----- Original Message ----- From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> To: <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 8:09
PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Recent reads
> Re Doug Bassett's comment on the Shell Scott
series:
>
> > Now reading Prather's KUBLA KHAN CAPER. I've
decided
> > the Shell Scotts are very hit-or-miss, but
this
> > looks
> > to be one of the good ones.
>
> It seems to me that last February or March,
James
> Reasoner commented on a Scott book, and
mentioned
> Shell's unusually friendly relationship with the
LAPD.
> (I know I was out of the loop then, but I
still
> occasionally looked in on the Archives). He
compared
> Shell's friendship with Homicide Captain Phil
Samson
> to Mike Shayne's with Miami Police Chief Will
Gentry.
>
> Being a Shayne veteran himself, Mr.
Reasoner's
> comparison with the Shayne/Gentry relationship
is
> understandable, but I think a better analogy (and
the
> one Prather probably wanted his readers
to
> subliminally make) was Mike Hammer's close
friendship
> with Captain Pat Chambers. The two cop
characters
> share a rank, captain, a position, commander
of
> homicide, and have similar sounding names. I
think
> Prather conceived of Scott as a lighter-hearted
West
> Coast version of Hammer. It's worth noting that,
like
> Scott, Hammer always had good, personal relations
with
> the police. His problems were with the
pettifogging
> official institutions of law enforcement, rarely
with
> the individual people in the who served
those
> institutions.
The Samson/Chambers comparison makes sense to me. Scott's
politics are certainly similar to Hammer's. I don't recall
that Mike Shayne ever had any political views.
Best, James
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 Jul 2001 EDT