Nestor Burma. Cliff Hardy. Le poulpe.
Anna Lee. Shanker Lal.
These are all private eyes. Very
famous, very popular private eyes. And yet, you probably never
heard of most of them. Hell, I hadn't either, until someone or
another took the time to clue me in.
And now it's my turn to return
the favour.
Let's face it,there's a whole world
of private eyes out there most of us have never heard of. And
maybe it's high time for us to get our heads out of our asses.
Isolationism sucks.
Yeah, the Hard-Boiled Private Eye
is undeniably an American literary invention, ranking right up
there with the cowboy and the comic book superhero. After all,
the private eye, at least as we've come to understand the term,
was born and bred in the pages of Black Mask and other American
pulps way back in the 1920s and 30s, by such masters as Dashiell
Hammett, Carroll John Daly, Erle Stanley Gardner, Raoul Whitfield
and Raymond Chandler. Their heroes were hard-talking men with
attitude to burn -- rougher, tougher versions of Holmes et al
-- who were ready to speak the truth and willing to let the chips
fall where they may.
But if attitude is really what
separates the Sherlocks from the shamuses, then what it says
on one's passport shouldn't count for squat.
And it doesn't. Just because most
early hard-boiled private detective fiction was set in the U.S.
(Whitfield's Jo Gar being a wonderful exception) that doesn't
mean one has to have been American to write it, or even to read
it. If names like, oh, Peter Corris, Didier Daeninckx, Sarah
Dunant, Mark Timlin, Leo Malet, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Liza
Cody, Jakob Arjourni, John Milne or Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
don't ring any bells, maybe it's because you haven't been listening
very hard.
Just as the P.I. has his roots
in the literature of other cultures, so has the P.I. in turn
been accepted into almost every culture in the world.
You name a country, and they've
adapted the American gumshoe to tell their own stories. France,
Australia, Spain, India, Canada, Norway, Germany, Mexico... you
name it, and they've got a P.I. on hand who makes trouble their
business.
Even better, plenty of these eyes
are well-worth reading. I've read my share of them, and I'm telling
you straight out, the U.S. does not have a monopoly on quality
P.I.s. Those days are long gone.
In fact, some of the most interesting
P.I. and hard-boiled crime fiction I've read lately are "foreign."
The use of what is basically genre fiction adapted to fit a certain
culture is one of the very best ways for a reader to get into
that culture. And since the private eye genre has always a great
tool for casting an unflinching eye on society, what better way
to lift the lid on a culture, and get a real look at the works,
than to tag along with a guy or gal who does it for a living?
So, in our P.I.
Poll this time around, cobbled together with the much-appreciated
help of our two-fisted fiction editor Gerald
So, we're asking you all sorts of fun things about your
favourite non-American eye. And for you "foreigners"
out there (hey, I'm one), let's help get the show on the road
by letting the Americans know what they're missing. We'll be
discussing our faves, our raves and the close-shaves. Also the
jerkies and the turkeys. I'm hoping this issue, we'll expand,
and even blow a few minds.
This is the world calling, baby.
Pick up the phone.
And if you want to vote for our
Annual Cheap Thrill Awards,
well, don't be shy...
NOTE:
Not to be a chauvinist or anything, but when I say FOREIGN, I
mean NON-AMERICAN.
And when I say NON-AMERICAN, I mean NOT FROM THE U.S.A.
YOUR FAVOURITE FOREIGN
EYE OF ALL TIME?
(And where they're from)
- Sid Halley by Dick Francis (England)
- Jo Gar by Ramn Decolta (The Phillipines)
- Sam Turner by John Baker (England)
- Benny Cooperman (Canada)
- Aurelio Zen (Italy) by Michael Dibdin
- Nick Sharman (London)
- Pepe Carvahlo (Spain)
- Mike Garfin (Canada) by Martin Brett
- Louise Morvan - Paris, France. More on her later.
- Cordelia Gray - I've just started reading An Unsuitable
Job for a Woman. I tend to avoid books written by by old
British ladies, but I'm hooked...
(Laurent Lehmann
from France)
- Sam Turner, York, England
- Peter Corris's Cliff Hardy, Australia.
- Wait a minute! This poll has been up for almost a month now,
and nobody has mentioned Australia's Hairbutt the Hippo
yet? Sheesh, what's wrong with everybody?
- Pete Sawyer, France
- Sid Halley (UK).
YOUR FAVOURITE FOREIGN
EYE SERIES OF ALL TIME?
- The Cliff Hardy series by Peter Corris (Sydney, Australia)
- The Sam Turner series by John Baker
- Aurelio Zen
- The Nick Sharman series by Mark Timlin
- Nestor Burma - more than the character, what I really
like is his exploration of a changing Paris in the '50s and the
'60s...
- The Sam Turner series.
- Cliff Hardy.
- Dick Francis's Sid Halley.
- The Stone Angel Series
- Sid Halley (UK)
- Napoleon Bonaparte (Australia) by Arthur Upfield.
Now you've been put wise.
Sorry, mate, but Bony's a police inspector, and definitely
not a P.I.
YOUR FAVOURITE FOREIGN
PRIVATE EYE WRITER OF ALL TIME?
- Peter Corris.
- Paco Taibo II
- John Baker
- Michael Dibdin
- Manuel Vazquez Montalban
- Manuel Vazquez Montalban, possibly. Tough question,
actually. There are so many...
- Dolegan, a British PI published in France in smal
paperbacks during the '50s - don't know whether it was originally
a French or British series, though. It was fun, in a very kitsch
kind of way, but very poorly plotted and written...
- John Baker - he's a compassionate and exciting writer
with the knack of keeping the language vibrant and alive.
- Lee Child. He's a Brit, but he sets his Jack reacher
books in the States (at least so far...)
- Marvin H. Albert
Okay, he's actually a transplanted American, but that's cool....
- Dick Francis, because he created Side Halley (as well
as a few other one-offs)
-
THE WORST FOREIGN P.I.
YOU'VE EVER READ?
- Mark Timlin
- Peter Cheyney
- "Worst" is perhaps a little too harsh, but Joe
Barley (Eric Wright's The Kidnapping of rosie Dawn)
was certainly the most disappointing. I enjoy Wright's Lucy
Trimble series, and I've heard good things about his police
procedural series, so I had high hopes for this one, but the
book was a real letdown.
THE BEST FOREIGN EYE THAT
NOBODY ELSE SEEMS TO HAVE EVEN HEARD OF
- Le poulpe. There's something like a hundred books
in this series. There must be something worth reading in 'em.
- Harry Sommers
FOREIGN P.I. NOVEL OR SERIES
THAT SHOULD BE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
- Le poulpe. There's something like a hundred books
in this series. There must be something worth reading in 'em.
- I'd like to be able to read Jaume Fuster's LluÌs
Arquer series. So far, the only thing I've been able to find
is a translation into Spanish (he writes in Catalan) of his first
juvenile mystery - which does feature Arquer - but I'd like to
read the ones written for adults.
BEST P.I. TRANSLATIONS
TO OR FROM ENGLISH
- The ones I don't know are translated are the best. They're
aren't many.
WORST P.I. TRANSLATIONS
TO OR FROM ENGLISH
- I don't know about which are the worst, but most things translated
end up still using words I never heard.
- To English - Maria-Antònia Oliver's Lònia
Guiu series. Talk about uneven! Although modern-day slang
expressions are used from time to time, far too much of the translation
sounds like it was done by someone who is not fluent in English,
and is doing a literal translation with the help of a dictionary.
- I'd have to be able to read foreign languages to answer this
one.
BEST FISH OUT OF WATER
P.I.
- I came up with this category, and by "Fish out of Water,"
I meant any novel where a PI leaves his normal turf. (e.g. Spenser
in A Savage Place or The Judas Goat). A Savage
Place is, in fact, my pick for Best Fish.
(Gerald So from
New York)
- The Continental Op in "This King Business."
There've certainly been stories of American PIs in foreign climes,
but the idea of a tough dick in one of those mythical, Ruritanian
countries right out of The Prisoner of Zenda is inspired.
(Jim Doherty from
Chicago, IL)
- S.J. Rozan's Reflecting The Sky had Lydia Chin
in China. Just a great book.
KING/QUEEN OF THE ROAD:
BEST P.I. CONSTANTLY ON THE MOVE
- Chester Drum by Stephen Marlowe
- Louise Morvan
- Stephen Marlowe's Chet Drum.
YOU'RE GETTING WARM P.I.s
IN TROPICAL LOCALES
- Pronzini's Dan Connell in The Jade Figurine.
It was set in Singapore, I think.
- It's in the United States, but it's certainly tropical. Charles
Knief's Hawaiian eye, John Caine.
YOU'RE GETTING COLD (OPPOSITE
OF THE ABOVE)
- Mike Garfin (Montreal, Canada). But does Montreal
really count as a cold place?
Gee, I dunno. Come on over and let's discuss it on the corner
of Ste. Catherine and Peel this February...
- Eric Wright's two eyes, Lucy Trimble and Joe Barley,
are both in Toronto.
- Well, Cecil Younger's in Alaska, but he's not "foreign."
Are there any Russian or Soviet private eyes?
Well, I haven't heard of any, but there are quite a few Scandinavian eyes.
WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT FOREIGN
EYES
- The new skin for the old ceremony. In other words, everything
old is new again.
- The cultural setting. Best when they don't try to pretend
to be American.
- Well, first of all, some of 'em aren't foreign to me... but
the reason why I like reading PI stories from all countries is
that I like discovering foreign cultures... And anyway, most
of the time, in westernized civilisations, once you scratch the
cultural surface, the motivations and reactions of the characters
are pretty much the same... and PIs are relevant everywhere.
You could as well ask me why I like PIs...
That's a whopper of a question I'm saving for a rainy day...
- I don't like them just because they're foreign. I just like
a man or a woman who seems real to me, someone who has something
to say and can engage me in their thoughts and preoccupations
and their lifestyle. Someone like that I want to spend time with.
(Samuel Major
from the UK)
- I like their unique styles of investigation and learning
about different cultures as their cases unfold."
(Gerald)
- The settings. And, in the case of Sid Halley, the expertly
depicted horse racing milieu.
WHAT YOU DISLIKE ABOUT
FOREIGN EYES
- When they paste a thin local veneer on an essentially stereotypical
American eye, and try to pass it off as something new.
- Some of them are written in languages I can't read, and poorly
translated in languages I can read...
- Ok, I had to check : Dominique Sylvain's Louise Morvan
isn't in your listings! So... where to begin ? Louise is a young,
independant woman who inherited her agency from her uncle. Although
she's based in Paris and has a relationship with Steve McQueenish
commissaire Clementi, her cases - most of the time involving
cultural affairs - take here all over the world :
Japan, Germany, USA, Spain.
- Lousy translations that only go limp halfway throgh. Okay,
fine, some publisher translates it from French or German or something
into English, but what the hell's a lorrie? If their going to
translate something for Americans, they better do it into regular
English.
Um, a "lorrie" is a truck. It's British. I think
they possibly have a claim to speaking "regular" English.
- To me, the fictional hard-boiled PI, like jazz or rock-n-roll
is essentially American, so, for me, a foreign eye who, in all
respects except his nationality, fits the hard-boiled PI paradigm,
strikes a dissonant note. Of course, there've certainly been
great, even legendary non-American jazz and rock musicians, so
what do I know?
(Jim Doherty from
Chicago, IL)
Well, I was going to make that point, and drop in names like
The Band, Neil Young, Pete Townshend, The Stones, Oscar Petersen,
etc... thanks for beating me to it.
STUMP THE EDITOR!
FOREIGN PRIVATE EYES NOT IN MY ALPHABETICAL LISTINGS,
- Kazuo Mori This Tokyo eye plays like Chandler turned
up to eleven.
- Aurelio Zen by Michael Dibdin. He's an investigator/detective
for the Italian government and is frustrated by the corruption
within the "system" and throughout the Italian society.
A well-written series by Dibdin who I believe is British.
(Paul Tarantino
from Naperville,Ill, west of Chicago)
Unfortunately, by your own description, it's clear Zen isn't
a private eye -- he's a government employee. But it is a smart
and satisfying and even occasionally kick-ass series.
- Anita B. is a private eye in Bombay, India created
by Ashok Banker. The only story I've seen is "The Anita
B. Casefiles. Case #1: The Secret Life of Angels," in Futures,
June 2001. The title suggests that more are on the way. Anita
is 30-something, drinks too much, never married, pumps iron and
is color-challenged. She says she looks like Toni Braxton "or
maybe Wesley Snipes without a dick." I think she's a good
hardboiled addition to the genre.
(Mark Troy from Texas)
Now we're talking! I'll have to check this one out. Thanks,
Mark!
- Can't remember his name, but he was played by Louis Jourdan
in two episodes of VEGA$. He was a famous French police
detective whom Dan Tanna idolized and wanted to emulate in his
youth. In a later episode, he's retired from the Surete and opened
his own PI agency in France.
(Jim Doherty)
Okay, I'm stumped...
- The Misses Hyacinth and Primrose Tramwell, two elderly sisters
from Flaxby Meade, England. Yes, the stories are cozies, but
they ARE private detectives.
(Nathalie)
- I'd've gotten back to you sooner on this but I just noticed
that you don't have these characters in your listings. In addition
to his only series PI, Sid Halley, Dick Francis also created
three stand-alone PIs:.
David Cleveland, the hero of Slayride, is
the chief investigator for the British Jockey Club. I'm not
absolutely sure, but I think a series of TV-movies based on Francis's
books, used the Cleveland character as their continuing hero,
substituting Cleveland for whoever actually starred in the Francis
book being adapted. If that memory is accurate, Cleveland is,
in a sense, not merely a one-off protagonist..
Andrew Douglas, the lead character in The Danger,
is a top operative of (and a partner in) Liberty Market Ltd.,
a detective agency specializing in kidnap cases..
Tor Kelsey, who carries the ball in The Edge,
is an investigator for the Jockey Club (presumably one of Cleveland's
subordinates, since Francis doesn't use the title "chief
investigator").
(Jim Doherty)
Damn, Jim, you got me again!!! And I've even read two of those
books. In fact, The Danger was way better than the similarly-themed,
recent Russell Crowe flick, Proof of Life, (a phrase I
believe I first came across in Francis' novel).
FURTHER COMMENTS?
- "There should be a category for foreign (Non-American)
authors who write about American P.I.s and settings. (e.g. Lee
Child's Jack Reacher--though he's not technically a P.I."
(Gerald)
.
- Pete Sawyer, though he operates in France, is an American
citizen. He may also be a French citizen through his mother,
but that doesn't make him any less of an American. In fact, he's
worked as both a local Chicago cop and a federal narcotics agent,
and you can't get into either of those jobs if you're a non-citizen.
And during the time that Ramon (Raoul Whitfield) Dacolta
was writing the Jo Gar series, the Phillipines was US
territory. Though it later got its independence from the states,
at the time he was making his in-print appearances, Gar was also
a US citizen.
(Jim Doherty)
Gee, Jim, if you're going to get into citizenship and stuff,
I regret to inform you that, during the time Raymond Chandler
wrote the Philip Marlowe series, he was in fact a British citizen.
He had renounced his American citizenship as a teenager, and
only restored it in 1956. But still, I hear the books are pretty
good.... Have a good one, Jim. Happy new year.
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