Bill James writes procedurals that give a lot of weight to
the life of policemen. There is nothing separating those
lives from the police work that nominally constitutes the
theme. The psychological complexity of his characters, the
beautiful coldness of his style, the real-life sloppiness of
the cases, the moral ambiguity, and the realistic dialogue
all contribute as much to the procedural genre as any amount
of detail on procedure. This may sound exagerated, but I
think James has invented something, has in effect renewed the
genre. In a totally different style, so has K.C. Constantine,
who also writes about the life of policemen (mainly one
policeman) without neglecting procedure, such as there is,
but without giving it much weight.
Regards,
MrT
=====
"The skill of man is unequal to the formation of a new man
from old materials, but the battered tenement may, with care,
be long sustained by props" -- From Becklard's
Physiology.
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