Tue 13 Mar 2012
Reviewed by Marv Lachman: W. GLENN DUNCAN – Rafferty: Poor Dead Cricket.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
W. GLENN DUNCAN – Rafferty: Poor Dead Cricket. Gold Medal, paperback original, 1988.
Poor Dead Cricket is the third in a series about Rafferty, a Dallas private eye. Having propounded many of Lachman’s Laws myself, including the first, “Never read a book with a Swastika on the cover,” which Jon Breen once quoted in EQMM, I was glad to see that Duncan thinks similarly, and he gives many of Rafferty’s Rules, such as (#39) “Smiting the wicked sounds biblical, but mostly it’s just good clean fun.”
So is this book, about a decent, albeit wise-cracking detective who gets involved in an environmental case similar to the one involving Karen Silkwood. Rafferty does an excellent job in reconstructing the character of Cricket Dawes, who is killed before the book begins, and he sorts out the good and bad people while nicely imparting the flavor of Texas and its speech.
Vol. 11, No. 1, Winter 1989.
The Rafferty series —
Rafferty’s Rules (1987) Film: Cinepix, 1992, as Snake Eater III: His Law.
Last Seen Alive (1987)
Poor Dead Cricket (1988)
Wrong Place, Wrong Time (1989)
Cannon’s Mouth (1990)
Fatal Sisters (1990) [Winner, Shamus award, Best Paperback Original, 1991]
Some of Rafferty’s Rules are listed here on the Thrilling Detective website. Here are a couple of good ones:
11. To feel really dumb, be a smart ass once too often.
16. When you can’t tell the bad guys from the good guys, it’s time to get the hell out.
March 13th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Six books in four years and then nothing. They came out faster than I could read them. I bought them all as they came out, but as I recall, I read only one of them.
I planned to read more, but by then, more private eye books by other writers came along, and I never read all of theirs, either.
March 14th, 2012 at 7:30 am
I picked up the first three books when I read a review of one last year – can’t remember if it was here or on Bill Crider’s blog – but I haven’t read any of them yet.
Maybe this will give me the push to start.
January 6th, 2016 at 1:40 am
Good to see that people still remember Rafferty.
W. Glenn Duncan is my father and I remember well his furious writing days–the thrill of breaking through to have Rafferty’s Rules published, to be followed quickly by the next five stories. He was prolific!
Unfortunately he’s not writing any more, but I’ve taken up the mantle and there is a first draft of a brand-new Rafferty novel (still set in Dallas in the mid-eighties) fermenting nicely on my bookshelf. Rough goals are to have it revised and rewritten by mid-year and be approaching agents to help find it a home before the end of the year.
Watch this space.
Bill
http://www.billduncanonline.com