Two weeks from today is Georges Simenon Day on FFB. Let me know if you would like to do a review of one of his works here if you don't have a blog.
Friday, October 12 will be Agatha Christie Day. (I will be away the two Fridays before that so I pushed it ahead a bit.) I am thinking of Ed McBain and Patricia Highsmith after that although I am open to a writer from another genre should he have a adequate back list for us.
The Assistant, Bernard Malamud
Malamud was certainly one of the favorite writers of my youth and this is my favorite of his novels. Although a good case can be made for the stories collected in THE MAGIC BARREL.
In this one, an elderly grocer is an anachronism in his neighborhood. Business is bad. After a robbery, he takes a fellow up on his offer to serve as his assistant. Frank is actually one of the robbers and his attempts to ameliorate his crime go astray when he becomes involved with the grocer's daughter.
This is a dark book. Its great strength lies in its portrait of a man wrestling with his inclination to do evil and its portrait of the Jewish community of the 1950s in New York City.
Although THE NATURAL probably won Malamud his fame, this book written in 1957 is just as satisfying without the supernatural elements.
Ed Gorman is the author of the Sam McCain and Dev Conrad series. He also writes short stories, westerns and edits anthologies. You can find him here.
Hard Man by Alan Guthrie
Allan Guthrie's Hard Man is actually a couple of books, both of them excellent. Th
ere's the storyline with Pearce, the Guthrie man we've met before, avenging the murder of his dog in a serio-comic (and occasionaly black comic) pursuit of a lunatic named Wallace. And then there's Edinburugh, the city where it's set, itself.
The violence of the story plays well against the violence of the city, which Guthrie manages to make seem much smaller than does Ian Rankin. This is because Guthrie and his multiple cast of characters all inhabit a very small psychological (if not physical) section of the city. If Rankin's cop is looking for something resembling truth, Guthrie's characters are looking for nothing more than satisfying the immediate needs of their rather amusingly diseased minds. Jim Thompson with the heebie-jeebies.
This is a quick, compelling novel that proves that Guthrie is as restless as his characters. I don't think he's a writer who'll settle for doing the same book over and over. This is a calculated and successful departure from his first two books. Interesting to speculate on what he'll do next. Harcourt/Otto Penzler
ere's the storyline with Pearce, the Guthrie man we've met before, avenging the murder of his dog in a serio-comic (and occasionaly black comic) pursuit of a lunatic named Wallace. And then there's Edinburugh, the city where it's set, itself.The violence of the story plays well against the violence of the city, which Guthrie manages to make seem much smaller than does Ian Rankin. This is because Guthrie and his multiple cast of characters all inhabit a very small psychological (if not physical) section of the city. If Rankin's cop is looking for something resembling truth, Guthrie's characters are looking for nothing more than satisfying the immediate needs of their rather amusingly diseased minds. Jim Thompson with the heebie-jeebies.
This is a quick, compelling novel that proves that Guthrie is as restless as his characters. I don't think he's a writer who'll settle for doing the same book over and over. This is a calculated and successful departure from his first two books. Interesting to speculate on what he'll do next. Harcourt/Otto Penzler
Yvette Banek
Joe Barone
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Curt Evans
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
Nick Jones and Nick Jones
George Kelley
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis/Barry Gardner
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
David RachelsJames Reasoner
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Bill Selnes
Michael Slind
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang
TomCat
Prashant Trikkanad
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