And Sherlock Holmes, of course. The two stories he narrates
himself, rather
than having Watson do it, are pretty awful. And he spends
most of his time
offscreen in "Hound of the Baskervilles," arguably his best
story.
Someone else mentioned "Glass Key" and "Maltese Falcon" as
3rd-person
narratives. A question, though - while the stories aren't
told by the
protagonists themselves, my impression is that you never get
to see anything
they don't. Is there an example of a third-person
_omniscient_ narrative
that works well as a hardboiled story, or even a mystery in
general?
On another topic, a couple of questions: I picked up a couple
of paperbacks
from the dime rack at my local Goodwill, "Pale Gray For
Guilt" by John
MacDonald and "The Girl Hunters" by Spillane. Never read
these authors
before (I only started reading this genre in any depth late
last year).
Before I start 'em, am I leaping headlong into the middle of
the two series,
and should reading earlier books first, or am I OK to begin
with these?
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