--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Chuck G."
<chgenoe2@p...> wrote:
>
> > This is a great story. But I'm a little curious
about the somewhat
> > ambiguous ending. I'm not especially dense but
I'm not sure if I
> > understood the ending. Anyone care to enlighten
me. The story is
> > anthologized in Black Lizard Anthology 1987--a
great collection.
>
> Hi JR,
> I just found this anthology yesterday a local used
book store, and
i
> agree, the ending of the Pronzini story is
ambiguous. The only
thing
> I got out of it was that it was a twist ending. He
leads you to
> believe the the situation and characters are one
thing, then tells
> you that they're something else. It isn't one of
Pronzini's best,
> IMO.
And, oddly enough, I just picked up a copy of the first BLACK
LIZARD
(definitely seek out the SECOND BL ANTHO!) at a library sale
yesterday to give to someone, something like the fourth or so
to pass through my hands, and happened to reread the lead-off
story...not to
***SPOIL*** anything, but Chuck's correct...Pronzini has
strongly implied that the accountant being pursued by the
protag and his senior partner is about to be executed by
thugs, when instead he's about to be arrested by feds...the
senior partner being a rather sadistic, and homesick, brother
of their quarry. Interestingly to me, Pronzini's other 1978
EQMM story with "fog" in the title [no doubt also in the San
Francisco and obfuscation senses], "Strangers in the Fog,"
strikes me as not only one of his best but also still one of
the best suspense stories I've read... and I like this one
better than Chuck does, if not as much as "Strangers..."
(which, given my sieve-like memory, probably was actually
published in EQMM in '76 or somesuch).
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 25 Dec 2004 EST