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Indlæser... Raw Law: The Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy Volume 1: 1928-30af Frederick Nebel
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This is Black Mask at its best--slam-bang action, crackling dialogue and the keenest wit this side of Dashiell Hammett. Frederick Nebel was a master of the hardboiled school, and the nine-year saga of Captain Steve MacBride and Kennedy of the Free Press was his finest body of work. This first of four volumes presents the first nine novelettes, complete with the original illustrations by Arthur Rodman Bowker, and a new introduction by Evan Lewis. Hold onto your seat. It's going to be a wild ride. No library descriptions found. |
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But then there are the really, really nasty anti-Italian slurs to contend with. I'm vehemently opposed to cancel culture, but my intent here is not to "cancel" Nebel: simply to let you know what you're getting. Mystery writer Michael Grost rightly observes that "Raw Law," the first story in this collection, "is among the more offensively racist works in pulp fiction history." Even the most hard-bitten reader will wince a time or two, and I'm not exaggerating. The politically correct scolds who have waged a futile campaign against the work of H.P. Lovecraft would have a field day with Nebel, if only they were aware of him. (They aren't, because they haven't read widely enough.) Examining the author's photograph, looking at the long, sneering face and domed forehead, it is of course impossible to determine the origin of his prejudice. A general arrogance is evident, and one wonders if Nebel ever expressed his racial views beyond the safe confines of the printed page. Hopefully it got him punched a time or two, if so.
In 2007, the first five of these stories were published back to back (in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps) as The Crimes of Richmond City, a kind-of novel. Given their general saminess, however, I wouldn't recommend reading them as a novel; there's nothing resembling suspense or plot development, just cops versus robbers and/or corrupt politicians in story after story. They work better as individual pieces, and are fun in a limited sort of way when you're in the mood for something like Hammett's Red Harvest or Raoul Whitfield's Green Ice. Nebel became a better, more fully rounded writer in time, and the later MacBride & Kennedy stories are among the high points of his career. ( )