I picked up at random a book from the crime section of the local library: "School Days" by Robert B. Parker (I wonder if the "B" is a name or, like Edward G. Robinson's "G" a pretend name to give him, what he thought, a distinctive mysteriousness).
A good writer, this Robert B. Parker: short sharp sentences with not much description between the lines of dialogue, the sort of writing that make detective novels worth spending time with.
Why is it that the American crime writers excel? Their heroes are tough guys, not like a lot of English detectives - either nasty coppers or languid, thoughtful, intellectually inclined fellows from "good" families. Or Belgians!
Parker, apparently, did a study of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald for his Ph D thesis. Later he was asked by Chandler's estate to complete one of Chandler's unfinished novels.
Did you know that the main killers in all Chandler's novels are women?
Chandler said that if the action is flagging in a novel he "brings a man on with a gun".
What'll they do over there if the gun lobby wins? No more of their excellent crime novels?
A two pipe problem there I think.
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