There are counterexamples to everything: Easy Rawlins is an
amateur. Mouse may be said to be a professional, but he's
crazy. Does he count? Who else is a pro in the Rawlins
series? Mofass?
And how about Socrates Fortlow? He's not a professional at
anything, except he was a jailbird for a long time.
Both series are very hardboiled, with amateurs as
protagonists.
We should explore the possibility that hardboiled is a
typology of characters and situations, not an automatic
antonym of "cozy", "amateur sleuth" or "malice
domestic".
I can envision a hardboiled novel *with* inspectors that
takes place in a *manor* and has upper-class protagonists. To
me, it all depends on what the author does with these
elements.
I fear we are overstressing the formula elements in mystery
writing. The genre, which did indeed become formulaic, has
been and is much less so when the writer is good (or great,
as in the case of Mosley). In that case, the formula is
incidental.
Best regards,
MrT
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