Archive - June 18, 2014

The Dandy Vigilante (mystery) by Kevin Daley (Samoa 1986-89) Anaphora Literary Press 252 pages March 2014 $19.00 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Will Siegel (Ethiopia 1962-64) The hard-boiled crime genre is a tough nut in these days of sympathetic detectives who insist on dragging their personal problems into their professional crime fighting life. Just the right tone is needed. Lean a little on tough talk, you’re prone to cliché, lean on the curt description you’re liable to wander from the story line. And lean on the cynicism in which the genre reacted to the romantic novel, and you’re out of touch with an age already cynical about cynicism. Masters such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, or rougher types Ross MacDonald and Mickey Spillane set the tone in the 30’s and after the WW II. In today’s crowded acre of crime and mystery novels, the rub is how to get a . . .