FROM JACK REACHER TO SHERLOCK HOLMES THE ENDURING POWER OF PREQUELS “LET’S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING” Those of you humming the song that begins with the title of this piece will likely know the next line is “A very good place to start…” but, for us authors, that’s usually not true. Think about […]
Category Archives: Detectives
The Legacy of Raymond Chandler (Part II)
The Legacy of Raymond Chandler Part II A ‘Lost’ Generation, Found: Raymond Chandler’s Legacy Although physical violence and brutality have always existed as important facets of crime fiction, the early pioneers of the genre created a style of writing in which acts of violence came to symbolize the ugliness and unpredictability of society. In his […]
The Legacy of Raymond Chandler (Part I)
The Legacy of Raymond Chandler A ‘Lost’ Generation, Found: Raymond Chandler’s Legacy Many 20th-century writers, particularly in the post-Vietnam era, cite Raymond Chandler as one of their main influences. Inspired by his self-consciousness within the genre and his desire to understand and explore the confines of the form, contemporary writers took their lead from Chandler’s […]
Top Ten Detective Duos
It Takes Two To Make a Thing Go Right: Ten Great Detective Duos “No matter how a man alone ain’t got no bloody f**king chance.” — Ernest Hemingway So let’s talk a moment about detective teams, detective duos, detective buddies. However you want to call them. They’re interesting to me and I like them and […]
Philip Marlowe’s Norwegian cousin
Philip Marlowe’s Norwegian cousin When I set out to write my first novel about Varg Veum, a private investigator living in Bergen, Norway, I had to ask myself this question: Are there any private detectives in Bergen? The answer was no. At that time—my first Varg Veum novel was published in 1977—there was a married […]
Top Ten Agatha Christie Novels
Top Ten Agatha Christie Novels (Author Radha Vastal with her the top ten Agatha Christie novels has some surprises for us, but nevertheless gives us a list of books which captures the genius of the Queen of Mystery) This list was pleasurably difficult to compile—Agatha Christie wrote around eighty novels over half a century, so […]
Dr. Watson on Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Watson on Sherlock Holmes A Californian writes as a Victorian physician in her new Sherlock Holmes Adventure – ART IN THE BLOOD. Of the many challenges faced in writing as Dr. John Watson, perhaps the most intriguing was that of simulating a medical doctor. We all know the character of Dr. John H. Watson, […]
Private Lives of Great Detectives: From Sherlock Holmes to Spenser
Private Lives of Great Detectives: From Sherlock Holmes to Spenser In 1973, I met another one-name tough guy via paperback and began following him, this one a Boston P.I. named Spenser. Robert B. Parker “grounded” Spenser by making him a former lieutenant during the Korean War, as Parker had been. The Spenser character already had […]
