Men from Boys

Начало книги

‘The Resurrection of Bobo Jones’ by Bill Moody. First published in B flat, Bebop, Scat: Jazz Short Stories & Poems, edited by Chris Parker (Quartet Books, London, 1986). Reprinted by permission of the author.

A version of ‘Like an Arrangement’ by Bill James appears in the novel The Girl With the Long Back (Constable, London, 2003). Reprinted by permission of the author.

It began with a simple enough idea: a book which would collect together stories by those writers in the crime and mystery area whose work I respect, admire and enjoy most. Simple? Well, no.

For one thing, the choice would be too vast, the book too large. But then, unbidden, the title leapt to mind: Men from Boys. And once it was there, lodged in my brain, it wouldn’t leave. It was — it is — a kind of statement, a declaration, but also, and crucially, it provided a focus and a theme.

It also had the effect of cutting the number of writers I might have approached by half. No McDermid, no Fyfield, no Stella Duffy; no Grafton, no Paretsky, no Julie Smith. No Alice Sebold. No Suzanne Berne.

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