For a blog that was supposed to be about crime fiction, the subject hasn’t come up much lately. If you’re one of my eight or so regular readers, it must seem that all I do these days is cruise the news sites in search of current events to be snide or self-righteous about. As it turns out, that’s pretty accurate. I’m in one of those phases where I think I may stop doing this.
But my brother Mike recently visited, and as always brought with him a stack of crime novels. I’ve been been going through them one by one. So far, the standout of the lot is the Canadian writer Giles Blunt. Naturally, I’d never heard of him. Now I’ve read two of his books: Black Fly Season and Forty Words for Sorrow. They both involve a Canadian detective plying his trade in northern Ontario, where the cold is as strong a character as any of the people.
The thing about crime fiction: It must adhere to certain unspoken conventions of the genre, at the same time giving the reader something different enough to distinguish the book from its thousands of brethren. Blunt’s protagonist, John Cardinal, is a lot like other fictional detectives: Terse, driven, a marriage on shaky ground, a bit of sexual tension with a coworker. But his setting, the frigid town of Algonquin Bay, drives the characters in memorable and believable ways. Sitting here in Florida, where it’s predicted to hit 90 later in the week, I like reading about Canadian cold places. I see Giles Blunt has at least three other books in this series; maybe I’ll save the rest for summer. That’s when I’ll need them the most.
It could be worse.
Of books and demolition
History for dummies. And dollars.
A detective and his devices
James Bond for the beach
I should write a semi-autobiographical novel about a Canadian guy who winds up stuck in Philadelphia. I could call it Yo, Canada!
Blunt is good, and if you have a hankering for more good Canadian crime fiction, I recommend the excellent John McFetridge, especially his new Tumblin’ Dice.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
Hey, Peter. I’d forgotten, or never knew, that you hail from Canada. Sometimes I wish I could say the same.
I’ll definitely check out this McFetridge character.
Here are the posts I’ve made about McFetridge: http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20McFetridge They include a throughtful, stimulating interview I did with him a few years ago. The first chapter of his latest book is available somewhere, either on his site of mine. You’re a stolid, self-contained man if you don’t laugh out loud at the opening.
I’ve also read a collection called Masters of Noir: Volume One, full of stories from the ’50s by people like McBain, Day Keane, Bruno Fischer, Fletcher. What a twisted, weird, oveheated decade the ’50s were.
Just ordered Tumblin’ Dice. Looks like my kind of book.
Yikes, I left out half of one of crime fiction’s great names. That should be Fletcher Flora in the post above.
For a second there, I thought you were referring to the Fletch books by Gregory McDonald. All is now clear.
Someone who knows more than I do about that period in American crime fiction tells me that “Fletcher Flora” was the guy’s real name. That’s quite a handle. I say “Fletcher Flora” sounds more like the two-fisted hero of a series of early Black Mask tales later collected in book form as Fletcher Flora, Tough Guy
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
I checked out the opening pages of “Black Fly Season” on Amazon, and it piqued my interest. Thanks for the recommendation.
Here’s another book you might find strangely compelling: http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2012/04/charles-portis-nonfiction.html
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
I’ve read Dog of the South at least four times. It’s a comic masterpiece. Right up there with Lucky Jim.
I have a bit of work to do that may take me a couple of days. Then I will reuse Dog of the South. Good god, not only does the book have an ex-copy-editor protagonist, but an ex-copy-editors protagonist created by an ex-reporter author. Who would have expected a reporter to be so acutely observant and un-self-absorbed and capable of such an imaginative leap?
Fortunately, he saw the error of his ways (as to being a reporter, that is). I just wish he’d written more books.
Back to Dog of the South: It’s all pretty funny, but any single monologue by Dr. Symes (and there are quite a few) is worth the price of the book. Let me know what you think. I’m also a big fan of Masters of Atlantis.
Resume, not reuse — a prefect example of why Apple’s auto-correct feature will never replace copy editors. Oh, wait. You mean it already has?