Otto Penzler's The Lineup is a fascinating look at the origin stories of more than twenty of the most popular fictional crimefighters of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some twenty-two writers (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are co-authors of the Pendergast books) were turned loose to share the inspirations that created such characters as Jack Reacher, Hieronymus Bosch, Inspector Morse, Tess Monaghan, Rambo, Spenser, and Precious Ramotswe. Some chose to give a straightforward nonfictional version of how the characters that made them famous were born, and others decided to take the short story or fictional interview approach to revealing the same.
Along the way, I learned some things about even those characters I was already familiar with, became curious about a few authors I haven't tried yet, and confirmed that a few of them are just not meant for me despite their immense popularity.
These are some of the surprises I had:
- Hieronymus Bosch did not receive that name until Michael Connelly was working on the second draft of the first Bosch novel The Black Echo. Until then he was called Detective Pierce.
- John Connolly's Charlie Parker is American and not Irish (Connolly is Irish) mainly because "mystery fiction has never really been part of the Irish literary tradition."
- Colin Dexter made the decision to end his Inspector Morse series at only thirteen books because he himself was getting older and in poor health - and because he felt as if he were beginning to repeat himself.
- Carol O'Connell's Mallory is a genuine sociopath, and as such, the character does not change over time. Take her or leave her is the author's attitude and that's why each of the novels can be read as a standalone.
I'm looking forward to checking this book out and reading about all these well-known characters, and how they came to be created. What a great idea for a compilation. I kind of hope he does one about female detectives next. :D
ReplyDeleteYou're right, a similar compilation about female cops/detectives would be really great. Unfortunately, this one is already 14 years old, so it doesn't appear likely to happen.
DeleteOf course I had to see if I could guess the author you find personally repellant and once I looked it was fairly obvious. No, I can't imagine Charlie Parker as Irish, LOL! Just finished reading the first book in that series, after reading 12 or 13 of them I still hadn't read book 1. Interesting sounding book you've reviewed, I shall keep an eye out for it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much traction the book ever found, Cath, and how many libraries picked it up back in 2009 when it was published. I found it in a used-book bookstore or I would have never heard of it.
DeleteI figured it wouldn't be too hard to figure out who my mysterious author was... :-)
I am definitely a proponent of indie publishers and indie authors - though not so much of self-published stuff thrown onto Amazon or the idea of an author paying anyone to gather reviews for them, especially if those reviewers are paid anything for the service. That kind of thing, to me, takes a lot away from the legitimacy of the actual reviews, and there are already way too many fake reviews out there to taint the overall validity of indie reviewers like me and others who do it strictly for love of the printed word - and not as some sort of side hustle to make a few bucks.
ReplyDeleteHarry Bosch is much better than Det. Pierce! Too boring.
ReplyDeleteAnd the name gave him a really good backstory to intrigue readers with...a perfect choice of a name as it turned out. I agree...Pierce was way to generic to be remembered for long.
DeleteI think I said before that I have a copy of this, but I haven't read but a few of them. For the fictional detectives that I have not read about at all, I think those sections would tell too much about the characters and the direction the series takes.
ReplyDeleteTracy, there were probably a few semi-spoilers included in this one, but the primary focus is on how the characters were created in the first place. The spoilers are more likely to be in the chapters that use short stories or fictional interviews to dig into the origin story.
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