I'd vote for Spillane, but I see your point. Although I've
read all of
his books to date, I passed on BLACK ALLEY mainly due to poor
reviews
that criticized how dated the material was.
> The Bill Crane books, by Jonathan Latimer, on the
other hand, would be a
> lot of fun, and maybe not so p.c. themselves. If
people can find them. Even
> better, and probably even harder to find, is
Latimer's Solomon's Vineyard
> (AKA The Fifth Grave, 1941), a non-series tale that
echoes Hammett's Red
> Harvest, and hints at what both Mickey Spillane and
Ross Macdonald would be
> doing in a few years. It was considered so nasty that
it wasn't even
> published in its entirety in the States for years
(the Brits weren't quite
> so fussy-they published it in 1941). However, it was
reprinted a few years
> ago, along with all the Crane books, by IPL, and I
was very impressed.
Never heard of this one. Thanks for the reference. I'll try
to find a
copy.
> Or maybe we could read something a bit more current,
possibly something
> just out in paperback? Michael Stone's A Long Reach
is just out, and The Ax
> by Donald Westlake must be out quite soon. It's great
to read and discuss
> the classics, but I'd hate for this list to end up
talking endlessly about
> the same old books by the same dead authors over and
over, and end up being
> a bunch of pedantic old farts, clutching our
dog-eared copies of The
> Maltese Falcon, moaning and groaning about how they
don't write 'em like
> they used to.
Just purchased the paperback reprint of A LONG REACH. Also
picked up THE
LOW END OF NOWHERE. As far as political correctness is
concerned, using
a bounty hunter as a hero has had negative connotations since
the recent
incident down here in Arizona. Still, BITCH FACTOR by Chris
Rogers, a
first novel just published in hardcover, features a female
bounty hunter
as the protagonist!
... Reed Andrus
Phoenix, AZ (rising)
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