- From: Doug Bassett asks
Has anyone read anything else by Latimer? I can
> strongly recommend SOLOMON'S VINEYARD. It's a "lone
PI
> cleans up a corrupt town" kind of thing, but
done
> exceptionally well. In fact,
Doug, We read a Latimer Bill Crane book as a monthly book
last year. Upon reading one I found and, bought and read all
of them. I liked thought Lady in the Morgue the best of the
series. Though I'm not a native Chicagoan, I have been living
in this city for over twenty years, and I enjoyed picture of
1930's Chicago it gives. I read Campbell's Jimmy Flannery
books becuse of the legendry city they portray even though I
don't think they are very good mysteries I guess you have to
be able to read the Crane books as products of their time and
its attitudes. For instance, drinking and drunkeness were a
big source of humor in many of the 30's screwball comedies
like My Man Godfrey. I think this view of drunkeness in the
movies began changing in the 40's and 50's with The Lost
Weekend and later Days of Wine and Roses. Even as late as
1981 with Arthur the idea of drunks being a source for humor
was still alive.
Some of the Crane plots also reminded me of the Perry Mason
tv series of the 50's. Because PM was a big favorite in my
house, I saw a lot of them. Latimer was a writer for the
series Every once in a while when I read the books I got an
echo of some episode I'd seen many years ago.
Soolomon's Vineyard was briefly discussed and was praised. A
problem we talked about was it was gerally unavailable
unexpurgated pretty recently. Mark
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