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Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 01:48 pm: | 
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I picked up this book about a black LA PI named Ivan Monk (can't call the title right now) by a black writer named Gary Phillips.
Anybody read any of his work? |
Thumper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 02:01 pm: |
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Hello Chris,
I read his book High Hand. I have his new book Bangers. I like him a lot. I haven't read any of his Ivan Monk novels. Tell me what you think of it. |
Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 03:03 pm: |
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Thump:
Only the Wicked is the one I picked up and I'll let you know what I think. |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 04:00 pm: |
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Anybody heard of "Cold Medina" by Gary Hardwick? Any good I wonder? It's about a black, hard-nosed police detective who trolls the streets of Detroit's inner city. It's been around a while but I'd never heard of it until I saw it as a selection offered in one of those 6-books-for-a- dollar introductory deals. I hope to get to it when I get a chance. |
Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 05:43 pm: |
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Cynique:
I heard of it. Something in me makes me want to say I read it, but I ain't sure. If I did, it didn't hit me much. I'll go back and make sure. It has been a long day and I ain't sure who I am right now. |
Thumper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 07:15 pm: |
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Hello Cynique,
I read and loved Cold Medina years ago. I've since become a huge fan of Gary Hardwick. But, in my opinion, Cold Medina remains his best book. |
Crystal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 03:10 pm: |
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I picked up the Perpetrators by Gary Phillips at the Book Expo. I started to read it and couldn’t get past the first 20 pages. The dialog was so bad I thought it was a joke or something. It reminds me of the story inside Erasure. That bad. I’ve kept it on my desk and picked it up a few times when I was waiting for something and all I can do is laugh at it. Check this out:
“You’re going to be in a lot more danger if you don’t do as I say,” he said. “Your boy Samson Twelvetrees is gonna have shooters coming at us like files on stink from here ‘til we light up north. That’s 600 miles of potential death unless you get on the good foot.”
“Get on the good foot”????? LOL!
It’s the story of a super bad bodyguard type who is being paid to get a super bad, super fine, Versace wearing Colombian drug queen from Mexico to somewhere in California to make a deal. All kinds of equally bad folks are trying to stop them. A lot of shooting, stabbing and cussing going on. Funny stuff.
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Brian
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 03:26 pm: |
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I just finished reading Bangers. It had too many characters, too much cursing, and not much of an engaging plot. It's my first (and probably last) Gary Phillips book. I've read all of Gary Hardwick's books and I like his writing, Double Dead being my favorite. |
Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2003 - 10:46 am: |
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All:
I am in the middle of this book. I like Phillips'writing style but don't like what he is doing with this kind of book--I am more a Dashiell Hammett, Chester Himes, James Ellroy guy (though I would put BLACK BETTY by Mosley in the group)--don't seem fast or racy enough, but I'll keep going. Ivan Monk seems to do a lot of what real PI's or investigators do, which is dull. People dig that Fantasy sh*t when it comes to these kinds of books.
Guy seems to be writing for politically aware baby boomers (I love the politics of the book)--I'd like to see Phillips do something more like Himes' IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO--he was a union organizer, I think and a book based on his experiences might be a good one. |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2003 - 01:54 pm: |
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Thanks Thumper and Brian for the feed-back on Gary Hardwick's "Cold Medina." Chris, were you able to overlook Mickey Spillane's right wing conservative politics and enjoy his Mike Hammer books? I was. LOL. "I, The Jury" is still a classic example of this hard-boiled PI genre. |
Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 11:27 am: |
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Cynique:
When I was younger I guess I enjoyed the Mike Hammer books. After I found out what a creep that sawed off runt Spillane (who got his start scripting Sub-Mariner comic books back in the 40's--by the way, the Mike Hammer series was originally to have been a comic book. Spillane made it a novel after failing to sell it) was I dropped him and his works. I recently revisited "I, The Jury" as a survey of the hard boiled genre and was appalled at the near psychotic woman hatred I found in it--especially the end. |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 12:32 pm: |
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Actually, Chris, "I the Jury" was almost a parody of the PI genre, wasn't it. But didn't all of the lead characters in these books have a cynical disregard for "dames." And, now that I recall, Spillane was probably more of a pioneer in graphic sex scenes than in hard-boiled detective lit. |
Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 03:19 pm: |
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Cynique:
Yeah, it was so over the top it was impossible to take seriously. |
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