It's not just hardboiled books that have gotten too long. I'm
not going into a long rant here, but I've been complaining
about this ever since Dick Francis hit the bestseller list
with his first doorstop. And it's the publishers, not the
writers. Publishers believe (and they may be right) that
readers want long books. Some writers can buck the trend.
Robert B. Parker is one of them. But his publishers give his
books what I now call "the Parker treatment": thick pages,
wide margins, lots of blank pages at the ends of chapters,
and very big print. So the books appear to be 100,000 worders
when they're probably around 60,000. And you'll notice that
when people are trying to "break out of category," their
books get longer. Anyone want to bet the Bob Crais' new
DEMOLITION ANGEL isn't a lot longer than the Elvis Cole
books? (And was L. A. REQUIEM longer than the earlier ones?)
This has already gotten longer than I'd intended. I'll go
quietly.
Bill Crider
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