Bill Pronzini ---- no, no. He's ok, in
my opinion.
Now that I have your attention:
A number of years ago Pronzini wrote two books about some of the
WORST writing in the history of mystery and detective fiction. Even authors who have a "good" reputation can sometimes turn out prune juice. (Read: It goes in, but it comes out most unpleasantly. I think one has to have a sense of humor to appreicate bad writing...
The title of one of these two books is
Gun In Cheek and is one of the most
hilarious reads you might encounter. I can't remember the title of the other one. (I have both, but they're packed up in my storage unit, since I'm preparing to go back to Peru.)
Pronzini mainly focused on the
HORRIBLE writing from a publishing house called
Pheonix Press. This was an outfit from the 30s-50s that catered mainly to the library market, so very few of these books found their way into the public.
The excerpts will have you rolling on the floor and, if you're not careful, may leave you with a stink in your pants.
Track down
Gun in Cheek if you want a wonderful reading experience full of misplaced modifiers, corny dialogue, over-sexed detectives, and plot gimmicks out of Lo***c***. The English language never had it so good!
Thinking of this book also reminds me of the wonderfully bad and thorougly hilarious writings of
Robert Leslie Bellem. He was one of the best bad writers I've ever read. I love his horrible writing!
Don
NOTE: I'm assembling some Bellem for the Sony upload section. After all, I shouldn't be the only person laughing...or being tortured.
Edited: My horrible grammatical error: - worse/worst - !!!!