Favorite (or least favorite) PI novel clichés

I had a conversation with reviewer Cameron Hughes recently where the topic of private eye clichés came up. Cameron was complaining about the use of jazz in PI novels (I'll let him explain his position further, if he wants) and I responded with the alcoholic PI.

To amuse myself, I started making a list of other overused clichés and gimmicks from PI novels. Here's what I came up with. (Note: some of these would also apply to other types of crime novels.)

• The psycho sidekick who does the dirty work so that the hero can keep his hands clean.
• The detective who's a gourmet cook.
• The detective who drives a flashy car. (Would you really try to tail someone in a Ferrari or Shelby Cobra?)
• The detective as social worker -- not only does he solve your case, he heals your soul.
• The detective who's a gimmick instead of a character: he loves Bugs Bunny, he's got OCD, he's a leper, he's a left-handed transsexual, he thinks he's from Mars, etc.
• (I'm using "he" to make it easier, but all of these would apply to female PI's as well.)

Naturally, any of that stuff can still work in the right hands. I like Ken Bruen's books a lot and Jack Taylor is the prototypical boozer. But it's definitely something that I would caution any aspiring PI novel writer to be aware of. (The first rule to using a cliché is knowing that it's a cliché.)

Does these bother you when you come across them in a novel? And what are some of your favorites?

Comments

[Brian Lindenmuth]

The protag/pi who demands the release forms and checks himself out of the hospital.

The psycho sidekick is actually one of my favorite cliches. I would love to see a pastiche story where a whole group of "main" characters get kidnapped and all of their sidekicks team up to save the "heroes". Could be a lot of fun

[Elaine Flinn]

Add cops who can't manage relationships - and/or whose spouses can't handle their jobs. I mean, what the hell? What did they expect when they married a cop? A 9-5 job with no stress? :)

[Barry Eisler]

Is "overused cliché" redundant?

;D
Barry

[Norm]

The PI or police detective who goes back to his/her home town and in between sleeping with all their old girlfriends/boyfriends manages to solve both the crime they were sent to investigate and an old crime that has baffled everyone for many years.

[PJ Parrish]

Guys who slide some dumb wisecrack in at tense moments. Hammett got away with it but most the stuff that came after that sounds forced and stale.

Oh...and descriptions of wet pavement and other fake noir gems.

Ugh.

[David J. Montgomery]

Barry: Ha! After I wrote that, I thought to myself, "Is that redundant?" But I decided that, since the genre is so ridden with cliches, I'd only focus on the ones that were overused. :)

[Elaine Flinn]

Don't believe him, Barry - he did that on purpose to see if anyone was wide awake.

You, apparently, were. :)

[Guyot]

Cliche is not in the idea, it's in the execution.

And the majority of these "hot young writers" coming out today have poor execution.

No one has an original voice anymore - they're all just doing THEIR version of Lehane or Parker, or Leonard.

There is so much weak fiction being published that I think most all reviewers - including you - have inadvertently lowered your standards. The truly great book is so rare these days, and the truly lousy book is so prevalent, that when you read something mediocre it becomes good in your review, and something good becomes outstanding.

[Elaine Flinn]

The majority of the 'hot young writers' coming out today have a bigger problem than poor execution. Swollen ego, immediate persona of a seasoned writer by attempting to be profund. One book out and they're qualified now to 'teach writing' to wannabes. Oh, I could go on. Wait...take that back-seasoned writers don't pretend to be profund. They know what humility means.

[Elaine Flinn]

Damn! I meant 'profound'. I either have to stop relying on spell check or get new glasses.

[David J. Montgomery]

Unfortunately, I think Guyot is right. There is a lot of "grade inflation" in book reviews. And I think the reason he cites is one of the main culprits -- there is so much crap published that anything with merit at all gets an automatic boost, just because it doesn't suck. Critics try to adhere to standards -- at least, I do -- but it can be tough to hold the line.

[Guyot]

So, that's why you called "My Life in Publishing" by Stacey Cochran your Book of the Year.

[Elaine Flinn]

Okay-now it can be told. :) After reading 526+ books as an Edgar judge this past year - David & Guyot are both on the money. Crap?? Oh, please.

And same-old, same-old plot lines, characters? Oh, double please.

[Elaine Flinn]

And did I mention kick-ass female cops/P.I./FBI/accidental sleuths/forensic specialist who were tough as nails, had hearts of gold/were single mom/suffering from that man who done them wrong/having an affair with cops on their team and/or local fuzz?

Oh, triple please.

I'm sure I left something out.

[Cameron Hughes]

You did this! You said you weren't going to, but you did! Awesome!

I don't hate jazz itself. I'm just sick of seeing it, when I was talking to Sean Chercover(NAME CHECK!) about this, he told me a lot of reviewers took him to task for Dudgeon listening to jazz even though he mentioned a lot more music than that. My thoughts to him was that jazz in the P.I. novel is such a trope that when its used, it stands out and makes the reader/reviewer forget that other music was used.

I also hate the P.I. characters who won't go near a computer or cell phone.

[Cameron Hughes]

Also, I like the sidekick, when done well. Most just use it just to have one, and miss the point of Parker creating Hawk. I love Mouse, Pike, Bubba, a couple others. Most just aren't done well though. I liked the lack of one in Chercover's debut(Gravedigger was more of a sad and disturbed loner to me, and wasn't really violent. Dudgeon was scarier than him)

[Philip Amos]

The jazz, or rock, music cliche is not limited to crime fiction featuring PIs. We find it also in Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson and John Harvey, among others. I put up with it if the novels are out of the top drawer, but I find it extremely irritating and intrusive. One major problem I have is that most of the albums/musicians/groups referred to I have never even heard of, let alone listened to, so the references cannot possibly add anything to the narrative. I'm a classical music man myself, but a lot of the stuff mentioned in Rankin,e.g, I suspect is pretty recondite even for rock fans. The same goes for Harvey and jazz, some forms of which I do like. They can also become utterly gratuitous, something I notice particularly in Harvey and Robinson -- they are stuck in because that is what the authors do and it is expected. All in all, it's a cliche and usually too abstruse to have meaning. I doubt if a crime fiction writer would get away with doing the same thing with classical music.

[I.J.Parker]

Hmm. I posted about my irritation with penniless, down-at-heel PIs in ramshackle offices when the stacked blonde walks in, throwing money on the desk and herself in his lap.
My post didn't take. Must be discrimination.
Since we have included police procedurals: I have no objection to drinking and broken marriages. These are simply too true and too common in real life. I do dislike the constant obscure references to jazz or rock bands. But Elaine is absolutely right about the overabundance of female "kickass" PIs or detectives in rumpled sweats (what is it about cheap and dirty clothing that is thought to help characterization?) and with a nasty attitude toward men.

[David J. Montgomery]

I.J. brings up a good point -- when you're talking about the world of law enforcement, excess drinking and relationship problems are, unfortunately, a very real part of the scene.

But that leads me to another thought: Is verisimilitude a defense against cliché? (Like the truth is a defense against libel?)

My instinct would be to say no. Just because something is true, doesn't mean it can't become hackneyed or trite.

[Guyot]

Music... I love it, love reading how it relates to characters, but, yes, the jazz thing is simply played out. Again, not the idea, but the execution - if you MUST have your character listen to jazz, make it unique, make the way he/she listens to it unique.

And then there's the "I'm cooler than you" tip. I LOVE Pelecanos, but every time he goes into the whole deep, unknown-to-the-outside-world DC music scene and has all his characters listening to nothing else, well, it just stops the story for me.

It's like George feels compelled to either show his expertise, or give props to these local music people he knows, or something. Whatever the reason he has used it so much that it now stops the story for me. And it's too bad, because I think he is one of the finest writers working today.

[David J. Montgomery]

I think of music in this context the same way that I think of research. The author knows stuff, then uses it as a flavor-enhancer to make the story more interesting. But we don't want to see the research itself. We don't want an info-dump. We just want the flavor. And that's how music should be used. It should accent the flavor of the story. But it shouldn't become the story -- unless that's the point of the book.

I also think it's a risk when the author goes too obscure or too hip. For a musical reference to make sense to the reader, they have to be able to relate to it at least a little. Otherwise it's just words with no meaning. The author has to set the proper context in order for the references to make sense. Otherwise, it's just showing off.

[Guyot]

I think you're exactly right, you big gooey tub of love.

Hey, it is V-Day.

[Karen Olson]

It's only cliche if it sucks. A good writer can take a cliche and turn it upside down on its ass and it becomes fresh and original.

And why are the women dissing the "kick ass" women protags? I point to Gillian Flynn's SHARP OBJECTS, which could have been so cliched but was one of the best books I've read in a long time.

[Philip Amos]

Verisimilitude is the quality of only seeming to be true, but whether a cliche is grounded in that or in actual verity it adds up to the same thing: the ghastly platitude. I recently read for the first time Peter James, the second in his Roy Grace series, and I shan't be reading another for a number of reasons. One is that among his revelations about police officers were that they like to be part of a good team; tend to have rocky domestic lives; get very upset with defence lawyers; even more upset with soft judges, and on and on. None of these traits had anything to do with the story -- just solemn asides from an author who had either just discovered these things or thought they must be revelatory for the reader. They are all in some measure true, but for even the mildly seasoned crime fiction reader, hackneyed and trite indeed. Oh, and for good measure, James just had to tell us what sort of music Grace likes to listen to on his car radio.

[Keith]

In the case of music, I think it can be as simple as a writer not realizing that the thing that sparks all these associations in her own head sparks no associations for other people. It's an electromagnet with no current to activate it.

As for cliches, I think that's kind of like asking whether McDonald's sucks. Well, yeah... but sometimes you want fries.