As it happened the Boysie Oakes novels were a pleasant surprise--much more so than I would have guessed from hazy recollections of a long-ago casual viewing of the adaptation of the first of them (1965's The Liquidator) on TCM--Gardner a parodist who knew his subject, and displayed teeth, gusto and comedic flair in treating it.
Gardner's Moriarty novels (the first two, at any rate), were an even bigger surprise that way, not least in that, while his sense of humor was on display, the books worked well as tales of criminal intrigue, with the feat the more impressive as he managed to make such a strong impression with a very familiar, oft-treated figure.*
And on and on it went, though these books quite sufficed to make clear to me that while Gardner's Bond novels have their moments they are no match for these tales--and a reminder to me that while the Dauriats of the publishing world love work-for-hire arrangements existing mainly to squeeze a few more pennies out of some run-down franchise, they mean that writers of talent are apt to spend a lot less time of their time living up to their potentials, and giving readers of their very best.
* The third Moriarty novel, reportedly held up by intellectual property rights issues, was only published in 2008, after the author's death and more than three decades after the first two, and so perhaps not as representative.
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