<<Can someone explain the appeal of Prather. I don't
mean to assault
anyone's taste, but I have never been able to get more than
few pages in
to a Prather novel. Hackneyed, wooden, generally terrible
writing . . .
does he take a while to warm up or what? Are Shell Scotts
better than
non-series novels?>>
First, some titles for Marian Poller: I looked at my Prathers
and
refreshed my memory a bit; I can recommend "The Scrambled
Yeggs", "Gat
Heat", "Always leave'em dying", "Kill Him Twice", and "The
Kubla Khan
Caper" as funny, often hilarious examples of the hardboiled
style. Don't
expect a lot of subtlety, but the action will keep you
reading. But how
to suspend disbelief in the face of these farcical tough-guy
adventures?
I would say that Prather takes the hardboiled PI novel to its
logical
culmination: a great joke or, if you will, a violent fantasy.
As someone
has already pointed out, Prather follows in the steps of the
great and
crazy Robert Leslie Bellem and, partly, Jonathan Latimer (but
Latimer
was a far better writer than Bellem or Prather).
What Prather lacks in polish (a great deal, by purist
standards) he
makes up in humor, violent action, and unpretentious savvy. I
would
never say that Prather is as bad as Spillane, and he is
certainly much
better than Carroll John Daly. I cannot give him a
higher
recommendation.
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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