> I read The Drowning Pool last November. I've been on
a noir crime novel
> kick for quite a few months and have been sampling
lots of authors:
> Highsmith, Whittington, Rabe, Willeford, Chandler,
Pellecanos, Ellroy,
> Leonard, Vachss, Carter Brown(!), Fredric Brown,
Daly, Thompson, Gault,
> Nielsen, Cain, Fisher, Marlowe, Spillane, Williams,
Ross MacDonald.
Nothing wrong with Carter Brown (though I suspect I'm in the
minority on
this list with that opinion). His books are what they are:
fast, pulpy
reads, and at their best, pretty darn funny in places. And I
could swear
that several years ago, I read somewhere that Robert
Silverberg ghosted
some of the Carter Brown novels. Has anybody else ever heard
that rumor,
or is my memory completely shot?
I'm about halfway through _The Drowning Pool_, and while I'm
enjoying it, I
have to admit that it's not as good as I remember from my
reading of it in
the Sixties. Archer seems to be trying too hard to be Philip
Marlowe.
However, MacDonald does a very good job of conveying a sense
of place.
James Reasoner
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