Who do you like?

Jon Cleary's Scobie Malone has to be among the most likable crime fiction protagonists ever set to paper, and Cleary uses the likability to considerable effect in The High Commissioner, building dramatic tension out of the sympathy Malone develops for the man he has been sent to arrest.

Today's question is simple: Who are your favorite likable protagonists? I don't mean admirable, brave, or morally upright. I mean the sorts about whom you might say, "Oh, him. Nice guy." or "She's all right!" How does likability help (or hurt) a crime-fiction protagonist?

(Oddly enough, the one other likable crime-fiction protagonist who comes immediately to mind is also Australian: Peter Corris' Cliff Hardy. Comment welcome, especially from Australians.)

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

Plots without guns

Five stories into The Big Score, a collection by Australia's godfather of crime fiction, Peter Corris, I'm struck by the low number of killings.

One story involves a con, one a counter-con and another vandalism against trees, believe it or not. All work because of the amiable but tough P.I. protagonist, Cliff Hardy, and the deft, sympathetic pictures of the con artists and victims -- with a wink for the plucky souls who come out on top, which ever side of the law they're on.

Hardy has a certain admiration for the smaller-time criminals whose world he shares: "It takes all kinds," Hardy muses about one imprisoned client, "and he was far from the worst."

I also enjoy the occasional slang and colorful turn of phrase, as I do with much Australian crime writing. Here's a character complaining about the boredom of life post-work: "As I said, this retirement stuff's got whiskers." That's a nice way of saying "It's getting old."

And here's Corris/Hardy poking fun at Americans who don't get the wordplay: "Being American, irony and puns aren't Hank's strong suit. I suppressed a laugh."

Now, your question: Name crime stories that don't involve murder.

© Peter Rozovsky 2009

The father of Australian crime fiction ...

Peter Corris, according to the Australian Crime Fiction Database, "is credited with reviving the fully-fledged Australian crime novel with local settings and reference points and with a series character firmly rooted in Australian culture -- Cliff Hardy." He has also been called the father of Australian crime fiction.

If Corris is the father of Australian crime fiction because of his emphasis on local settings, then Fergus Hume deserves to be called the grandfather for the same reason. Here's Hume from a preface to The Mystery of a Hansom Cab: "Having completed the book, I tried to get it published, but every one to whom I offered it refused even to look at the manuscript on the ground that no Colonial could write anything worth reading."

And here is just one of several similar references from the body of this 1886 novel: "But it is impossible that the body can remain long without being identified by someone, as though Melbourne is a large city, yet it is neither Paris nor London, where a man can disappear in a crowd and never be heard of again."

Seldom can there have been a crime novel more conscious of its setting.

© Peter Rozovsky 2007

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Peter Corris' settings

I've discussed setting from time to time, and I've also speculated with some readers of this blog about what sets Australian crime fiction apart. After reading Peter Temple, Garry Disher, David Owen and Shane Maloney, I found myself associating Australian crime writing with humor, of course, but also with a low-key approach and a lack of self-pity on the part of first-person narrators.

The humor part is less true of Peter Corris' The Dying Trade, the first of thirty (to date) Cliff Hardy novels by "the father of Australian crime fiction," though the novel does contain a witty observation or two. As for what makes it distinctively Australian, how about Hardy's observations on Australian cities? He clearly prefers Sydney to Melbourne or Adelaide, though he is a good enough sport to acknowledge that an Adelaide restaurant he visits on an investigation serves fine food for a third the price he'd pay in Sydney.

I have at least one more Cliff Hardy novel lined up to read. Perhaps I'll learn about the characteristics, stereotypes and rivalries of Australia's cities -- another joy of "international" crime fiction.

***

Almost all crime fiction gets compared to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yasmina Khadra, about whom I posted most recently, for example, occasionally resembles Chandler in his wisecracking amid grim circumstances. The Dying Trade, on the other hand, resembles Chandler in some of its plot points: family secrets, rivalries, the horror of shady mental hospitals. One especially nice touch is the fondness with which Corris portrays an old couple of whom the male half once ran an orphanage. This may remind readers of the affinity between Chandler's Philip Marlowe and old General Sternwood in The Big Sleep.

© Peter Rozovsky 2006

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Peter Corris

I'm always impressed when a writer puts a fresh spin on a well-worn convention. Doing so probably takes more skill than the desperate and self-conscious attempts at originality that some newer writers seem to make.

I've just started The Dying Trade, the first Cliff Hardy novel by Peter Corris, the "father of Australian crime fiction." Hardy, a down-on-the-heels private investigator, gets a call from a rich client just when he needs the money most. I'm guessing you've heard that all before.

At least two things make this opening stand out, though. One is what I'm coming to regard as a characteristically Australian lack of self-pity and irony on the part of the first-person narrator. The other is some fine writing on Corris' part. Here's Hardy after the fateful phone call:

I leaned back in my chair and dropped the receiver onto the handset. I traced a dollar sign with my little finger in the dust beside the dial.

That is a graceful, creative, humorous, maybe even beautiful way of making a familiar point.

© Peter Rozovsky 2006

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