> From: Juri Nummelin <
jurnum@utu.fi>
> Gruber seems to be forgotten, but there is (at least
was in earlier
> editions) an essay and a crime-oriented bibliography
of him in "20th
> Century Crime and Mystery Writers" (now, of course,
"St. James Guide").
> Gruber falls somewhere between the screwball comedy
and hardboiled and
> there's no noir element in his writing, so maybe
that's why he doesn't
> get mentioned any more.
>
Sorry to say, Juri is correct about Gruber being pretty much
forgotten
(though, according to Amazon, most of his novels are
available "on special order," whatever that means.) While the
Fetcher and Cragg series mixes screwball comedy with action,
the Simon Lash series (Simon Lash: Private Detective, The
Buffalo Box, Murder '97) is very much in the hardboiled camp.
Several of Gruber's later one-offs, like Twenty Plus Two,
probably qualify as noir. But they're not as well-written or
clever as the Fletcher and Cragg books which, to my way of
thinking, are more entertaining than the Nero Wolfe
books.
I think it's been mentioned here before, but Gruber's memoir,
The Pulp Jungle, in which he discusses his years of writing
for the pulps, is great fun. His Black Mask memories are of
particular interest, his friendship with Carroll John Daly,
an antagonistic encounter with Chandler, etc. Much of the
book-long essay appeared in the Brass Knuckles
collection.
Dick Lochte
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