Re: RARA-AVIS: Tony Hillerman

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Tue, 2 Mar 1999 22:25:26 -0600 (CST) Can we call you Chris? Anyway, you wrote recently,

>In keeping with the "What is/is not hard-boiled?" discussion, a question
>from someone fairly new to the detective genre. Would Tony Hillerman's
>Navajo mysteries qualify as hard-boiled? From what I've read, they hit most
>of the defining points suggesting by the Rara Avis group, but I'm not sure
>that they have the "backdrop of institutionalized corruption."

Glad you raised the question, Chris. I like Hillerman alot, live near
where he was raised (Pott. County, Oklahoma), and have read all but the
latest. But, right, I wouldn't call him hard-boiled, in part for the
reason you give. In one, however, (The Ghostway, I think), Chee tangles
with a hitman from L.A., and things turn hard around the edges. Always
thought *A Fly on the Wall* was close, if not HB. (It's not a Navajo
mystery, however.)

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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