tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post6013071482537847428..comments2024-03-25T11:17:18.130-07:00Comments on Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and The Wild West: The Further Adventures of Chance PurdueEvan Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07620731784654779358noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-63856606315035288852010-07-18T07:51:13.288-07:002010-07-18T07:51:13.288-07:00Don't let the one line style turn you off Spen...Don't let the one line style turn you off Spencer. He used this style only with Chance Purdue. I felt the style helped his "one liner" jokes and increased the feel of action as the reader read faster and faster through the book.<br /><br />I understand many readers prefer their mysteries serious, but as someone who enjoys humor in my fiction I feel Ross H. Spencer filled an important role in the PI genre. <br /><br />It has been awhile since I read "Kirby's Last Circus" so let me quote the blurbs on the paperback edition.<br /><br />Meet the private eye who makes Fletch look smooth...Birch Kirby.<br /><br />"Ross Spencer is wild, shrewd, mad, and unexpectedly funny." - New York Times Book Review<br /><br />"Spencer delivers!" - Booklist<br /><br />"Delightful...every line Ross Spencer writes is funny." - Library Journal<br /><br />Quoting from the back cover:<br />"He's bumbling, boozing, and broke...<br /><br />Meet Birch Kirby, a down-on-his-luck Chicago P.I. with a love of fourth-rate gin mills and fifth-rate floozies.<br /><br />But the CIA has noticed Kirby. They like his style. Nobody can be that inept, and they need someone with imagination.<br /><br />So for fifteen hundred dollars Kirby finds himself in the backwater town of Grizzly Gulch, bumbling his way undercover as the bullpen catcher for the No Sox-keeping one eye out for the KGB and the other for the eighty-year-old nymphomaniacal No Sox owner.<br /><br />Saving the world from ultimate catastrophe is new territory for a six-for-a-dollar divorce gumshoe. But like P.T. Barnum said...there's a sucker born every minute."<br /><br />michaelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-26735442802529461642010-07-17T08:56:17.717-07:002010-07-17T08:56:17.717-07:00I found The DADA Caper refreshing, even exhilarati...I found The DADA Caper refreshing, even exhilarating, to read after a long string of more conventional fiction. I would probably tire of it I read another book right away, so I'll likely wait at least a couple of months before I try another.<br /><br />Haven't read Kirby's Last Circus or any other Spencer books, but I plan to give one a try.<br /><br />Yeah, the he saids and she saids are repetitive, but they develop a sort of rhythm and there always seems to be a punch line coming to break the pattern and make me smile.Evan Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07620731784654779358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-79845477954987081602010-07-17T08:55:08.279-07:002010-07-17T08:55:08.279-07:00the more I read the less I like.
I guess he thoug...the more I read the less I like.<br /><br />I guess he thought he was being creative.<br /><br />Or cute.<br /><br />Or maybe he was just a crappy writer.Richard R.http://brokenbullhorn.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-34586005158110744052010-07-17T07:28:09.674-07:002010-07-17T07:28:09.674-07:00Now that you've posted again, I think i HAVE s...Now that you've posted again, I think i HAVE seen one of these somewhere. I'm trying to remember. I know I don't have one though.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-84718017653716672102010-07-17T06:15:08.081-07:002010-07-17T06:15:08.081-07:00I read a couple of novels starring Chance Perdue b...I read a couple of novels starring Chance Perdue back in the early 1980's and found his style to be at first interesting but then tiring. For instance the examples that you quote overuse the "he said", "she said", "I said", to such an extent that I can't read the novels. The gimmick dated very fast for me. However, I see other readers like the style.Walker Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16089880902426182100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-56961351722957814762010-07-17T05:20:39.969-07:002010-07-17T05:20:39.969-07:00I dropped by my local mystery bookstore and asked ...I dropped by my local mystery bookstore and asked about these books yesterday. The owner was a big fan, but sadly didn't have any in stock. She also recommended "Kirby's Last Circus." Have you read that one?Cullen Gallagherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14236957954996740924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4705940625481143611.post-67884270585698755022010-07-17T02:03:32.174-07:002010-07-17T02:03:32.174-07:00Thinking of it... This way of writing a entire boo...Thinking of it... This way of writing a entire book, Is not tiring to read?Deka Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08328847551867893941noreply@blogger.com