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>I do have to disagree with JHMcmullen's
>characterization of "lifting" the genre
>from cozy to hard-boiled. Hammett expanded
>the genre. There is nothing inferior about
>the cozy.

Okay, the verb "lift" was poorly chosen, because, although I prefer the hard-boiled subgenre to the cozy subgenre, I prefer a well-written one of either to a poorly-written one of either.

What I meant--and I may bollix this up more and give more offense, but I'll try not to--was that at the time the mystery genre was the cozy, as I understand it. The most famous writers I can think of were Milne (and I've only ever heard of one of his) and Christie.

The work that Hammett did (and the rest of the Black Mask authors, I suppose) was to create a new thing. It was mystery, yes--the question of whodunnit was pretty clearly at the heart of each story or novel--but it didn't hew to lots of the conventions that existed at the time.

Yup, "lifting" was the wrong verb. No offense was intended to those who like and approve of cozies or any of the other mystery subgenres.

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