Some ten years ago, I wrote an article for the "Special
Bouchercon
Issue" of *Mystery Readers Journal* entitled "The Ten Best
Private Eye
Novels Ever Written." My choices then were, in chornological
order:
1) *Red Harvest* by Dashiell Hammett
2) *The Dain Curse* by Dashiell Hammett
3) *The Maltese Falcon* by Dashiell Hammett
4) *The Big Sleep* by Raymond Chandler
5) *One Lonely Night* by Mickey Spillane
6) *The Long Goodbye* by Raymond Chandler
7) *Double in Trouble* by Richard S. Prather & Stephen
Marlowe
8) *Interface* by Joe Gores
9) *Eight Million Ways to Die* by Lawrence Block
For the tenth entry I wimped out and listed my runners-up
rather than
a single novel. These were, again in choronological
order:
*The Moving Target* by Ross Macdonald
*The Girl Hunters* by Mickey Spillane
*Act of Fear* by Michael Collins
*Gone, No Forwarding* by Joe Gores
*Sugartown* by Loren D. Estelman
*Dead Letter* by Jonathan Valin
*The Million Dollar Wound* by Max Allan Collins
Of course, these are specifically PI novels rather than
general
hard-boiled. Were I doing the list now, I might change some
things.
Probably include less Hammett; much as I love him, three out
of nine
seems excessive on reflection. I'd certainly list an actual
tenth
novel rather than wimping out and listing seven more, by
calling them
"runners-up." I'd probably include a Jonathan Latimer, with
whom I
was unfamiliar ten years ago; most likely *Solomon's
Vineyard*. On
reflection, I think Collins's first Heller novel, *True
Detective*,
stands the test of time better than *Wound*, which I'd just
finished
when I wrote the article. Recent authors who either hadn't
yet
debuted or with whom I was unfamiliar, and who I might now
consider
include Robert Crais, Sue Grafton, Jeremiah Healy, Dennis
Lehane, and
John Lutz. - Jim Doherty
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