RARA-AVIS: Re: Archer/Ross Macdonald/Dewey

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 25 Aug 2007


Ed,

Re your question below:

"Do you have a favorite Dewey title, Mario?"

Mario's suggestion, A SAD SONG SINGING, based on the
"hootenanny" vogue of the early '60's, is a very good one.

My personal favorite is 1956's THE MEAN STREETS, a title that deliberately evokes Chandler, in which Mac is hired to go undercover as a teacher in a suburban high school to ferret out the root of the community's juvenile deliquency problem.

THE BIG SLEEP meets THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE.

Like Ed McBain, Dewey was a teacher himself, though at the college level, not high school.

The only Mac short story, "The Big Job," was reprinted in one of those BEST DETECTIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR antologies Dutton used to put out annually. I think Dewey's story appeared in a volume from the mid-60's. If your local library has a fairly complete collection, you might find the short piece a good introduction to Dewey and Mac.

JIM DOHERTY

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