Well, changing an answer got me to:
You're Compassion Fatigue! by Susan Moeller
You used to care, but now it's just getting too difficult. You cared about the plight of people in lands near and far, but now the media has bombarded you with images of suffering to the point that you just don't have the energy to go on. You've become cold and heartless, as though you'd lived in New York City for a year or so. But you stand as a serious example to all others that they should turn off their TV sets and start caring again.
I was getting some scrap paper from an old notebook and came across a wordlist I made for bookclub. We were reading
The Professor and The Madman
in January of last year and while I enjoyed the book, I found myself reading over words that I really couldn't define if I had to, so I kept a list, and mostly looked them up. 141 total.
I got To Kill a Mockingbird.
Could be worse.
I'm in the middle of an old (re-released) Ed McBain book, The Pusher, and the thing that strikes me the most is that the only thing that dates it at all is prices. It's about cops (obviously) and junkies and hookers, but mostly about heroin. It's a little different from his "typical," I think -- there's a personal tie between one of the cops and the crime(s) -- and it's really good.
Oh, and when I say "old," I mean 1956.
I love McBain books. they hold up.
Yeah, they're always a good time. But you know what I'm saying? I mean, I always love (re)reading Rex Stout, but they feel much more dated, for whatever reason.
People don't write 'em like that anymore...McBain is like crime on prime time...personally I like both styles...duh. Hi, I'm Erika, have we met?
It is a commonplace in certain quarters that Ed McBain was the model for
Hillstreet Blues
and consequently has had longstanding influence on all police dramas since.
I'm no literary historian, but who else has been doing procedurals like this for so long? I mean, maybe he wasn't the first, but he's had a damn big influence. Due to the awesomeness, of course.
I'm no literary historian, but who else has been doing procedurals like this for so long?
Nobody. But Joseph Wambaugh had a huge impact on crime fiction when he hit in the seventies. It was just so grounded in Wambaugh's experience as a cop.
