The logical question for David Geherin is: Where are the daughters of Sam Spade? No Sue Grafton, no Sara Paretsky, no Marcia Muller. And, did Sam Spade only have three sons in the Seventies?
David Gerherin does a nice job with his choices of the three Private Eye novelists from the 1970s: Robert B. Parker, Roger L. Simon, and Andrew Bergman. Sons of Sam Spade was published by Unger in 1980. No Joseph Hansen, whose Dave Brandstetter–a gay private eye–broke new ground in the 1970s. No Lawrence Block with his unconventional private eye, Matthew Scudder. And, don’t forget that Ross Macdonald published three Lew Archer mysteries in the 1970s.
If you’re a fan of the Private Eye genre, you’ll enjoy this brief survey of three popular writers of the 1970s. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments — vii
Introduction — 1
ROBERT B. PARKER –5
The Godwulf Manuscript — 9
God Save the Child — 23
Mortal Stakes — 39
Promised Land — 54
The Judas Goat — 69
ROGER L. SIMON — 83
The Big Fix — 86
Wild Turkey –– 101
Peking Duck –– 115
ANDREW BERGMAN — 129
The Big Kiss-Off of 1944 — 130
Hollywood and LeVine — 140
Notes — 155
Bibliography — 159
Index — 163
Does anyone read Simon or Bergman anymore? Block’s first Scudder books in the ’70s were PB originals, so they may have fallen under the radar. The focus on the newcomers of the ’70s seems like ancient history now. The’ 80s brought James Lee Burke’s Robichaux and Max Allan Collins’ Nate Heller, then the ’90s with Crais, Lansdale, Lehane, and Pelicanos. Who am I missing?
Estleman, DeAndrea, Shutz, Harold Adams, Willeford, Crumley, Pronzini, Lutz, Gault, Healey, Kantner, Emerson…I could go on.
Jerry, I discovered Private Eye fiction in the 1960s reading Mike Shayne DELL mysteries with those gorgeous McGinnis covers. I moved on to Carter Brown and Frank Kane and Ross Macdonald. Then, in the 1970s, I found Pronzini and Marcia Muller and Estleman and Crumley. By the 1990s, I was being booed at the EyeCon in Milwaukee for announcing the Private Eye genre was dead. Cap’n Bob refereed the event!
Fred, as I hinted in my opening sentence, women private eyes showed up Big Time in the 1970s. And you’re right: who reads Simon or Begman any more? But they do read Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky!
Michael Lewin, Stephen Greenleaf, Arthur Lyons, Jonathan Valin, G.M. Ford, Earl Emerson,
Steve, I need to read more Jonathan Valin!
It changed Geherin to Gherkin up there. It’s a pickle how these things happen.
I read this one many years ago. Fred, Bergman brought LeVine back in TENDER IS LEVINE in 2012. Not as good as the first two, though I did read it. But his best is on screen. We rewatched THE IN-LAWS last year and it was still great. SO FINE and THE FRESHMAN are also worth watching. And we saw his SOCIAL SECURITY on Broadway, starring Marlo Thomas, in 1986.
Jeff, Bergman is an underrated writer whose best work was on the screen or on Broadway. Thanks for the heads up. WORDPRESS’s demon Spellchecker drives me mad!
Well, George, I think you might have even more direct experience than I have had in noting How Academics Can Be…
I think Muller still has an audience as well…and Grafton’s might well fade rather steeply with essentially no Other Media picking her up and publishing being what it is these years.
And while Joe/Joseph Gores got his start in the ’60s, I think his influence (and anti-romantic approach) might’ve come into fullest influence in the ’70s.
Todd, I spoke with Sue Grafton at the BOUCHERCON in Albany. She was adamant about not allowing her mystery novels to be made into movies or TV series. So the novels will have to survive on their own…