Richard & Mario, I read her HARD EVIDENCE (a Cat Marsala
mystery) a while back. IIRC, HE is set in Chicago, where BD
is from. Perhaps not hardboiled, HE has sinister ele- ments
(human flesh packaged and sold at your local grocer) and the
writing is fine. She includes recipes but, as you can
imagine, with a macabre twist.
Ed
--- Richard Moore <
moorich@aol.com> wrote:
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "jacquesdebierue"
> <jacquesdebierue@...> wrote:
> >
> > Last night I picked up one of the Best Mystery
Stories
> annual
> > collections (this one guest edited by Westlake)
and read a
> fantastic
> > story (titled Motel 66) by this author. Which
of her novels
> would
> the
> > readership here recommend? Though the name is
very familiar,
> I had
> > never read anything by D'Amato.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > mrt
> >
>
> I am a great admirer of Barbara D'Amato's short
fiction but
> must
> confess that I have not read any of her novels.
However, I
> can pass
> along the opinion of Jon Breen, a critic with whom I
am almost
> always
> in agreement. In the Fall 1993 issue of The
Armchair
> Detective,
> Breen favorably reviewed D'Amato's novel HARD WOMEN
(Scribner
> 1993)
> saying "The series about Chicago journalist Cat
Marsala is one
> of the
> best to debut in recent years, marked by lively
telling,
> clever
> plotting, and the fruits of extensive authorial
research."
>
> The year before in The Armchair Detective, Allen
Hubin,
> another
> critic I respect but whose opinions are slightly
less in sync
> with
> mine than Breen's, reviewed the 1991 novel HARD TACK
and said
> he had
> early problems with the character Cat Marsala but
D'Amato's
> skill
> eventually won his approval.
>
> D'Amato had another series character Dr. Gerritt
DeGraff, a
> forensic
> pathologist prior to the Cat Marsala
novels.
>
> Thanks for pointing her out as the reminder is
enough to keep
> me
> alert for one of her novels. I certainly know her to
be a
> fine
> writer through her short fiction.
>
> Richard Moore
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 16 May 2008 EDT