'Safe'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
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.
Whee, I'm like Hec at a hair gel convention...ok, not that excited, but... I still think of the small hours of the morning as the "Witching Hour" cause Wambaugh said that's when the liquor wears off and the nightmares start.Everything starts with the right attitude.Wambaugh writes, or did, anyway, true-crime, too. "Lines and Shadows" about the Border Patrol? Broke my heart. "The Onion Field" was great too...there's a movie of that one.
"The Onion Field" was great too...there's a movie of that one.
A great movie. The movie that made James Woods a star. Also best use of a bagpipe in a film ever.
I don't think I've read any Wambaugh, and I'm not sure why not. I love a good procedural.