How does one crime author pay tribute to another?
A few minutes ago, I posted about Andrea Camilleri's having named his protagonist, Salvo Montalbano, in honor of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, author of the Pepe Carvalho novels. A few months ago, Håkan Nesser told me he named his protagonist, Inspector Van Veeteren, in honor of Janwillem van de Wetering, the humorous and philosophical author of the Grijpstra and de Gier ("Amsterdam Cops") stories.
What similar tributes can you think of? How do authors honor their own favorite authors?
© Peter Rozovsky 2007
Technorati tags:
Andrea Camilleri
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Håkan Nesser
Janwillem van de Wetering
What similar tributes can you think of? How do authors honor their own favorite authors?
© Peter Rozovsky 2007
Technorati tags:
Andrea Camilleri
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Håkan Nesser
Janwillem van de Wetering
Labels: Andrea Camilleri, Hakan Nesser, Janwillem van de Wetering, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Pepe Carvalho, Salvo Montalbano
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 7:03 PM
14 Comments:
Stuart MacBride pays "tribute" to John Rickards in Dying Light but I'm not sure I'd be all that thrilled if I was Rickards :)
That's a tantalizing comment! Is MacBride's comment a sincere tribute in a bad book? Or does he as much as come right out and slam Rickards? That could be fun.
In several of the Montalbano books including Patience of the Spider the Sicilian detective refers to Leonardo Sciascia's stories.In Patience Livia is also reading a Simenon novel she has borrowed from Salvo.
And, of course, Montalbano's unsuccessful effort to finish reading a Simenon novel is a running motif of The Smell of the Night, an especially interesting and (possibly) double-edged tribute.
Ken Bruen, as always, cuts to the chase ... he has Jack Taylor, an avid reader, order up heaps of books in practically all of the Taylor novels, in the process naming all his favourite writers. He even name-checked me, once ... but then, I have incriminating photographs, so that doesn't really count ...
Yep, Ken Bruen is the king that way, and not just in the Jack Taylor books, either. Brant, in the Brant and Roberts books, loves Ed McBain so much that, in Calibre, he tries to write one himself. I'm often ambivalent about such cultural references, but Bruen throws himself into it with so much zest in Calibre that it becomes part of the fun.
I don't like ths use of a chapter heading from a novel by Jason Starr, though, in Bust, which Starr co-wrote with Bruen. I love the book, but I could do without some of the chapter headings.
Peter - the tribute is in a fantastic book - I have loved all 3 of his by Dying Light has a character called John Rickards with, shall we say, slightly unusual personal proclivities. I have no idea what John Rickards thinks....
Karen, that's an even more tantalizing comment than your first one. I haven't read Stuart MacBride; maybe I will now. Perhaps he and Rickards know one another, and the character's name is a private joke between them.
A propos of the Rickards character's unusual proclivities, the chief suspect in a crime novel I once started to read had the same name as a former boss of mine. That provided a few moments of amusement, as Dying Light may do for Rickards readers.
I can't recommend Stuart's books highly enough Peter - I suspect you could dip in at any point, but reading the from the start will give you a bit more of the ongoing character development - of course now you may have to go straight to Dying Light to find out what I'm hinting at - or you could check out the reviews I did :) - They are on the new AustCrimeFiction site now :)
And of course I'm an absolute idiot some times - and the Rickards inferences are in BROKEN SKIN.... some days I swear I would forget my own name.
OK, Stuart MacBride is on my list as of now. I've read good things about him elsewhere, but you've pushed me over the edge. I will look for your reviews. Thanks!
Christopher Brookmyre has a female police officer in at least one of his books named Dalziel, which I can't help but think is homage to Reginald Hill's Dalziel from his "Dalziel & Pascoe" series.
Dalziel is a Scottish name, and Brookmyre is Scottish. Still, I'm guessing that you're right and that the name is no coincidence. Hmm, do I have vague recollection of Brookmyre's Dalziel? First name Jenny or Jennifer, maybe?
In any case, the idea of a woman sharing Fat Andy's name is pleasing. Thanks for the comment.
Yes, it was Jenny Dalziel in the Brookmyre book. Give me a couple of days and I'll figure out which of his books she appeared in.
She appeared in Quite Ugly One Morning, which I figured out first from checking to see which Brookmyre novels I'd written about here:
-- Boiling a Frog
-- A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away
-- Quite Ugly One Morning
and then doing what i could have done from the begining, which was to search online for the name "Jenny Dalziel." She's the police officer who finds Jack Parlabane in the middle of the crime scene and enjoys some amusing cross-talk with him.
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