Kevin Smith (kvnsmith@colba.net)
Fri, 1 Oct 1999 07:48:18 -0400
Bob Toomey, in response to that other Smith guy's question
about up-and-coming noir women writers, said:
>Did anyone mention Liza Cody's Eva Wylie books?
Wylie's one of the toughest
>broads on the block, a professional wrestler (a
villain, the London
>Lassassin),
>car thief, security guard, smart mouth. Cody captures
some beautiful British
>street talk, mean and funny. Try BUCKET NUT, the
first and best of them.
Well,the U.K.'s Liza Cody may be a lot of things but she
doesn't seem particularly up-and-coming (I also have trouble
seeing her as really noir). She's actually been around since
at least 1980, when she published the first of several P.I.
novels about Anna Lee, which pre-dated both Grafton, Paretsky
and the hordes that followed. Good solid reads, with a great
lead character, who takes a defiantly down-to-earth approach
to her work, sometimes much to the dismay of the people
around her. And her take on office politics in the detective
agency she works for is a hoot.
She wrote seven books in the series before switching to the
Eva Wylie series in which is much harder in tone (although
Anna had her moments, she's more matter-of-fact than truly
hardboiled).
Is she considered up-and-coming? I' d always thought of her
as already here. Her books are pretty widely available (or
were-nobody seems to carry much of a backlist, anymore), and
a really lame British TV series based on the Lee books was
produced (worst adaptation of a literary P.I. since Spenser
For Hire) and shown in both the U.K. and the States.
Or am I off-base here? Am I over-estimating her popularity? I
forget sometimes that what I see in Canadian bookstores and
libraries doesn't always match that in in the States. We tend
to get more British books, (and British editions, which tend
to have better covers). Were the Anna Lee's available widely
in the States? I always thought they were, but I'm wondering
now, because it seems she's hardly ever mentioned.
And how about the very Hammerish Nick Sharman by Mark Timlin.
His books are available here, but has this Brit dick found
his way to the States beyond a few mystery bookstores?
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
Still available! Our Summer Issue, focussing on Radio Private
Eyes, plus new fiction by Peter Parmantie and Kathy
Korty.
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