----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Burton Smith" <kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com>
> Which
> is why, I think, so few of them mention humour initially, and it's
> rarely mentioned as a big selling point in blurbs (Al's HARD MAN being
> an exception, evidently).
I thought I should check, just to make sure I had my facts straight... If
you're going by what the copy says on the cover of the books, HARD MAN was
never marketed as noir. The UK advance copy mentions 'hardboiled crime'
fiction and the copy that went to press states: '... absurdity rules the
landscape ... the humour is jet black.' The only mention of it being even a
crime novel is in a blurb that states it's 'one of the best crime novels...'
(sans sub-genre qualifier).
In the US, the advance copy (which is the one you saw) mentions only that
I'm a crime writer and that the book is 'viciously funny'. The finished copy
refers to 'gruesomeness and black comedy'. That's it, in terms of
genre/humour claims.
A lot of reviewers called it noir, however, and what reviewers say tends to
stick.
For the record, my next book, SLAMMER, is noir. No doubt, no argument. Well,
not from me, at least.
Al
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