They're as addictive as hot buttered and salted popcorn,
approximately as
nourishing and arguably every bit as good for one's blood
pressure. Herewith
my take on Murder Ink's list.
Mostly, I think the list is okay as far as the writers it
included having
merit, except that including Sara Patetsky and Patricia
Cornwell (!!!??)
while not mentioning Patricia Highsmith, Dorothy B. Hughes
and Leigh
Brackett is a joke. I also happen to think that any best
hardboiled list
that does not include Horace McCoy's Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye or
Douglas
Fairbairn's masterful Street 8 reflects badly on the
credentials of the list
compilers. Fairbairn never achieved wide fame, so maybe I can
waffle on him,
but how can ANY best of hb list ignore McCoy?
Also, the list compilers in this case seem to be striving to
nominate
well-known, popular titles for each author, rather than
choose on the basis
of literary merit. To wit, The Deep Blue Good-Bye is a safe
choice for John
D. It's the first McGee. However, any of several of his
non-series books is
better -- Dead Low Tide, The Drowner and Where is Janice
Gantry? come
immediately to mind. Hammett's Maltese Falcon is
unquestionably more widely
read than The Glass Key, which is a far more emotionally
complex and
accomplished novel. In my opinion, Willeford's The Way We Die
Now is a
better book than Miami Blues, but for sheer power and hard
boiledness,
neither can approach Pick-Up. That book probes to the damn
BONE.
I could go on, but what's the point? I'd only be making my
own list. I think
I'll go make some popcorn instead.
PB
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