For the record, I loved Dorothy Uhlak, one of whose books was
made into a hard-boiled Kojack MOW (movie of the week) some
years back whose title escapes me now. A mother whose two
little sons end up dead. Whew! I confess I think she quit
some years back.
As for the Elizabeth George being a cozy, well, it was Mrs.
Emma Peel -- Diana Rigg herself -- at the end of the George
show who called it a cozy. I was just following orders. I
guess there are police procedurals and there are police
procedurals. I liked Havers, too; she seemed real to me, even
if she has to work with "an aristocratic ponce" as she called
her elitist sidekick.
I also suspect the publishers are now dumping cozies in favor
of thrillers. The market was so saturated, it was time. We
must recognize that each publishing house "needs" X amount of
product per month. The company doesn't care what, mostly, for
that X amount covers the nut. Superstars (like Grafton's Q is
for Gardens, as Larry Block once joked) can cover as much as
a quarter of the yearly profit. Like Hollywood, though, gross
profits are important only once a year, while cash flow you
can really live off. Cash flow demands those X amount of
books or movies. Any sloppage or any slippage --- dump the
sucker.
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