I also fail to understand why Coleman isn't more popular. I
have read his latest, and it's up to his usual high
standards. I recently reviewed it on my blog (I usually don't
link to my blog, but I'm too pressed for time to rewrite my
thoughts on the book just now.) He picked up a bucket load of
awards for The James Deans, but that didn't really seem to
boost his profile all that much.
http://indiecrime.blogspot.com/2008/03/review-of-empty-ever-after.html
On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Jack Bludis <
buildsnburns@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've been on this list three, four, maybe even five
years and I'm not sure
> that I've ever seen Reed Farrel Coleman's name
mentioned here.
>
> He's hard boiled, but not noir, which may be the
reason. Even though the
> group is named for Hammett's rare bird, it seems
that the relentless fall of
> the noir character and their author's exploration of
the incomplete mind of
> amoral characters is the major thrust on
rara_avis--not at criticism, just
> an observation.
>
> I have not read Reed Coleman's latest, but his last
two--THE JAMES DEANS and
> SOUL PATCH--are two of the best private eye books
that I've read in recent
> years. His character, Moe Prager, is an ex-cop who
is not an alcoholic, not
> a bastard, married relatively happily, and makes a
decent living as a
> wine-shop owner, but because he regrets that he
never got the "gold shield"
> he deserved when he was one of New York's finest, he
is also a private
> detective when the proper case strikes
him.
>
> His books put his lead character in the recent past
but always flash back
> further to a time many of us of a certain age
remember fondly, if we
> remember it at all--1970s.
>
> His character is a truly decent guy. Coleman doesn't
need to state his
> philosophy the way Chandler seemed compelled to
do--Moe lives it.
>
> In Coleman's SOUL PATCH, which has been nominated
for a number of awards,
> the apparent suicide of a former associate--if not
quite a friend--leads him
> to explore what may have caused it. He ends up
digging into the past not
> only of the "friend," but into his own past and the
past of many of his
> other "friends."
>
> If you were youngish in the 70s, you'll feel the
nostalgia. If you weren't,
> you'll learn what is was "something
like."
>
> Coleman does what others tell me Ross MacDonald did
with the past, but
> somehow I never got through Ross MacDonald's figures
of speech well enough
> to understand what he was driving at.
>
> I understand Moe Prager. Coleman is a prose-poet
without the extended
> similes.
>
> Jack Bludis
>
> PS: Last year, Coleman's THE JAMES DEANS, was not
only nominated for most of
> the awards--it won them.
>
>
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