It's certainly a look to be seen in England (and probably elsewhere in Europe).  In fact, it's fairly ubiquitous during the summer months amongst the 'student population' - perhaps having given rise to the Jack Wills look (a name now in every other charity shop).

He wrote westerns beforehand, a genre much enjoyed by myself at one time: especially Louis L'Amour.  Sophisticates tend to despise westerns on the printed page whilst lauding the efforts of the overrated John Ford on the big screen.  But I've always enjoyed 'low' culture: pulp fiction for want of a better phrase, and once amassed a decent collection of pre-Campbell science fiction. 
Yes, the first half dozen novels are probably the best but 'Be Cool' kept me guessing until the end.
A gabby woman in Oxfam yesterday recommended Michael Connelly but I rarely consider recommendations from grabby women.
She asked me which 'jenner' I was interested in.

I think, by the way, that Leonard was at least as good as Chandler, although Chandler at his best (see the opening paragraph of 'The Long Goodbye' for instance) was astounding: a good deal better than Hammett.

Ed McBain's early fiction (and, indeed, some of the later) is superb.  Which is that character with the streak of white in his hair?  I'd forgotten about 'Fat' Ollie till seeing a couple or three episodes of 'Hill Street Blues', when an allegedly corrupt detective put me in mind of him.  McBain - refreshingly - was obviously sympathetic to the problems of the average cop (if you can call the likes of Carella 'average').