Hardboiled and Noir (Read a book of dark and violent crime fiction)
April 5, 2022
Hardboiled crime fiction is tough, graphic, and unsentimental, while noir crime fiction is quite literally focused on darker themes. From the 1930s to the present, these pulp fiction genres have delivered gritty settings, compromised protagonists, and snappy dialogue.
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
This classic work of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness, by the author who virtually invented the hardboiled crime novel.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Black Mask Audio Magazine, Volume 1 by Paul Cain, Hugh B. Cave, and Frederick Nebel
In the 1930s and ’40s, Black Mask was the single most important magazine for the modern mystery field. This audiobook collects a number of its hardboiled detective stories.
Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley
Paris Minton is minding his own business when a beautiful woman walks in and asks a few questions. Before he knows it, he has been beaten up, shot at, and robbed, and his bookstore has burned to the ground. Now he must get Fearless Jones out of jail to help him.
Book / Large Print / eBook
Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics by Ed Brubaker, Jeff Lemire, et al.
Inherit the Dead by Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, et al.
A collaborative effort by more than 20 top mystery and thriller authors (C.J. Box, Mary Higgins Clark, Max Allan Collins, John Connolly, Lisa Unger, etc.), this classic noir tale twists and turns down New York’s mean streets and along the Hamptons’ beaches.
Lost on a Page by David E. Sharp
Joe Slade is a detective with a hot lead and a warm gun. He no longer believes in happy-ever-afters, but the jury’s still out on plot twists. Good thing. He’s about to discover the mother of all twists: Joe Slade is not real. He’s the protagonist of a series of hardboiled mysteries!
Love & Other Crimes by Sara Paretsky
From a master of twisting suspense and compelling plots, a collection of thrilling crime and detective short stories, many featuring legendary detective V.I. Warshawski—including a brand-new V.I. story.
Book / Large Print / eBook / Audio eBook
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Crosby
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance. Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner with Jeanne Darst
Noir takes a pop culture turn in this novel by Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Data,” Brent Spiner. Featuring characters from Patrick Stewart to Levar Burton to Gene Roddenberry, this story of a mysterious package and disturbing letters from a fan is comic noir.