----- Original Message ----- From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> To: <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001
9:25 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Red Harvest
> Carrie,
>
> Re your comments below:
>
> > So I know I'm taking aim at a sacred cow but
does
> > anyone agree with me that
> > Red Harvest doesn't hold up very
well?
>
> I certainly disagree, and quite strongly. I think
it
> holds up damned well. I read it for the first time
in
> high school (not all that long ago) and was
riveted,
> and have been riveted with every re-reading. I
regard
> the Op is the best PI in fiction, bar none,
and
> HARVEST as his best novel-length
appearance,
> notwithstanding the fact that its serial
installments
> had to simultaneously stand as both independent
short
> stories and as chapters in a longer work. In fact,
I
> think the seams in HARVEST are very
well-disguised;
> much more than in the Op's other two
book-length
> appearances, THE DAIN CURSE and BLOOD MONEY,
which
> were written under the same constraints.
I don't know, I kind of like THE DAIN CURSE better (maybe
because it's more lurid and I'm just that kinda guy), but
I've read RED HARVEST several times and agree that it holds
up fine. In fact, this discussion has just about put me in
the mood to read it again.
<snip>
> Moreover, it wouldn't've inspired so many
knock-offs,
> from Brett Halliday's A TASTE FOR VIOLENCE to
Robert
> B. Parker's PALE KINGS AND PRINCES, if it
hadn't've
> made some impact right from the start. It was
the
> grand-daddy of the hard-boiled "Town Tamer" novels;
in
> its way as influential as, perhaps more
influential
> than, THE MALTESE FALCON's "quest object" and
"turning
> your lover in" plots.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
One of Kendall Foster Crossen's Milo March books, HANGMAN'S
HARVEST, is influenced by RED HARVEST almost to the point of
plagiarism. But hey, I liked that one, too.
Best, James
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