Saturday, February 06, 2016

How John D. MacDonald invented a subgenre that’s no longer his own

Sunbelt Baroque: How John D. MacDonald invented a subgenre that’s no longer his own

5 comments:

Mike Stamm said...

As I understand it, the Bahia Mar marina underwent extensive renovation several years ago, and slip F-18 no longer exists; officially, no one knows where the commemorative plaque is. And 10 to 1 says the quotation ("I've got substance issues") is NOT from John D. MacDonald. Interesting and somewhat useful article, but wrong in a lot of little ways.

mybillcrider said...

Since there's currently a celebration of the 100th anniversary of JDM's birth going on, maybe someone has found the plaque. According to the JDM homepage, the plaque was rededicated in 2004, so it must be there somewhere. JDM wasn't the only writer who set his crime novels in Florida in the '50s. Day Keene and Harry Whittington didn't have his success, though. There were probably others, too.

Randy Clark said...

I also thought that Whittington, Keene, and a few others should have been mentioned, particularly the Mike Shayne novels. I remember reading decades ago that Florida had a very low personal income tax, perhaps none at all, so a lot of the Gold Medal and Dell authors wound up living in Florida.

mybillcrider said...

I should've thought about Halliday and Shayne.

Don Coffin said...

Charles Willeford came to mind.