It also seems odd that you would cite Hansen as someone with
more
plotting range. I really like Hansen, but I always felt his
plots were
highly formulaic. They all revolve around each of the
suspects passing
through the murder scene with Dave trying to establish the
chronology in
order to discover which suspect was there at the time of the
murder and
therefore did it. (I also like that none of his solutions
ever saved
the insurance company a dime, just occasionally changed
the
beneficiary.)
Hansen does, however, offer far more character development
of
Brandstetter than MacDonald ever did of Archer, who is sort
of a
structuring absence in his own books. But then I also liked
that
quality of the cipher, maybe it just allowed me to put myself
into the
book. Archer's role is almost as extreme as the narrator's
in
Robbe-Grillett's Jealousy. He never refers to himself, just
offers his
increasingly suspect observations of what is happening around
him. It
takes some time for the reader to catch on that the narrative
is in the
first person.
For good or bad (I think good, Mario thinks bad), I believe
Millar
deserves his place in the once ubiquitous blurb, "In the
tradition of
Chandler, Hammett and MacDonald." Of course, that has now
been replaced
by "As good as Parker's Spenser" if it's a male PI or "As
good as
Grafton's Milhoune" if it's a female; talk about damning with
faint
praise.
Mark
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