Regardless
of how you voted in 2016 or how you feel today about the political atmosphere
in the country today, you probably agree, the current administration is a great
gift to political thriller and mystery writers. What a plethora of
circumstances, ideas, possible locations.
I write
crime fiction and I review crime fiction. I am widely read in the genre so I
believe I have a somewhat informed point of view. You may disagree and if so, I
hope you’ll respond to this series of essays.
My
imperfect and incomplete recollection of what I was reading sixty years ago begins
completely arbitrarily with “Bunny Lake is Missing,” not entirely a political
mystery, but there you are. Evelyn Piper wrote the book. It was generally
well-received and still receives the occasional thoughtful review.
Blanche
is a single working mother who brings her pre-K daughter to a posh day care school
and when she goes later to pick up Bunny, the girl isn’t there. What’s worse
for the frantic mother is that no one admits to ever seeing her at the school.
Thus begins the search with a deep dive into social, political and legal
issues. Laurence Oliver starred in a subsequent movie.
Several
successful authors were writing in the sixties, including Barry Eisler,
Fredrich Forsyth, Richard Condon, James Patterson, and John LeCarre. Some of
the more successful novels that appeared then include “Topaz,” “Torn Curtain”
and one of my favorites, “Six Days of the Condor,” a turbulent and tortuous
novel of CIA problems and solutions.
I’ll
have more to say in a few more days. Stay tuned and know I’m interested in
comments and reactions. And, yes, watch for the release of TRACES, to be
available soon at that award-winning Minneapolis bookstore, ONCE UPON A CRIME,
in store or on line.
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