I’ve just finished reading the latest G.M Ford book in the Frank Corso series…“Blown Away”. The man is a genius writer, in my opinion. I woke up early the other morning to read two or three chapters, and got nearly halfway through the book…had to drag myself away to get to work. And his Leo Wasserman books are funny AND suspenseful. I have actually found myself copying out quotes from the book because he crafts such descriptive sentences…and I never copy out quotes from anyone else. Okay, maybe The Yarn Harlot, but she and Ford could be related.
Anyone else reading this author?
::comes into thread expecting it to be about hotrodders partial to GM versus those partial to Ford and the relative cultural diffs between the two fanboy camps::
Never mind, carry on.
Calvin has to pee, and is very confused…
Do you know, I read five of his books before I realized the cosmic joke that is his name? I was totally oblivious…
One little bump…am I the only one to have read his stuff?
Fiction? Nonfiction? Sounds like?
Hard-boiled fiction about private detectives. The first series, the Waterman books, is somewhat lighter in tone and more humorous than the Corso series that followed and which Ford is currently writing. For example, Waterman employs a group of homeless men as observers and informants, leading to Wacky Hijinks.
My ex-wife turned me onto Ford’s writing. Guy’s a great stylist, and as a Seattle resident I can confirm that he has an amazing sense of place. He wrote an action sequence on a houseboat in (IIRC) the first Corso book that’s just right on the money. And the biohazard containment scene in the downtown Seattle transit tunnels (book 3?) were especially chilling for my having spent so much time there myself.
Fans of crime and detective fiction would do well to check these books out.
Thank you! I knew I couldn’t be the only Doper to appreciate this author. Usually people are jumping all over each other in these threads…waves of posters who read the same obscure book. So I’ve been very surprised at the lack of response here. And I like his sense of place. Many books I read, especially those set in real places, seem very heavy-handed about mentioning local landmarks and such. Ford never makes it intrusive. So have you read “Blown Away” yet?
Sorry to have kept you waiting, I didn’t see this until now.
Ford is one of the writers on my “preferred” list. I’ve been reading his books for a few years, now and he seems to be getting better and better. Like Harlan Coben, his first books (the Leo Wasserman ones) were well written but not particularly deep. But from the first Frank Corso novel (Fury) he really seemed to step things up.
For perspective, my “preferred” list also includes Robert Ferrigno, George Pelecanos, Walter Mosley, Tim Dorsey, Neal Barrett (Jr.), and Joe Lansdale to name a few mystery-type writers. Oh, and of course, Harlan Coben. Tom Robbins and Christopher Moore and Terry Pratchett are all on there, too, but they don’t write the same kind of stories. 