OMG

[Eddie Love]

Just listened to this one. A show that name-checks Matt Scudder and the long lost ever unheralded Tanner, not to mention...Mongo! I've never actually met anyone else who read the Mongo books. God, they were fun. R.I.P Chesbro.

But, Tanner On Ice the newest Tanner was a good one.

[tombitd]

Oct 2, 2009 19:07:34 GMT -5 Eddie Love said:

Just listened to this one. A show that name-checks Matt Scudder and the long lost ever unheralded Tanner, not to mention...Mongo! I've never actually met anyone else who read the Mongo books. God, they were fun. R.I.P Chesbro.

But, Tanner On Ice the newest Tanner was a good one.

I've actually never read Tanner on Ice, but I love those books immensely--particularly how, certain things like the Expo '67 setting nonwithstanding, timeless they were.

And I am such a fan of the Mongo books, and have been ever since I saw the cover to the 80's paperback re-release of The Beasts of Valhalla...when I was asked to name five random items including a book on Facebook recently, that was the book I namechecked.

[Eddie Love]

I also love the Tanner books as well as Block's Burglar series, because they accomplish what I think is one of the hardest things for a writer to do well which is create an effective "caper." ---books where the reader invests their time in a light-hearted tale (as opposed to something like Block's grittier Scudder fare) but where the plot is substantial enough you don't feel cheated (like one does with the Flint / Helm movies.) These books aren't mindless, jokey pastiches. They're lightweight, yet filling. Lawrence Sanders was another master at this who could alternate between landmark crime novels like The First Deadly Sin and later his great Archy McNally Palm Beach series which are witty gems. Another, of course is Donald Westlake who was mentioned by Derrick on this same show and wrote both the Hunter (mean) and Dortmunder (fun) books.

[tombitd]

Oct 2, 2009 23:57:23 GMT -5 Eddie Love said:

I also love the Tanner books as well as Block's Burglar series, because they accomplish what I think is one of the hardest things for a writer to do well which is create an effective "caper." ---books where the reader invests their time in a light-hearted tale (as opposed to something like Block's grittier Scudder fare) but where the plot is substantial enough you don't feel cheated (like one does with the Flint / Helm movies.) These books aren't mindless, jokey pastiches. They're lightweight, yet filling. Lawrence Sanders was another master at this who could alternate between landmark crime novels like The First Deadly Sin and later his great Archy McNally Palm Beach series which are witty gems. Another, of course is Donald Westlake who was mentioned by Derrick on this same show and wrote both the Hunter (mean) and Dortmunder (fun) books.

As someone who has been trying to work on a project that is caper-y for several years, I can certainly appreciate and admire how difficult it is to effectively create an engaging novel of that sort.

It's funny that you evoke the name of Saunders, who I think has undeservedly drifted into the mists of obscurity after his death. There was a large period in high school and college where I worshipped the man and read everything I could get my hands on. He may not have been the most artistic author, but he knew how to tell a story and keep the pages turning.

Oh...and don't be surprised if, in a future episode, I end up going on a rant about how Westlake should find the idiots who made the remake of The Stepfather and kick them repeatedly in the crotch for how they showed contempt for his incredibly well-crafted love-letter to Hitchcock.

[Eddie Love]

I recall at the time of his death someone in the publishing world marveled at the fact that Sanders had bestsellers in just about every sub-genre of the crime field. Perhaps being as prolific or reliable made him seem less remarkable -- "Ho-hum, another expert Sanders book. Yawn." He's owed more props -- I don't think there would have been a Red Dragon if there wasn't a First Deadly Sin. You should definitely check out his last series, the McNally books. They are a Wodehousian private eye series set in Palm Beach that border on the "cozy" side but are just delicious. After his death another writer kept churning these out with Sanders name prominently on the cover but that magic light touch was missing. I took a couple of these with me on a trip to the beach recently and found reading them to be kind of depressing.

[tombitd]

Oct 3, 2009 10:19:33 GMT -5 Eddie Love said:

I recall at the time of his death someone in the publishing world marveled at the fact that Saunders had bestsellers in just about every sub-genre of the crime field. Perhaps being as prolific or reliable made him seem less remarkable -- "Ho-hum, another expert Saunders book. Yawn." He's owed more props -- I don't think there would have been a Red Dragon if there wasn't a First Deadly Sin. You should definitely check out his last series, the McNally books. They are a Wodehousian private eye series set in Palm Beach that border on the "cozy" side but are just delicious. After his death another writer kept churning these out with Saunders name prominently on the cover but that magic light touch was missing. I took a couple of these with me on a trip to the beach recently and found reading them to be kind of depressing.

Well, living in New York City, The First Deadly Sin was something of a sensation around the time The Son of Sam was on his killing spree. I read the serialized version in the Post, then tracked down the sequels, then tracked down lots more that he wrote...Hell, in Junior high I conned an English teacher to let me do a 'reading diary' as an assignment while I read through one of Saunders' political thriller.

He really drove home to me the nature of good plotting.

[Derrick]

Oct 2, 2009 19:07:34 GMT -5 Eddie Love said:

Just listened to this one. A show that name-checks Matt Scudder and the long lost ever unheralded Tanner, not to mention...Mongo! I've never actually met anyone else who read the Mongo books. God, they were fun. R.I.P Chesbro.

But, Tanner On Ice the newest Tanner was a good one.

You just never know what you're gonna hear on BiTD, do ya?

George C. Chesbro was and continues to be a big influence on my own writing as he taught me not to be afraid to mix elements of different genres in one story. Such as the MONGO series which combined hard-boiled detective, horror and science fiction in a dazzling combo.