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

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Andrea Camilleri
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Håkan Nesser
Janwillem van de Wetering

A view from the other side

Detectives Literarios has posted a second day's suggested dish from Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Salvo Montalbano a few days after promising to introduce one dish each day. Between times, hungry readers can share a meal with Manuel Vazquez Montalban's Pepe Carvalho and his cook/assistant Biscuter.

Detectives Literarios also discusses Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios. I don't read Spanish, but it's refreshing to be reminded that our classic British and American crime writers are someone else's overseas, international writers.

© Peter Rozovsky 2006

A Catalan dog?

Crime Scraps expresses vague dissatisfaction with Manuel Vazquez Montalban's An Olympic Death. Scraps thinks a certain diffuseness of plot may be to blame. His comments got me thinking about my own vague dissatisfaction with the novel. I realized then that the the author says curiously little that is memorable about his setting -- is surprising for a book whose title presents it as a story of a changing Barcelona.