Re: RARA-AVIS: Re:Joseph Hansen

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Mon, 13 Apr 1998 13:33:16 +0000 Kevin Smith:

<<Which brings up the question: has Stephen Greenleaf pulled a
Brandstetter on us?>>

I couldn't figure out exactly what Tanner's fate was in Greenleaf's last
book. Greenleaf said in an interview that he wouldn't revive the Tanner
series unless there were commercial interest (I assume he was trying to
say that his sales haven't been great). But he didn't say that he would
stop writing, and I really hope he doesn't.

The case of Greenleaf is paradoxical: he has outdone Ross Macdonald at
his own game (and did it early, in State's Evidence, a brilliant tour de
force in which there are so many skeletons in the closet that nobody is
who you think at the beginning of the book); as a stylist he is second
to none in the mystery field. Yet he is not nearly as popular as his
talent and achievements would suggest. I notice also that Arthur Lyons
and Roger Simon, two other great California writers, only publish
sporadically - in fact, Lyons seems to have given it up. Is this a sign
that the market has changed at the hands of manipulative psychology ( =
advertising)?

Regards,

Mario Taboada
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