaching gig at a La Siberia Tech
(thus, it's an academic novel too -- it reminded me here and
there of DeLillo's "White Noise" ). He gets involved in
murder, conspiracy, dipsomania, and so on. There's a small
virtual reality angle, too, and romance. The book is damn
funny in places. There's not a whole lot of sense of the
Southwest, though Guido (the protagonist) crosses an aroyo to
go from campus to a bar. There's also a part where characters
cross the border and visit a maquila
(Mexican factory). Great stuff, but whacky. If you prefer
your crime fiction straight up, this book might not be the
best bet, but I found it quite refreshing -- as good as
anything that I've read in the last six months.
Best, Doug
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