Poul Anderson
John Grisham
Susan Howatch
Dornford Yates
Stieg Larsson
Alan Moore
Places
Ford County and the City
Hampton (really Northampton)
These are six that I am familiar with. I particularly appreciate Senlac and Morgan's Wood. Grisham's Rogue Lawyer is set in an American city that is so corrupt that it is probably wise not to specify its location and to refer to it simply as "the City." Such civic anonymity detaches the City from the hero and now and makes it more akin to a future city in an sf novel.
15 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I immediately thought of CHICAGO as a city so corrupt Grisham thought it wiser not to specify by name. Chicago is notorious for its corruption and seemingly endless one party dominance and rule by the Cook County Democrat Party machine.
Chicago seems to be mentioned a lot lately!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But Grisham's characters name Chicago as another city so that is not "the City"!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! But, unfortunately, I can think of plenty of other corrupt, badly run cities! Places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), Minneapolis, Detroit, New York, Baltimore, etc. And all of them run by Democrats with the same disastrous ideology.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Is there a link between ideology and corruption?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
In earlier years the corruption which marked the gov'ts of these cities took the forms of bribery, kickbacks, patronage, nepotism, etc. Nowadays, it's also marked by the fanaticism of the left wing of the Democrat Party, obsessing about race and being Politically Correct, a noxious mix!
For example, the all too aptly named Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago (!!!) gained notoriety by declaring she would not accept questions from white reporters or be interviewed by one.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Are you kidding? I am an anti-racist but the idea of a Mayor not accepting questions from white reporters is absurd. I have heard from another source that there are some weird things going down in the States.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No, I was not kidding. Lightfoot actually said that! And so MANY of the follies and idiocies of our times in the US are being perpetrated by extreme leftists. Many of which are ignored, denied, or minimized by a mostly pro-Democrat media. Which is why I would advise Britons like you to also pay attention to minority conservative outlets like Fox News and NATIONAL REVIEW.
Ad astra! Sean
Few contemporary American cities are corrupt in the utterly flamboyant way many were during the Gilded Age.
That's when Teddy Roosevelt, as Police Commissioner, found that the head of the NYPD (*) had bought a castle and 4000 acres in Ireland, and his assistant explained a fortune equivalent to several hundred million today which he explained as the result of successful real-estate speculation... in Tokyo.
Mind you, NYC wasn't the most corrupt place in America in the 1890's -- the crown would probably have been contested between Chicago and New Orleans, with N'Awlins being more colorful but a lot more money changing hands in Chi-town.
(*) on a salary roughly similar to a high-school principal's.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I should have remembered the corruption of the late 19th century!
That was flamboyant, the NY Chief of Police buying a castle and 4,000 acres of land in Ireland! Money gained by corrupt means, of course.
And I don't in the least believe the assistant to the NY Chief of Police got his money from real estate speculating in TOKYO, of all places!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the way the NYPD worked then was police officers bought their jobs, then paid themselves back and more by graft and shakedowns, with each rank giving a percentage of th boodle to their superiors; it operated that way from top to bottom, as a branch of the Tammany Hall political machine
For example, Tammany had used its influence in Albany to get strict Sunday-closing rules for saloons - appeasing upstate rural voters at.the same time.
The police then enforced the rules… but only against saloons that didn’t cooperate with Tammany and pay off the police. Same with things like public-nuisance laws, sanitation codes, etc. There were regular payments from brothel owners, kickbacks from fences of stolen goods, sex traffickers, people selling adulterated foods, protection. rackets on the docks, you name it.
At that time the NY state legislature passed a law essentially legalizing bribery - by invalidating testimony in court from the bribe-giver or bribe-taker, so that it could only be prosecuted if done in front of witnesses! Even a confession was inadmissible.
There was a special train from NYC to Albany.for State legislators paid for by what we’d call lobbyists, with meals from Delmonico’s, limitless free booze and high-priced courtesans and a special car where legislators could retire to receive their bribes in legally-shielded privacy.
The Gilded Age stuff really boggles the mind.
It didn’t all go away then either. Much of the skullduggery you see in classic ‘noir’ crime fiction in the 20’s and 30’s was actually fairly realistic.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Revoltingly corrupt indeed! This is not how any reasonably honest police force should behave. I can easily imagine how long a struggle it was to reform police forces not just in NYC but all over the US.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: more in some places than others.
I was in New Orleans a decade or so ago, and a local newspaper had an editorial that started: “Our me chief of police will have to deal with murder, extortion, bribery, rape, and drug dealing… and that’s just in the police force itself…”
That should have read “our NEW chief of police”.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Oops! Catching up with your comments!
I can believe that, given the long, all too ripe history of corruption in New Orleans!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment