Word: hardest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Probably the hardest kind of crime novel to write is the exploration of the criminal mind from within, the stream of psychotic consciousness brought to its peak in past years by Julian Symons (The Players and the Game) and Ruth Rendell (Live Flesh). That sort of book has been attempted unsuccessfully this season by Robert B. Parker, whose uninsightful Crimson Joy (Delacorte; 211 pages; $16.95) suggests that he would do better to return to slam-bang action. Symons and Rendell, meanwhile, are represented by more conventional fare resurrecting characters from some of their earlier novels...
...oddest of the season's worthwhile offerings, or at least the hardest to explain, are William Marshall's War Machine (Mysterious Press; 220 pages; $15.95) and Reginald Hill's Underworld (Scribner's; 280 pages; $14.95). Marshall's 15 weird suspense novels are all set in either the Philippines or, as in this case, Hong Kong and feature seemingly supernatural events that turn out to have logical, if not precisely rational, origins. He has savage fun with police procedure, the culture clashes of East and West and the intrusive effects of each place's multinational colonial history. In War Machine, someone...
...that argues that the sale of sex did indeed flourish in a time when the Pope condemned everything from fornication to chastity. In an era in which the Church dictated what sexual positions pregnant women under the age of 25 could assume, the women of the night were the hardest working portion of the labor force in the cities and towns. Rossiaud analyzes the reasons for prostitution's longevity despite prohibition's on its existence...
...Hardest hit by the cancellations is Jerusalem, where stores, hotels and restaurants are desperate for some well-heeled visitors. Along the Cardo, a rebuilt Roman boulevard in the Old City, ten of the 18 shops have closed; others have had to slash prices to attract customers. "My sales are off 80% because I sell mainly to Americans," says Eli Heller, manager of a leather- apparel store. Grumbles Ruth Elkayam, a cashier at Tayelet restaurant: "It doesn't pay to open up in the morning. Our business is off by 90%, and instead of 40 workers we have...
...Hardest hit are thousands of Soviet Armenians, who have swelled the emigrant ranks in recent months. In June alone the embassy issued 2,000 refugee visas, more than the total for all 1987. Many Armenians who were planning to leave the U.S.S.R. in a few weeks risk having their Soviet exit visas expire before the U.S. again opens its doors. Said a distraught emigrant: "We moved out of our apartments and quit our jobs...