Next month we start working our way through the history of
hardboiled and noir writing, but this month is your chance to
read a police procedural and think about how it relates to
the hardboiled school. It seems generally accepted that
they're related, starting with Ed McBain and the 87th
Precinct books. I have to admit I've never much liked them,
even a Deaf Man book I tried, which people here have said are
his best.
Anyway, McBain's got a tough style, and because of the
subject matter and repertorial approach, procedurals get
classed near to hardboileds in the great scheme of mystery
organization. Verisimilitude is hard to achieve with private
eyes these days, so writers who want to work in a hardboiled
style may write about police detectives instead, for example
Michael Connelly and the Harry Bosch series.
Over the last year I read Sjowall and Wahloo's series of
Swedish procedurals, which they based on McBain's series. A
couple of them are noticeably worse than the others, but most
of them are very good. Book by book they expand the scope,
adding more characters and more social commentary. They have
a hardboiled nature to them, perhaps because of people like
Martin Beck, who's reticent, irascible and cold.
Mr. Doherty's been posting notes about procedural writers. I
hope he and Mr. Shafer (and others I may have forgotten) will
be expert witnesses for us this month. I'm not sure what I'll
be reading but I may reread THE BLACK ECHO, the first Bosch
book, to see how procedural it is. I already know how good it
is.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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