Glad to see JDM getting some traction again. There was a time
awhile back when he was taking a drubbing all over the place
for not being "modern." Certainly McGee's atttudes have dated
but the stories remain pretty good--but only pretty good
compared to such masterpieces as Soft Touch, The
Executioners, The Crossroads and The End of The Night. His
criminals remain to me (and this may speak to my own advanced
age more than anything else) much more beleivable
(much more like Wambaugh's criminals) than many of the
stylized "hip" criminals of neo-noir. As Vonnegut said of
him, he knew how the world worked, from corrupt politics to
boardroom banter (that's whay I admire Terrill Lankford's
novels so much--he gives you the real Hollywood top to
bottom, what used to be called "work" novels). I wish more of
today's crime fiction showed the same harsh wit and
disgruntled sophistication of JDM's work. --Ed Gorman
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