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The Four of Hearts; The Case of the Substitute Face; Some Buried Caesar by Ellery Queen, Erle Stanley Gardner & Rex Stout |
In urgent need of escapist literature and having read everything in the house at least twice, I fished these out of a box of dilapidated paper-backs waiting to be thrown away and gobbled with glee this feast of American crime fiction of the 1930s to the 1950s. The actual titles don't matter, any by these authors would do. The protagonists, Queen, Perry Mason and Nero Wolfe, share a kind of liberating anarchy, outwitting dumb cops (so different from our conventional Detective Inspectors), browbeating and tricking witnesses, faking evidence, the ends - getting the bad guys - robustly and unquestioningly justifying the means. What's more I thoroughly enjoyed the quirky, energetic, witty writing, anathema to teachers when I was a child but now appreciable as examples of a kind of literary freedom belonging to an age of innocence long gone. I may be talking nonsense (blame it on the heat and pre-holiday exhaustion) but for fun and pure escapism these seem to me to be hard to beat.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 41 August 2007 ) |
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