I second Jacques expression of appreciation for all of your
efforts this past month, and in general.
I'm just about done WOLF TIME and I'm curious whether, in
your opinion, you would consider Hollis Fletcher an amateur
or a professional. He is clearly an expert hunter/tracker but
he himself expresses doubts about his ability to transfer
those skills to tracking down the person that shot and
crippled him. And, on the other side of the coin, there are
plenty of professional politicians, but would you consider
them professional 'bad guys' in the traditional sense?
Thanks again! Harry
Quoting JIM DOHERTY <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com>:
> Since this is the last day of Joe Gores month, I
felt
> at least one more post (and perhaps a thread, if
this
> post generates one) was called for.
>
> I've observed elsewhere that hard-boiled/noir
crime
> stories tends to be about professionals. On
both
> sides of the fence. Good guys tend to be
cops,
> private eyes, spies, etc.
>
> Bad guys tend to be organized crime figures,
armed
> robbers, drug dealers, enemy agents, etc.
>
> I'm talking about trends here, of course, not hard
and
> fast rules, but it strikes me that the cozy tends
to
> be as much about amateur criminals as it is
about
> amateur sleuths. In the hard-boiled/noir world,
it
> takes a professional to survive.
>
> Joe Gores seems to exemplify this trend better
than
> most. Although his first novel, A TIME OF
PREDATORS,
> has amateurs on both sides of the fence, by and
large
> he deals with pros, professional criminals as much
as
> professional crime-solvers.
>
> The main character in his Edgar-winning short
story,
> "Goodbye,Pops," is a latter-day Dillinger type,
a
> prison escapee heading ultimately to a shoot-out
with
> the cops hot on his trail.
>
> The initial DKA trilogy pits Kearney and his
staff
> against mobsters modeled on Jimmy "The
Weasel"
> Frattiano and his confederates.
>
> MENACED ASSASSIN pits an SFPD Organized
Crime
> specialist against a Syndicate hit man.
>
> Even the gypsies of the later DKA novels, for
all
> their tribal traditions and rituals, are
essentially
> nothing but professional thieves.
>
> The prevalence of pros in Gores's work will, in
the
> coming month, provide something of a counterpoint
to
> Cornell Woolrich, whose work is much more likely
to
> feature amateurs in both the heroic and
villainous
> roles.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 Feb 2008 EST