I'd recomend any of the John Morgan Wilson books. He won a
well deserved Edgar with his first, Simple Justice. The
quality of the series has held up, too. His protaginist has a
Casandra quality, having or discovering information, which
isn't believed. He is a reporter, that had won a
Pulitzer,which was recended, when it was found, that he made
up some of the quotes in the prize winning story. He's rather
depresed and in an alcoholic haze. A friend tries to get him
out of it, by hooking him up with a younger reporter, and the
story results in a big case. He's at the top of his
investigative powers, but no one believes him.
All the books in the series deal with different aspects of
writing, Print journalism, documentary TV, etc. The ploting
is very tight. The books are rather dark and depresing, too.
One of them deals with a pederasty ring, that's killing
children. An aquantance of his gets kidnaped. Wilson is very
good at not turning the book in to a kids jep book, though.
He doesn't use the kid to increase the tension, but
deliberatly jeeps it focused on the protaginist. There's lots
of tension, too.
As good as I think the books are, I think they've suffered
from being written for a narow audience. They do have graphic
sex scenes, often pretty violent, that some would prefir not
to read about. I do think mambers of this list would enjoy
them.
The Zubro books are much lighter and more traditional
mysteries. I certainly wouldn't classify them as
hardboiled.
don cannon
<
dcannon1@ix.netcom.com>
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