I don't see a whole lot of similarities between Williams & Willeford most of the time. just in "The Big Bite", because of the psychology & voice of the main character, which reminded me of typical Willeford characters like James Figeroa in "Burnt Orange Heresy" or Russell Haxby in "High Priest" or Hank in "Shark Infested Custard". of all the Williams I've read, this book in particular would appeal to Willeford fans.
my other fave Williams books are the sea-going suspense novels, particularly "Dead Calm", but "Scorpion Reef" "Aground" and "Sailcloth Shroud" are all really great. just unique in the greater confines of the genre.
Tom Armstrong
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Stewart Wilson <stewart@...> wrote:
>
> I like Williams too. For me he is close to Willeford, but I find
> Willeford has an irony in his writing that is absent from Williams (or
> more likely, it's probably there but I can't detect it) which keeps
> Willeford at the top of my list. To be fair, I've read most of
> Willeford (including the Broward Country Library manuscript of
> Grimhaven), but only a few Williams. I recently read the soon to be
> published 'Filthy Rich' graphic novel by Brian Azzarello and Victor
> Santos. It was strongly reminiscent of Williams because it takes
> place in the fifties and the main character is an ex football player
> car salesman who becomes a bag man for a rich heiress. It's no
> Williams unfortunately (how can you invoke comparison and not suffer
> as a result) but still a good read. The biggest problem for me these
> days is that Williams books are hard to find.
>
> --Stewart
>
> On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Jeff Vorzimmer<jvorzimmer@...> wrote:
> > I think Williams is a better writer than John D MacDonald (so did he), Gil Brewer, Jim Thompson or Charles Willeford.
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> >> Tom wrote:
> >> "man I really dug "The Big Bite". it reminded me of Willeford in a way,. . ."
> >> Now that's high praise in my book. I just moved it to the top of my TBR pile. I must admit, I've only read one Williams, the recent A Touch of Death.
>
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