I have confessed many a time and oft' of my fondness for American crime fiction which I refer to as 'crash-bang-wallops'. Part of my attraction to the genre is that several of the leading writers are actually very well-read and witty men. Here are two examples from Nelson DeMille's latest thriller featuring his her0, the rough, tough, funny, ex-NYPD cop, John Corey, here talking of his first wife and their all too brief marriage:
"... law firms, one of which employs my ex-wife, a defense attorney who represents only the best of criminal scum. This was one of the reasons we got divorced. The other was that she thought cooking and fucking were two cities in China."
And here is one of the quotations he uses to separate the various parts of his story. It is, I think, worthy of the highest accolade that one can hope to achieve in 'Blogdom', inclusion by my e-friend, 'Deogolwulf', in his excellent blog "The Joy of Curmudgeonry":
"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and thus that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws." - John Adams.
Alas, I wish I could recommend Mr. DeMille's book, Wild Fire, but after a very long series of excellent thrillers (and some superb novels, especially Word of Honour ) this one is a rare failure. Whilst it is a necessity that all crash-bang-wallops are, in essence, fanciful, this one stretches the reader's credulity to breaking point. Never mind, it was worth the £1 I paid for it in a charity shop for those two quotes.
I'm off to Nottingham later this morning and will return, if that fair City's murderous 'youfs' permit, on Sunday night.
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