Raymond is not the equal of Thompson, his writing could be sloppy and repetitive and plotting often goes badly awry in his novels, but his vision and his voice are so strong that those who are drawn in will be hooked.
Many of his most vociferous fans are other writers. In the introduction to this edition, writing of his own shattering first meeting with Raymond in the shape of I Was Dora Suarez, James Sallis writes: "Five or six times in a life you come across a book that sends electric shocks skittering and scorching through the whole of you and radically alters the way in which you perceive the world."
Beware though, it could be argued that He Died with His Eyes Open, is the lightest read in the factory series, and I was Dora Suarez is justifiably notorious, it is simply too much for many people to stomach.
A note on this new edition. Serpent's Tail is to be congratulated on bringing Raymond back out into the light, and there have been a series of web rumours that the series is to be filmed; Ray Winston has been named as a possible star. However, it's a shame that end-of-line hyphenations have been allowed to wander unchecked across pages. Sallis' introduction -- which is excellent -- is revealed by a quick web search to be a hasty rehash of a 2003 article for the Boston Globe. Nothing wrong with that I guess (and Serpent's Tail's list is a brave and independent joy), but with Raymond's high currency among current crime writers -- including Mark Timlin, Maxim Jakubowski and the excellent journalist Cathi Unsworth, whose own Raymond experience includes a legendary bender with the man himself -- I would have thought a disorderly queue of fans would have assembled to pen a new tribute.
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