RARA-AVIS: Hard-boiled

Lawrence R. (goldensam@sprintmail.com)
Sun, 07 Jun 1998 12:55:07 -0400 It is indeed a stretch to call Kinsey Milhone a hard-boiled detective.
Hard-boiled in general usage is defined as "Callous; unfeeling.
Unsentimental and practical; tough. In regards to detective fiction
specifically it is defined as: of, relating to, or being a detective
story featuring
a tough unsentimental protagonist and a matter-of-fact attitude towards
violence.

While Kinsey gets knocked about a bit, and she is 'tough and
unsentimental' about men in general and her two previous husbands in
particular, she really doesn't fit the bill.

I think that Amazon is using 'hard-boiled' to distinguish books that are
not "cozies" or spy thrillers. The term would seem to be totally
exclude detectives of the female persuasion since none of them take a
matter-of-fact attitude towards violence. It would also, for the same
reason, exclude the likes of Inspector Dalgleish, or Hercule Poirot.
Would it include, though, Inspector Jane Tennison? And what about
Inspector Moss? Or does the genre exclude cops altogether? Is Alex
Delaware "hard-boiled"?

Certainly, if we use Marlowe and Spade and Archer as bench-marks, the
answer is obvious.
Which is probably why taxonomists keep reclassifying things so
frequently.

Will Sue Grafton be read or reprinted 50 years from now?

Dick Tartow

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