Thanks for the good words, Jim. I agree with your comments on
Spicer's PI Carney Wilde series. They are special reads and
feel like "real" people. I recall liking BLUES FOR THE PRINCE
very much. Spicer was a big jazz fan. His step-daughter also
mentioned that his CIA buddies were the source material for
his spy novels. Plus, I believe he did some intelligence work
during WW II.
Ed
--- JIM DOHERTY <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ed,
>
> Excellent article on Spicer. I was
particularly
> pleased by your comprehensive coverage of
his
> post-Wilde work.
>
> One thing about Carney Wilde that has always struck
me
> is how Spicer turns the "Marlowe Paradigm" on
its
> head.
>
> Wilde starts out as a firm follower of the
paradigm
> (one-man agency, 1st person narrator, ex-cop, etc)
in
> all respects save age (and, at 29, he misses that by
a
> single scant year).
>
> Yet over the course of the series, Wilde builds
his
> tiny agency from a one-man hole-in-the-wall office
to
> one of the largest investigative/security agencies
in
> Pennsylvania (I wonder if it's since been absorbed
by
> Securitas, like Pinkerton, Burns, Wells/Fargo.
etc),
> completing undercutting the lone wolfe aspect of
the
> PI mythos.
>
> The other thing is that, despite all the murders
he
> solves, Wilde is seen doing things that real
PI's
> might reasonably do. Security at a department
store,
> responding to a bank robbery alarm that his
company
> has installed, etc.
>
> The building of a PI agency from a one-man show to
a
> huge, successful business won't be seen again
until
> Max Allan Collins's historical Nate Heller series,
and
> the more realistic look at PI work (with the
possible
> exception of Stanely Ellin's THE EIGHT CIRCLE)
won't
> be seen again until Joe Gores's DKA
series.
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