As I've said here before, I've never been a fan of Block and
haven't cared for the two Scudder novels I read (I think I
only tried to read the other). But I really liked the two
Tanner novels of him, now, let's see, I think they were THE
CANCELED CZECH (even the title makes me smile) and TANNER'S
TWELVE SWINGERS.
They are spy novels, but there's a tone of parody in them.
They are very fast-moving and characterization is pretty
crisp and there's lots of humour and humorous description of
people. Especially TWELVE SWINGERS contains elements of farce
and there are references to athletics (IIRC) that are quite
rare in crime fiction. Both are situated in Eastern Europe,
but there's no racism that easily comes with the territory.
Recommended.
I should probably try read some of early Scudders, but time
is scarce around these parts nowadays.
Juri
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