Post Script to Calling All Genres

I knew it was going to happen, even as I began listing murder and suspense series that I would leave out important ones.  I accepted that, but only when I realized which of them would come first to haunt me did I realize I would need to post this admission/addition.  I left out Lawrence Block, who has written three of my favorites--the Matthew Scudder detective series about a gritty, yet honorable detective who often did what he did without the benefit of a paying client.  These all had marvelous titles--A Drop of The Hard Stuff, When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes, Time TO Murder and Create, A Dance At the Slaughterhouse--to name a few.

Another series from Mr. Block were the Bernie Rhodenbarr series about Bernie, a seemingly ordinary Joe (or Bernie), who just happened to be a frequent  burglar--a few of those titles: The Burglar in the Closet, Burglars Can't Be Choosers, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, Tbe Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams.  The list probably tells you that Bernie was a humorous figure, unlike Matt Scudder above.

There were several other series, but I'll just mention m=one more.  It was a series with an anti-hero of sorts named Keller.  Keller, it seemed was a pretty ordinary guy who just happened to be a hit man.  His adventures and the twists that occurred in his secret life were entertaining is a wicked sort of way.  I often felt a little guilty if I enjoyed one a little too much.

The other author I omitted, and I can't tell you why, was the legendary Elmore Leonard.  While he wrote many a tale of murder and suspense, I don't think he had any series.  Each novel stands on its own, and they are all special in their own way.  He did have a repeating character called Raylan Givens, but the books really didn't seem like a series.  In any event, Leonard was truly a novelist.  What he wrote was often memorable, and captured my attention.  A surprising number of his books were made into movies--Get Shorty, The Big Bounce, Mr. Majestyk, Glitz, Jackie Brown...  In any event, he was a fine writer.  As my penance for leaving him off the list, I bought his book, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, A Manual for Fiction Writers.

Since I wrote the original post on this subject, I have picked up two books to take me off the all-too-familiar path of misused, suspense and international intrigue.  One is Bill Bryson's memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and a philosophy book entitled, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar...  Both have been most enjoyable.