Uncorking Wine for a New Generation

My latest Mysteries and Thrillers column has now been posted on the Kirkus Reviews Web site. The topic this week: Roger L. Simon’s novel The Big Fix, which introduced Los Angeles private eye Moses Wine--and celebrates its 40th birthday this year. As I write in that piece, Fix was Simon’s attempt to bring something new to a genre then in need of an overhaul:

Simon sought to put an innovative spin on private-eye fiction. He didn’t wish simply to re-wrap the field’s hard-boiled conventions in new, shinier paper, but instead hoped to reboot the genre in a way that would resonate with a generation of readers less wistful for the quieter “good old days” than they were hopeful about how late-20th-century upheavals might redefine modern culture for the better. Moses S. Wine would chronicle that evolution through the course of his cases.

You’ll find the full column here.