Patti Abbot commented on my Valentine's Story (Cupid's Bullet) that she thought the guy had a box of candy behind his back. After I stopped laughing, it I realized, "Oh yeah. People do that sometimes!" They hide candy, or jewelry, to surprise their sweetheart. Writing that Valentine's story, it never even occurred to me to write something happy or lovey-dovey. It was about crime, love gone wrong, maybe seduction.
That's the sort of love I recall from the hardboiled and noir stories I've enjoyed. It's as hard and dark as the detectives, the dames, and the world they live in. No happy, sappy endings, no flowers and wedding gowns. No happily ever after.
Most of the hardboiled detectives continue to be loners, book after book, even after meeting some speical someone for a hundred or so pages in the last book. Less-hardboiled detectives seem inclined to meet and get sweet on someone along the way.
Should the hardboiled detective stay single, I wonder? Does falling in love make one, at least appear, softboiled?
Saturday, February 16, 2008
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3 comments:
Yes, he should stay single so people can believe he/she would get a box of chocolates rather than a gun. After marriage, a card suffices or an agreement, "we'll count that chair as our Valentine's Day present, right?"
Ran across a thread about PI's you might be interested in. It's at David Montgomery's Crime Fiction Dossier
crimefiction.blog.com
Lots of interesting opinions.
Sandra
An interesting post over at Crime Fiction Dossier... there are a lot of things, for better or for worse, that are considered "part" of the PI genre.
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