Re: RARA-AVIS: Philip Atlee again

From: Doug Bassett ( dj_bassett@yahoo.com)
Date: 04 Oct 2000


Personally I've never cared for the Joe Gall series -- which is a shame, because it's the sort of thing I really wanted to like. Maybe I just haven't read the best books in the series? I tried reading THE GREEN WOUND CONTRACT a couple of times and just couldn't finish it -- the plot just kind of goes haywire about 2/3 the way through. I've also looked at a couple of others -- WHITE WOLVERINE and STAR RUBY I think (hope those are the right titles) and don't remember much about them, except that I was unimpressed.

I remember thinking that Atlee wasn't melodramatic enough to be fun the way Aarons's Sam Durrell books are fun, but not serious enough to be compelling the way the best British spy stories are. Just my two cents, of course.

Thanks for the Michael Shayne recommendations, incidentally, Mr. Reasoner. :)

doug
--- James Reasoner < james53@flash.net> wrote:
> I just read _The Death Bird Contract_, the first Joe
> Gall novel I've read in
> several years, and while it had a fairly coherent
> plot from beginning to end
> (a rarity in the Joe Galls I've read) I found it a
> pretty unpleasant
> experience. This is the one where Gall voluntarily
> becomes a heroin addict
> in order to carry out a contract. He also comes
> across as very bitter and
> unlikable. None of which makes this a bad book, of
> course. In fact, I
> thought it was very well written. It certainly
> won't keep from reading
> other books in the series. But it might make me
> wait a while before I pick
> up another one.
>
> Best,
> James

===== Doug Bassett dj_bassett@yahoo.com

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