Sun 11 Sep 2011
ROBERT J. RANDISI – Hard Look. Miles Jacoby #5. Walker, hardcover, May 1993. No paperback edition.
Miles Jacoby owns a bar, now, after the death of his friend Packy, who willed it to him. He’s still a PI, though, and heads to Florida when a man shows him a postcard with the rear view of a fit and attractive young woman, and says it’s his missing wife.
The Mets are out of the playoffs, so why not? Then a man he had spotted following him in New York turns up dead in Tampa — in Jacoby’s hotel room. The ops are unhappy, ans so is Jacoby. Obviously, there’s a bit more to the case than a missing wife.
Randisi is getting better and more assured with his writing in each book. I haven’t liked the Jacoby books as well as the Brooklyn series with Nick Delvecchio, but I enjoyed this one considerably.
Randisi’s strengths are the likability of his characters and a very smooth narrative flow. The overall plot wasn’t bad, but I wish Randisi — and a number of other PI writers — would quit working cops into their stories in totally unrealistic ways.
Here, Jacoby and a cute, young, female Deputy hit it off rather well, and she chases around with him the rest of the book, flashing her badge at appropriate times to help him out. Bullshit. It’s just lazy plotting, and he’s better than that.
September 11th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I have not read this one, nor do I believe I own a copy, which is surprising (to me, at least).
I suspect that when the hardcover came out, I decided to wait for the paperback, and none ever came. And I forgot all about it, until now.
While I’ve been only mildly interested in Randisi’s adult westerns, and don’t collect them, I’ve always enjoyed his PI characters.
Barry mentioned Nick Delvecchio, who was in two novels back in the 1980s, but there was also an investigator for the New York Racing Commission named Henry Po, who was almost a PI (in all but name, I’d say).
Po was in only one book, The Disappearance of Penny (1980), while ex-boxer Miles Jacoby was in six, the last appearing in 1994.
September 12th, 2011 at 10:37 am
1994 – about the time woman writers started taking over the mystery field.
Now that Parker has passed, are there any male writers currently doing first person PI novels besides Pronzini? I can’t find any at the library, but the Riverside library system is second rate.
September 12th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Other than Bill Pronzini, I think the following males who write PI fiction are the best known (in no particular order):
Loren Estleman
Max Allan Collins
Robert Crais
Lawrence Block
Dennis Lehane
I cannot say with any certainty whether all (or any) of their PI work is first person.
Adding female authors to the mix (which of course is NOT what you asked!):
Sue Grafton
Sara Paretsky
Marcia Muller
Linda Barnes
S. J. Rozan
Who have I left out?
September 12th, 2011 at 10:58 am
As someone with a WIP (work in progress), I follow several agents, writers, and industry blogs. One of the more accepted pieces of advice is do not write in first person. It is much easier to write in third person. And as someone who is trying to write in first person, “they” are right about how hard it is.
The exception is the cozy, which is told in such first person they should put quotation mark at the beginning of the book and a quotation mark at the end.
EIGHTBALL BOOGIE by Declan Burke was the last one I read that used first person.
September 12th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Collins’ Nate Heller series, Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder series, and Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie/Gennaro series are all written in the first person. (Patrick Kenzie narrates the Kenzie/Gennaro series.)
I’ll check back later: I’m sure I can add more, if no-one else does….
September 12th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Thanks, Rick. I’ve just done some research on the other authors, to back up my own memory. What I’ve found, as opposed to the advice Michael has been given, is that all of them usually write their PI novels in first person, but I suspect that some or all of them try other approaches from time to time. For PI novels, though, it’s difficult to get away from it.
Bill Pronzini, first person for Nameless, third person for others in his agency
Robert Crais, first person
Loren Estleman, first person
Sue Grafton, mostly first person.
Sara Paretsky, first person
Marcia Muller, first person
Linda Barnes, first person
S. J. Rozan, alternates between two first person characters
If I’m wrong on any of the above, let me know.
September 13th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Me wrong, Steve? Why that hasn’t happened in at least fifteen minutes, no wait, I’m wrong, it has been…no, uh, after I post this comment.
September 14th, 2011 at 9:08 am
Well, OK, but I didn’t mean to suggest that you were wrong, Michael.
It’s just that maybe the advice you’ve been given doesn’t apply to PI fiction. (Whether this is good or bad, I’m not saying. It’s just the way it is, mostly.)