tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9100001220947256423.post4080577660376399344..comments2024-02-01T09:41:09.487+01:00Comments on Death Can Read: Pietro De Palmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051060020493340331noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9100001220947256423.post-3843907255103140152012-04-14T10:32:24.512+02:002012-04-14T10:32:24.512+02:00How did your concept now exemplified, it appears d...How did your concept now exemplified, it appears differently and in a different light. <br />What is certain is that serial murderers of Harris, when they kill, they know they do. And there is a single identity. The murderess of Pronzini do not know, and it is so devastating and sad not only for victims but also for him. The ending of the novel is not just a punch in the stomach, because dies the person no one would have thought would die, but also because the person that kills, is rather different from the person who was defending her and loved her. There is not one but multiple identities into the murderer. That's because Pronzini's novel is not just a thriller, but it assumes noir shades. I do not know what I mean. <br />Normally thrillers are full of corpses, blood, torture, badness but they have a final solar: the murderer was captured and everything can go back to how it was before, or almost. <br />Pronzini-Malzberg 's novel is first leaden in its development, but then has a final melancholic, sad, as the ending of a noirAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9100001220947256423.post-19817559052687475132012-04-14T04:40:57.107+02:002012-04-14T04:40:57.107+02:00I was referring to the MODERN subgenre of serial k...I was referring to the MODERN subgenre of serial killer novels as exemplified by Thomas Harris and others who mimicked him where the focus is on the killer and his psychopathology. The Golden Age books that featured serial killing didn't even refer to those murderers as "serial killers." The term itself wasn't even in use until the 1960s or so (I think). The subgenre I don't think of truly coming into play until the mid 1970s. And so "classic among early" should now be more clear to you as i intended it.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9100001220947256423.post-38630776831369815992012-04-13T11:55:00.622+02:002012-04-13T11:55:00.622+02:00I do not know, John. To say that this is as you sa...I do not know, John. To say that this is as you say "a classic among the early serial killer novels" I think something a little forced. So the novels of Philip MacDonald, what they are ... kind of prehistory? To me, Philip MacDonald seems being very actual. There are many writers who seem to be old, and many other by several years ago that seem to be of our times.<br />For example in Italy few days ago came out one of his last writers: Mondadori has published My Name is Michael Selby, by John Bingham, another writer that looks contemporary, and instead is more than fifty years ago.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9100001220947256423.post-12559461406860060382012-04-13T02:52:06.314+02:002012-04-13T02:52:06.314+02:00This is a classic among the early serial killer no...This is a classic among the early serial killer novels. It came out long before the subgenre became absolutely worn out and cliche. You ought to look for another Pronzini/Malzberg collaboration. I'm not sure if it has been translated but it's just as good (I think, but reviews of the internet slam it and do so unfairly). It's called NIGHT SCREAMS and it deals with psychics as the target of a serial killer. I read it when I was a teenager (a LONG time ago) and I remember it being pretty original for the time and that it also had a loopy sense of humor.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.com