<<I'm currently reading a book about a Barcelona
private eye, Murder in
The Central Committee, by Manuel Vasquez Montalban,
translated from
Spanish, and it's a whole new world, gastronomically and
politically.
Half the time, I don't know whether to get hungry or start
humming the
Internationale... has anyone else read this
guy?>>
I have. He is very good. Definitely hardboiled, with a sharp
sense of
humor and a keen knowledge of his native Spain, including
politics. He
likes good food and even has a personal cook (I forget his
name, but it
sound perfect for a cook). He succeeded brilliantly in
transplanting the
PI concept into his own turf. He is also a well known and
acerbic
journalist. I'm glad that his books are being
translated.
Since we are talking about discoveries, let me put in a plug
for
Japanese author Shizuko Natsuki, whose excellent suspense
novel _The
Third Lady_ (Ballantine paperback, 1987). I bought for a
quarter and
read in one pleasurable if somewhat tense sitting. A short
note says
that she is "Japan's bestselling mystery author" and credits
her with
"over eighty novels, short stories, and serials, forty of
which have
been made into Japanese television movies."
Even though she is compared to Patricia Highsmith on the
cover blurb,
her sense of humor and deadpan delivery seem quite original,
and the
clockwork way she organizes this very dark story is superb.
She is
concise and I would place her somewhere in between hardboiled
and noir
(!). I will be on the lookout for more of her work, though in
this case
there may be just a few translated books.
Regards,
MT
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