Other good example of hardboiled caper/comedy is
Donald Westlake's
Dortmunder series.
-Dave Z.
I think there's a distinction to be made between
comedy capers written by authors who also write hardboiled -
Dortmunder, The Thin Man etc - and writing that is genuinely
both hardboiled and comic. This stuff is pretty rare - Jim
Thompson's Pop 1280 definitely fits the bill, as does Charlie
Williams' Deadfolk (though his almost namesake Charles
Williams' The Diamond Bikini maybe doesn't quite). Elmore
Leonard is pretty good at inserting comic moments into a
hardboiled narrative, though don't take Be Cool as an example
as it's probably the worst book he's ever written. The
opening sequence from Freaky Deaky with the booby trapped
toilet is pretty definitive hardboiled comic. George V.
Higgins too has plenty of funny moments. In the case of both
Higgins and Leonard though it's mostly about finding the
humour in everyday life, rather than the surreal slapstick
of, say, a Carl Hiaasen.
John
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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