RARA-AVIS: Re: 87th Precinct

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 31 Jul 2007


John,

Re your comment below:

"I particularly enjoyed any of the Deaf Man stories starting with 'Let's Hear It For the Deaf Man' and
'Hark!' both particularly stand out in my mind. It seems as though for these stories, given that there's a well-established baddie, the well-established characters seem to work a little bit harder."

The first "Deaf Man" novel wasn't LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN. It was THE HECKLER from 1960, which preceded LET'S HEAR IT by 13 years, and which was followed by FUZZ (1968), which preceded LET'S HEAR IT by five years.

THE HECKLER, as I've said, is my personal favorite 87th Precinct novel, but, for me at least, it's the only one of the "Deaf Man" sub-series that really works. Criminal masterminds, a la Moriarty and Fu Manchu, don't really fit into the naturalistic, ultra-realistic atmosphere of the police procedural. It's like chocolate and pastrami, two really great things that don't go together. But in THE HECKLER, the two disparate elements, realistic police work and a melodramatic, larger-than-life villain, are balanced in perfect harmony.

JIM DOHERTY

       
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