tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787364257168822822.post2147675179514708955..comments2024-03-18T11:01:42.459-05:00Comments on Pretty Sinister Books: IN BRIEF: The Lord Have Mercy - Shelley SmithJ F Norrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787364257168822822.post-43243944653472133482018-08-04T15:20:30.975-05:002018-08-04T15:20:30.975-05:00Correction? A police inspector does NOT take cent...Correction? A police inspector does NOT take center stage. I wish one had done.John P.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02822623266307926379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787364257168822822.post-33170624116591008322016-02-25T20:36:44.759-06:002016-02-25T20:36:44.759-06:00Great blog. Loved reading more about Ms. Smith as ...Great blog. Loved reading more about Ms. Smith as I've just found a badly battered first edition of one of her novels. Looking forward to discovering her. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787364257168822822.post-44984069126054315552012-05-31T06:39:44.265-05:002012-05-31T06:39:44.265-05:00That's a incisive comment about Forbes' ad...That's a incisive comment about Forbes' adaptation of a brilliant book. I liked what he did but he utterly missed the point of McShane's story and basically re-invented the characters for his own version.<br /><br />This is one of Shelley Smith's later books. It seems to be an attempt to be more "contemporary", striving to match what was selling among her more successful fellow crime writers in this era. Her supporting characters were a lot more interesting than her primary players whose story was lost in the teeming cast and their problems and eccentricities. I think she liked the other characters more than her leads.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787364257168822822.post-43154717899774500752012-05-31T02:28:58.752-05:002012-05-31T02:28:58.752-05:00I've only read a couple of Smith's compara...I've only read a couple of Smith's comparatively few novels and liked them both - this one I've not come across. She did tend to specialise in a kind of emotional diminunuendo in the search for a more ironic finale and avoid melodramatic flourishes, which sounds pretty fatal in this case. I'm reminded of what the film critic Andrew Sarris once said about writer director Bryan Forbes (who adapted SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON and DEADFALL), "He perpetually pursues the anti-cliché only to arrive at anticlimax"Sergio (Tipping My Fedora)http://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com