New York is enjoying a sharp decline in crime--the fewest homicides since the first reliable stats became available in 1963. So does this mean hardboiled crime writers can no longer describe the "mean streets" of New York with as much grit as they used to?
Mystery author S.J. Rozan seems to think so. Her 1994 novel CHINA TRADE opened with a scene in which a couple of private investigators mixed it up with three members of a Chinatown gang. Guns were drawn "in a chaotic scene that also featured undercover police officers dressed as winos, a surprise attack by another gang from a car speeding along the West Side Highway, and a double-cross scheme by a member of the first gang."
However, Rozan says, "That kind of book couldn’t be written anymore, because that level of lawlessness has really disappeared. . . . Anyone who has recently come to New York would pick it up and think: 'What is wrong with this woman? What is she making up?'"
Well, lower crime rate or not, crime still happens in New York and other places. And you can write hardboiled in ways that reflect gritty realities of life other than public gunfights with gang-bangers. So, I don't think crime writers are in any great danger of lacking realistic material anytime soon.
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