Who’s in control of your life? You? Or someone or something else? It’s a heady question, asked about as long as humans have thought about anything, and it’s at the heart of crime fiction, especially noir. Much of crime fiction is predicated on inevitability (chances are the detective is going to solve the case, order…
Although David Goodis (1917-67) led a fascinating life (fascinating to some of us, anyway), I’m not going to spend a lot of time here discussing his personal story. Instead, I’ll focus on his writing and some of the movies that were made from his novels. But a few notes on the man behind the books:…
Cannibals: Stories from the Edge of the Pine Barrens by Jen Conley is a collection of short stories set in central Jersey, with linked characters searching for the meaning in their lives and the humanity in themselves (Available today!). New Jersey gets a bad rap. Not that my home state ISN’T full of aggressive, profanity-loving…
In tribute to the late Lauren Bacall, we’re looking at the four classic films she made with husband and screen partner Humphrey Bogart between 1944 and 1948: To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. Last week we looked at Hawks’ The Big Sleep. Today we’ll look at Delmer Daves’…
We know about the appreciation of, and contributions to, noir film and fiction by the French. We know that they celebrated the likes of Jim Thompson when the now-revered American noir author was kicked to the curb in his home country. And in 1960 another striking example of U.S. noir being recognized by the French…
You know you’re officially a mystery fanatic when you start reading books about books. Luckily, over the years many studies of hardboiled and noir crime fiction have been published to meet the needs of just these kind of fanatics. Here’s a short guide to some of the best. 1. “The Simple Art of Murder” by…
The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology, edited by Richard Thomas, is a collection of twenty dark and twisted tales from assorted genres: horror, crime, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and the grotesque (available May 13, 2014). I tend to not get bogged down with defining genres. I’m sure some would question whether all or even…
In the last of these columns I wrote about an author whose work I said would have to be represented in any of list of the great heist novels of all time. This time I’m covering another scribe who demands a place on that list. But John Trinian’s 1961 story Scratch a Thief (later re-titled…
Summer is right around the corner, and how better to pass the time than with some reads set in exotic locales or, just as fun, on the beach? Whether you’re looking for something light and breezy or a walk on the darker side of summer, no worries, we’ve got you covered! If it’s a light,…
Brothers shouldn’t get involved with the same woman. There could be a whole subgenre or books/movies in which this scenario is involved, and I feel confident stating that tragedy would be a common theme. Bob Crane (no, not that Bob Crane), narrator of Hill Girl—Charles Williams’s excellent work of farmyard pulp from 1951—never had any…
