♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Returning to the discussion-cum-parlor game we started yesterday, I’ll toss out a couple questions on American mystery fiction, throw out a couple starting points, and see where it goes.
Again, these are all written in ‘present company excepted’ terms. Feel free to talk about the locals if you like, though.
3. Who’s the best hard-boiled American writer of the last half-century?
Other than Westlake, whose Parker put him in the game, and his friend Lawrence Block, some of whose Matt Scudder novels are brilliant, I’ll throw out George P. Pelecanos, maybe because I’m a native Washingtonian, and his D.C.-based books resonate with me. He’s a master of dialogue and pacing, and his plots are good (though his last few books have left a little to be desired, in my opinion). His flipping back and forth decades in the same fictive D.C. is quite impressive as well.
(*cough*Klavan*cough*)
4. Who’s the best comic American mystery writer of the last half-century?
Putting aside Westlake and Block (whose Burglar books are really fun), I’d nominate the relatively (and unfairly) obscure Parnell Hall. Lately Hall’s mostly been writing funny, ascerbic “cozies” about “The Puzzle Lady” (a splenetic septuagenarian who can’t do a lick of the crossword puzzles her picture goes next to in the paper), but they’re not his best work, which is a series of novels centered around Stanley Hastings, an underemployed actor turned private detective. His work is mostly photographing cracks in sidewalks the slip-and-fall cases his primary employer, a tort lawyer, makes his living off. Things then get complicated—and funny. They can be hard to find, but they’re worth looking for. (A little less typically, his Cozy is a really amusing post-modern take on that sub-genre.)
Carl Hiaasen‘s books aren’t mysteries, per se, more “therapy so Carl Hiassen can kill people he thinks are ruining his native Florida,” but they often have crime and they’re often hilarious. I bring this up to emphasize his Double Whammy is one of the funniest books of the past few decades, full stop.
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♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬
*Nobody? No one was watching pretentious French movies in the ’80s but me?
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Sep '10
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Though most of his stuff was written more than fifty years ago, I,d say Jim Thompson. Westlake was a very good writer. I also like Pelecanos, with the same reservations. Though I don't know that I'd call them hard-boiled, I loved 70's and '80's vintage Elmore Leonard and all of George V. Higgins. I also like Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight books. But the best, bleakest and most violent novel I've read lately is "No Country For Old Men."
Though only a mystery in the loosest possible definition of the term, the funniest American novel I've read is "Masters of Atlantis" by Charles Portis.
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Can't really answer the second, but for the first, my pick is Richard Price. Read the prologue of Lush Life; then bow down in awe.
May '10
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Put me down as a big fan of Loren Estleman. I'm not sure which category I'd put him in. There are some analogies to Block's Scudder series (which I also enjoy very much) but the dialogues in Estleman's books (Amos Walker series, he also writes a boatload of Westerns that I have not read) are special.
I also think Walter Mosley had a good series with Easy Rawlins. He seems to have gone on to other things that I find less interesting.
If you have a Part Three on historical mysteries, count me in for more comments.
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Thanks for bringing up Pelecanos. I was going to mention him in your previous post and I think he's underrated.
I can't quite tell how much of it is because I live in DC, but his are great reads.
Apr '11
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Carl Hiaasen is a favorite around our house.
Mar '11
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
I also like Pelecanos although, like Mollie, I suspect that his evocation of the vanished DC of the 1960s is a large part of his appeal to me. At the risk of sounding monomaniacal on the subject, George V. Higgins gets my nod for best hard-boiled. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is his best-known novel, in part because of the excellent Peter Yates film of the same name, but all his books are a treat. Sadly, most of them are hard to find, although a few are beginning to show up in recorded form on Audible.com, a great way to experience his dialogue-driven plots.
Aug '10
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Amen sister!
I highly recommended this interview from Bookworm, especially his reading of the Junkie's Aria beginning at minute 22.
It's really a treat.
Jun '10
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
My pick may not be as hard-boiled as you like and his books may be on the edge of the half-century mark, but for my money there's no better private eye than Lew Archer (he's a creation of Ross MacDonald). As I mentioned yesterday, if you don't read The Chill you're denying yourself a real treat.
Funny mystery writers? I thought Westlake had a monopoly.
May '11
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
A comedy crime writer who is terrific is Laurence Shames, sort of a cross between Leonard Elmore and Dave Barry as his stories are set in South Florida. Dennis Lehane started out as a terrific hard boiled crime writer but seems to want to move into a different direction.
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Ah, you make me jump in! I love Shames, but I don't think he's written a novel under his own name in a decade.
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
Basil brought up George V. Higgins, who’s great. All due praise to him, but I actually think Gregory Mcdonald does the all-dialogue trick better, though gets less credit because his Fletch and Flynn novels are often hilarious, and therefore less-obviously lit’ry. How did I not mention him when talking about funny mysteries? Clearly I’m winging this. Pay no attention to the inattentive man behind the curtain…
Oct '10
Re: ♬ It’s Only Mystery, But I Like It ♬* Part Two
On #3, I'll second the vote for Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar). He was a worthy successor to Chandler and Hammett. His Lew Archer books beautifully chronicled the dark side of 60's and 70's California. My favorite is also The Chill, with The Zebra Striped Hearse a close second.