|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
There are some books which you can never resist. You pick it up, just to check something, and an hour later are still browsing happily. Wayne Gunn's THE GAY MALE SLEUTH IN PRINT AND FILM is one of those books. In fact, I've taken to opening it at random, with a pen and notebook close to hand. My 'to read' list is threatening to rival Paradise Lost in length. My bank manager hates me already! Gay and lesbian crime fiction tends to get fleeting mentions in textbooks. Sally Munt's MURDER BY THE BOOK was an unsatisfactory and inaccessible look at the feminist and lesbian side of the genre, whilst Judith Markowitz's THE GAY DETECTIVE NOVEL went a long way towards redressing the lack of coverage of the sub-genre. But Gunn's book is a true labour of love. A retired university professor (and reviewer for RTE), he has published on Tennessee Williams and Mexican literature. THE GAY MALE SLEUTH IN PRINT AND FILM is a meticulous and thorough piece of scholarship which deserves its place on both library and readers' shelves. It is divided into two sections -- a context for the sub-genre, which explores the history of the gay male sleuth, beginning with Rodney Garland's THE HEART IN EXILE, and moving through to the familiar names such as John Morgan Wilson, Richard Stevenson and Michael Nava in the present day. One neglected area which rates serious consideration from Gunn is that of the pulp novels of the 1960s and 1970s. And he sets such writers as John Preston's Alex Kane series and Larry Townsend's Bruce MacLeod books in context, arguing that they are more than one-handed reads. Gunn picks out some of my personal favourites, including Scottish writer Jack Dickson's neglected and under-rated series starring tough Glaswegian cop Jas Anderson, and the Duffy series from Dan Kavanagh (aka Julian Barnes). And there are honourable mentions for TV shows I've enjoyed, namely the very wonderful Homicide: Life on the Streets and long-running UK cop show The Bill, which sneaked in a gay kiss before the watershed. The breadth and depth of Gunn's research is astonishing. He features more than 600 novels, over 100 films and about 20 TV shows -- and you get the distinct feeling he knows each one of these inside-out! This is an important and worthy addition to crime fiction scholarship. And it'll be a crime if it's not updated on a regular basis! Now all we need is a scholar with time on their hands and the nose of a literary sleuth to rival Gunn to do the same for the lesbian side of the genre.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, December 2005
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
