Jacob,
Re your question below:
"Hello, I curious if there have been any hard-boiled
(or for that matter, any detective or mystery) writers who
use a rural setting."
Virtually all hard-boiled writers at least USE rural settings
occasionally.
For example, in the private eye sub-genre, outside of the
"quest object" plot, the "hunting the partner's killer" plot,
and the "wench-dunit" plot, all of which derive from
Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON, perhaps the most popular PI
plot is the "town-tamer," in which the hero arrives in a
corrupt, gangster-ridden rural area and cleans up. The most
famous example, RED HARVEST, is also courtesy of
Hammett.
Other examples include Brett Halliday's A TASTE FOR VIOLENCE,
Robert B. Parker's PALE KINGS AND PRINCES, Mickey Spillane's
THE TWISTED THING, Richard S. Prather's THE SWEET RIDE, and
Cleve F. Adams's SABOTAGE. Occasionally, the town-tamer is a
cop rather than a PI, as in Horace McCoy's short story
"The Mopper-Up," William Diehl's HOOLIGANS, Matt Braun's ONE
LAST TOWN, and Stephen Hunter's HOT SPRINGS.
There are also a growing number of hard-boiled writers who
specialize in small town or rural settings, particularly in
the police procedural sub-genre. Often the writers are
retired rural cops. Examples include Donald Harstaad, a
former deputy sheriff in a rural Iowa county who writes about
Carl Hoseman, a deputy sheriff in a rural Iowa county;
Michael McGarrity, a former deputy sheriff in New Mexico who
writes about itinerant New Mexico cop Kevin Kearney; former
Canadian cop who writes about Police Chief Reid Bennett, who
is, except for his police dog Sam, the only member of the
one-man police force of Murphy's Harbor, Ontario; and
part-time New England cop Archer Mayor who writes about
Vermont state criminal investigator Joe Brattleboro, whose
cases are usually rural.
Hope that helps.
JIM DOHERTY
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