Sun 21 Jun 2015
MY FAVORITE PRIVATE EYE WRITERS, by Barry Gardner.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists[12] Comments
by Barry Gardner
Of all the subcategories of crime fiction, I suppose that hard-boiled private detective stories are my favorites, and I’m sure I read more of them than of any other. [As of the present day, June 1992] who’s the absolute best at writing them now? Gawd, I dunno. I do know that there are a lot of people writing them now, as the lists below will attest.
Just for the fun of it (all listmakers will understand) and my own edification, I thought I’d list those who currently write primarily in that area that I read regularly, and who almost always furnish me with a book at I enjoy, and often one that I like a great deal. What I ended up with were three groups of 10 each, ranked as groups, but listed alphabetically and unranked within each group. And the winners were:
Group 1:
Lawrence Block
Michael Collins
Loren Estleman
Stephen Greenleaf
Jeremiah Healy
Arthur Lyons
Marcia Muller
Bill Pronzini
Les Roberts
Jonathan Valin
Group 2:
Linda Barnes
Earl Emerson
Linda Grant
Sue Grafton
Rob Kantner
Michael Z. Lewin
John Lutz
Robert J. Randisi
William J. Reynolds
William G. Tapply
Group 3:
Marvin Albert
Peter Corris
Wayne Dundee
Timothy Hallinan
Paul Kemprecos
Jerry Kennealy
Edward Mathis
James E. Martin
Sara Paretsky
David M. Pierce
That my list is so large implies one of two things (I’m sure you’ll be able to guess which interpretation I prefer): either there are a hell of a lot of decent PI writers around today or I’m sadly deficient in discrimination. Also interesting is that 5 of the 30 are female, which I’d venture to say is higher than the distaff percentage of all PI writers. Does anyone have an idea of the actual breakdown?
Notable by his absence is Robert B. Parker, whom I like very much at his best, but who has been too uneven in output, and is just too, too bad when he’s bad. There must be at least a dozen others that I read fairly regularly, and heaven knows how many more that I’ve tried and discarded, or haven’t read yet. I hadn’t realized how many there were. Amazing.
I’d really be interested in hearing your opinions — who you‘d move up or down, who you’d put on or leave off, and/or any other thought that strikes you forcefully but non-lethally.
As long as I’m boiling ’em hard, a few more opinions:
The 5 most influential:
Dashiell Hammett
Raymond Chandler
Ross Macdonald
Mickey Spillane
Robert B. Parker
The above, to me, were no-brainers. Note that no comment on quality is intended, merely influence. It is impossible to read a book in the genre today without hearing distinct echoes of at least one of them, and often of several in the same book. I see very little of Hammett, really, but without him there wouldn’t have been Chandler, so–
The 5 best no longer writing :
Dashiell Hammett
Raymond Chandler
Ross Macdonald
Thomas B. Dewey
William Campbell Gault
I‘m reasonably comfortable with the first four, but there were several contenders for #5. I gave it to Gault because I felt he was more consistent over a large body of work. Browne, Brown, and Spicer were others I considered.
The 5 best newcomers (last 5 or 6 years):
Timothy Hallinan
Linda Grant
Wayne Dundee
Paul Kemprecos
James E. Martin
5 I’d like to see write some more:
Jack Lynch (Bragg)
Max Byrd (Mike Haller)
Joe Gores (DKA)
Timothy Harris (Thomas Kyd)
Doug Hornig (Loren Swift)
I know some of them have gone on to bigger and better things, but I particularly miss Gores, and thought Harris had real potential as a PI writer. I liked Lynch’s books more than most people did, and though Byrd and Hornig better than average.
It should be noted that I don’t consider John D. MacDonald, James Lee Burke, or A. E. Maxwell to be private eye writers, though I have seen all categorized as such in one place or another. All would be somewhere on some list if they were, particularly the first two.
Noted also among the missing is James Crumley, whom I unrepentantly continue to regard as a muddy plotter writing about unappetizing heroes (?), redeemed only by his erratically powerful prose. Another one whose writing I admire but who is nevertheless absent from all lists is Robert Crais. He’s a talented writer, and I’m hopeful he’ll outgrow his macho excesses as exemplified in Stalking the the Angel.
June 21st, 2015 at 5:37 pm
All time and most influential:
Hammett
Chandler
John Carrol Daly
Nebel
Whitfield
Paul Cain
Latimer
Cleve Adams
Robert Leslie Bellem
Kurt Steel
Rex Stout (and I’m prepared to argue his place on the list)
Erle Stanley Gardner
Beyond the Pulps:
Ross Macdonald
Mickey Spillane
Thomas B. Dewey
Brett Halliday
Stanley Ellin
William Ard
Leo Rosten
Bill Ballinger
Pure Entertainment:
Richard Prather
M.E. Chaber
Henry Kane
Frank Kane
the Ficklings
John B. West
Stephen Marlowe
Marvin Albert
The Second Coming:
Robert B. Parker (early)
James Crumley
Stephen Greenleaf
Sara Paretsky
Jerimiah Healey
Joe Gores
David Alexander
Joseph Hanson
Sue Grafton
Marcia Muller
Ron Goulart
Bill Pronzini
Max Allan Collins
Thomas Kyd
Dan Simmons
Michael Kortya
I’m afraid I’m behind on most of todays eye writers, but these are the ones on any list of mine. There are others I certainly enjoyed, few I reject entirely, but this is the list. Anyone who didn’t make the cut may have been on it at another time.
Some I read for entertainment and some influenced me as a writer in some way. Some I learned from, some I read like you eat popcorn.
June 21st, 2015 at 5:45 pm
Oh,boy, is this going to take some time and a few posts to completely respond to all of this.
First thought is how many of the names are not writing today or worst forgotten. And how many where my tastes have changed. In the 90s I was a big fan of Michael Z. Lewin and now I can’t make it through his books. I still like Lawrence Block but I liked him a lot more then. Today there are so many other writers I want to read instead of Block his stuff drifts down like my to-be-read pile has turned to quicksand.
Second, I was surprised by how many of my favorite writers have never written a PI novel and those who have are usually from the Black Mask era (Norbert Davis).
The PIs of that era I liked was Ross Spencer’s Chance Purdue and a few others I can’t remember. This century I liked Tim Maleeny’s Cape Weathers that lasted three books and vanished.
So maybe I am not the one to ask about great PIs in books.
June 21st, 2015 at 7:01 pm
I very much agree with the inclusion of Peter Corris, sadly neglected because he happens to be Australian. I would have ranked him higher though.
June 21st, 2015 at 7:04 pm
…so neglected that I believe this is the very first time his name has appeared on this auspicious blog!
June 21st, 2015 at 8:12 pm
I don’t know why Rex Stout wasn’t on Barry’s list, unless he didn’t consider Wolfe and Archie hard-boiled enough. (I’m reading the very first line of his paragraph of introduction.)
David A.
You’re right about Peter Corris. This is the first he’s been mentioned on this blog. I’ve read a couple of his books, too. I bought all of the Gold Medal ones that were reprinted in this county, and liked them well enough that I bought a couple that were published only in Australia. That wasn’t easy back then, before the Internet came along.
June 21st, 2015 at 8:18 pm
There are two of Barry’s authors I wouldn’t have included on any list I might have made back in 1992, Paul Kemprecos and Max Byrd. I sampled both and didn’t care for the work of either. It’s all a matter of taste of course, and there were plenty of other authors to choose from.
I’m glad to be reminded of Thomas B. Dewey, though. He was a big favorite of mine at one time, but I haven’t thought of him in quite a while.
June 22nd, 2015 at 4:39 pm
Kemprecos, Byrd, and Haller would not have made my list, but I forgot about Corris, who would have. Leo Malet’s Nestor Burma as well and Basil Copper’s Miles Tripp by Mike Farraday.
Today, J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike would make my list certainly, though only mildly hard boiled. I did leave off M.V. Herberden, whose Charles Leonard titles were as tough as they come.
Dewey gets left out all too often, both his often brilliant Mac (Robinson) stories, and the lighter Pete Schofield tales. I left out Gault which was an oversight.
June 22nd, 2015 at 5:08 pm
David, Did you mean Basil Copper’s Mike Faraday and (perhaps) Miles Tripp’s John Samson. Don’t think I’ve ever read any of the latter.
June 22nd, 2015 at 5:12 pm
I am a little surprised, but not a whole lot, by the fact that many of the authors in Barry’s lists are still writing. I read about Bill Pronzini’s latest Nameless novel (VIXEN, published tomorrow) on Ed Gorman’s blog, and when I looked for it on Amazon I was sidetracked into buying Peter Corris’s 40th Cliff Hardy novel, SILENT KILL. That leaves over 30 of them that I don’t have. That’s what happens when you’re not paying attention.
June 23rd, 2015 at 2:39 pm
Over at Kirkus Review J. Kingston Pierce (The Rap Sheet) has a timely review of the current state of the PI in fiction.
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/eye-pis-gumshoe-fiction-still-alive-and-thriving/
I am still trying to understand why my reading patterns does not match my love for the PI character. I think it was when the eccentric cop such as Columbo appeared the need of the independent detective being a PI disappeared. For example if the TV series JUSTIFIED had been done in the DRAGNET cop by the rules era Raylan would have been a PI. Cops in series such as MIAMI VICE could have been PIs with the only difference less believability (such as it was for VICE).
June 23rd, 2015 at 6:28 pm
Thanks for the link, Michael. I hadn’t seen it before. The Internet is so vast now, no one can keep up without help.
I see Pierce mentions the next of Ace Atkins’ erstaz-Spenser books. Atkins does an OK job of following in Parker’s footsteps, but I read the first one he did and wondered to myself, why did I spend time on this, when I haven’t read all of Parker’s own novels yet.
June 23rd, 2015 at 7:46 pm
I had tired of Spenser when Parker was still writing them so I have no interest in Atkins version.
Robert B. Parker seems to me to be over criticized. Granted he wrote with the speed of a pulp writer and it sometime showed but he played a major role in keeping the PI relevant.
My major problem with the Spenser books was the publisher kept re-releasing the old titles with new covers until I had no idea if it was new, one of the older ones I had not read or if I already owned it. After a couple of duplicate purchases I stopped buying them.