April 20, 08.46am
I'm not quite sure what it was about California in the mid-to-early years of the last century, but it produced the most extraordinary fictional characters - in the private eye genre at any rate.
Now I know that two novels - The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon - is a small representative sample, and so I'm reluctant to create too many stereotypes from just these books, but my word are there some strong and unusual women in these novels.
The Sternwood girls - Regan and Carmen - in The Big Sleep are hard work even by their own estimation and the latter's handling of a gun should be enough of a warning to most suitors that they should steer clear, never mind the various other strange behaviour exhibited by both.
Another bravura performance comes from Mona Mars, gangster's moll, who helps Marlowe out of a tight spot late on with such a cool hand that only ice water could run in her veins.
Similarly, Effie Perrine, Sam Spade's deals with the violence, death and destruction that her employer brings into her life with the sanguine acceptance she might show on being asked to do a spot of filing.
And then there is Dashiel Hammett's other (other than Spade himself, that is) masterpiece of characterisation - Brigid O'Shaughnessy - a femme fatale so devious, clever and convincing that she must rank amongst the most compelling female felons portrayed by anyone anywhere.
There's so much to admire in both these books, but this was something that struck me immediately about them. Another is the sense of place - the charcaterisation of the cities themselves - and that's something I'd like to return to later.
(btw the reason the needle on Cross Bones is stuck on p 198 is I can't find it. Please don't think I wasn't enjoying it, or have given up - I was and I haven't).
Reading
Cross Bones (p198)
The Last Days of Newgate by Andrew Pepper (p78)
On the Shelf
Pig Island by Mo Hayder
Pelagia and the White Bulldog by Boris Akunin
The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton
