On 14 January 2001, Darlene Black wrote:
: I have been having a difficult time finding out about
Canadian
: hardboiled fiction. Oddly enough, in one book on Canadian
crime
: writing Lawrence Block is listed but as far as I know he's
not
: Canadian nor do any of his books take place in Canada. My
preference
: is for fiction which takes place in Canada but even books
written by
: Canadians would be of interest. Does anyone know of a link
or have
: any suggestions?
The ultimate source would be David Skene-Melvin's enormous
bibliography of Canadian crime fiction, CANADIAN CRIME
FICTION (Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1996). They're a
pretty small press, and you can order it right from them, for
over $100 I think, or get it at a library with a good
reference section. Mr. Skene-Melvin was on the list for a
while and you can find his e-mail address if you search the
archives.
There are a number of good Canadian mystery writers, but I
don't think any of them really write in a hardboiled style.
The closest you'll get is politely softboiled, or resignedly
hard-working in a sort of Presbyterian way. Hugh Garner's
Inspector McDumont police procedurals come close. I'm leaving
out Ross Macdonald, and any pulp writers who wrote for
American pulps (because I can't think of any). Mr. Smith
knows a lot about Canadian mysteries and will chip in, I'm
sure.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 14 Jan 2001 EST