Modern "vintage" reads?

[Parallel Guy]

I've been reading White Shadow by Ace Atkins. It's set in Tampa in 1955. He does a tremendous job of recreating the feel for the time and place. He took a real crime and fictionalized it much like Max Allan Collins used to do so well. I was wondering if anyone else is doing anything similar with the mystery genre?

I enjoy the old school writers but sometimes its refreshing to read about the pre-1960s without the self-editing that had to go on at the time. Suggestions?

 

[Mike1939]

I really enjoyed Max Allan Collins's Nate Heller series. Have you read The Pearl Harbor Murders and London Blitz Murders? I think there's even a new one set around the time of Orson Wells's War of the Worlds broadcast. James Ellroy is another one, a bit gory and bizarre at times but he's a good writer. Swing, by Rupert Holmes, was good, set in 1940 at the San Fancisco World's Fair. Also, Eddie Muller has two good books, The Distance and Shadow Boxer, set in the late 1940's San Francisco. Hope this helps.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Read SWING by Rupert Holmes (yup, the "Pina Colada" song guy).

Spend the extra jing to get the hardcover that comes with a CD which goes along with the mystery.

Here's a review:

From The New Yorker
This second mystery novel by a noted songwriter and playwright is set in 1940, at the height of the big-band era, and its protagonist is a talented but troubled saxophonist beginning an engagement at a swank hotel. Approached by a fetching music student to arrange her prize-winning composition, he quickly finds himself in a complicated world of murder and espionage, as America prepares for war. Holmes's narrative is saturated in the atmosphere of noir and swing, and he has even recorded an accompanying CD of jazzy numbers containing musical clues. The story moves jauntily, its set pieces staged with theatrical flair and its snappy dialogue recalling Ben Hecht's. The plot ultimately seems a trifle creaky, but Holmes's stylish sense of ambience and his lightness of touch more than make up for it.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

I so wish he'd write a sequal.

 

[Parallel Guy]

Thanks, gentlemen, I appreciate the input. Swing was a fun book. I'll have to try Eddie Muller. Never heard of him. Cool.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

This Dame For Hire by Sandra Scoppettone. Takes place in New York City in 1943. When I read this book I felt as if I were there.

 

[goldwyn girl]

This Dame For Hire by Sandra Scoppettone. Takes place in New York City in 1943. When I read this book I felt as if I were there.

I just bought this for a penny on Amazon.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

lol I borrowed mine from the public library!

 

[Atomic Glee]

If I ever finish my novel, Panther City Blues, then you will be able to count mine. Set in 1938 in "Panther City, TX," sort of a parallel-universe version of my home of Fort Worth.

 

[Marty M.]

There's a writer amongst us.

If I ever finish my novel, Panther City Blues, then you will be able to count mine. Set in 1938 in "Panther City, TX," sort of a parallel-universe version of my home of Fort Worth.

Wow, that's way cool. You should be proud of what your doing. Many people think and talk about writing. But, you're actually doing it. Good luck. And if you can put pictures in the book for us poor readers, you'd make me a happy guy.
Marty

 

[Barry]

If you are open to reading graphic novels you might find some of Phillipe Berthet's work very interesting. I posted about this a while back. You can find English translations of his work.

He has several detective novels and one series about featuring Betty Page which is a noted homage to Milton Caniff. Obviously, some of the content of the "Pin-Up" is quite racy. Yann Degruel did the artwork in this series and it's pretty good.

You can find some of the artwork in his novels at this site Berthet.

And here is Pin-Up.

The second link is to the Pin-Up website. It features drawings of Pin-Up models and war scenes and the content may be offensive to some.

Barry

 

[Doctor Strange]

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon.

About Jewish comic-book creators in the 30s-50s. It takes place in Europe at the start of the war, NYC seeming to be the capitol of the world centered on the Empire State Building, the Golden Age of comics, the 1939 World's Fair, the world of radio drama, Hollywood, a desolate WWII outpost, and Long Island during the rise of suburbia. Includes cameo apperances by real people. It's not at all vintage in its tone or aspirations, but is very much about the era and the *meaning* of America. (Yeah, it's a bona fide Great American Novel!) A brilliant book, probably the best new novel I've read in the last decade.