Staff Picks
Noir is the New Black: Hardboiled Books
- Sara M.
- Thursday, October 10, 2019
Collection
Enjoy some hardboiled crime fiction about jaded detectives, wicked women, and cold blooded murder.
Double Indemnity
Published in 1992
Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1936, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.
Bedelia
Published in 2012
Long before Desperate Housewives, there was Bedelia: pretty, ultra femme, and "adoring as a kitten." A perfect housekeeper and lover, she wants nothing more than to please her insecure new husband, who can't believe his luck. But is Bedelia too good to be true?A mysterious new neighbor turns out to be a detective on the trail of a "kitten with claws of steel"a picture-perfect wife with a string of dead husbands in her wake. Caspary builds this tale to a peak of psychological suspense as her characters are trapped together by a blizzard. The true Bedelia, the woman who chose murder over a life on the street, reveals how she turns male fantasies of superiority into a deadly con. Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women's writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the series: Bedelia; Bunny Lake Is Missing; By Cecile; The G-String Murders; The Girls in 3-B; Laura; The Man Who Loved His Wife; Mother Finds a Body; Now, Voyager; Return to Lesbos; Skyscraper; Stranger on Lesbos; Stella Dallas; Women's Barracks.
Farewell, My Lovely
Published in 1988
Moose Malloy, a six-foot-five giant just out of prison, gets detective Philip Marlowe involved in his seemingly hopeless search for Velma, his missing girlfriend.
The Annotated Big Sleep
Published in 2018
"The first fully annotated edition of Raymond Chandler's 1939 classic The Big Sleep features hundreds of illuminating notes and images alongside the full text of the novel and is an essential addition to any crime fiction fan's library. A masterpiece of noir, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep helped to define a genre. Today it remains one of the most celebrated and stylish novels of the twentieth century. This comprehensive, annotated edition offers a fascinating look behind the scenes of the novel, bringing the gritty and seductive world of Chandler's iconic private eye Philip Marlowe to life. The Annotated Big Sleep solidifies the novel's position as one of the great works of American fiction and will surprise and enthrall Chandler's biggest fans. Including: -Personal letters and source texts -The historical context of Chandler's Los Angeles, including maps and images -Film stills and art from the early pulps -An analysis of class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity in the novel"-- Provided by publisher.
Black Wings Has My Angel
Published in 2016
When Ken first meets Virginia, he's fresh off a jail break and a gig on an oil rig. She's his first woman after months on the water but how could he know she'd get under his skin so quickly? That instead of ditching her he'd come to need her, not only for himself but for the foolproof robbery scheme his cellmate had cooked up before he was shot to death going over the wire? Ken has a plan, and Virginia can handle a Packard like a pro-and she wants the bucks even more than he does. They stay together, they plan together, and before long they're on the run together. But can either one of them really love the other? Or trust the other?
L.A. Confidential
Published in 1997
Three troubled cops-- Ed Exley, desperately seeking glory; vengeful Bud White, a witness to his mother's murder by his father; and Jack Vincennes, a shakedown artist with a dark secret-- tread a fine line between right and wrong in 1950s Los Angeles.
A Gun for Sale
An Entertainment
Published in 2005
"Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of the Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes. When the first of these is traced, Raven becomes a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him while he attempts to elude the police, Raven becomes both hunter and hunted: an unwitting weapon of a strange kind of social justice."--BOOK JACKET.
Red Harvest
Published in 1992
When a hard-fighting detective arrives in Personville and finds that his client has been murdered, he decides to investigate local gangland activities
Strangers on a Train
Published in 2016
In Patricia Highsmith's debut novel, we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith's perilous world-where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder. The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1951 film, Strangers on a Train launched Highsmith on a prolific career of noir fiction, and proved her mastery of depicting the unsettling forces that tremble beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.
A Swollen Red Sun
Published in 2014
God, drugs, corruption, and morality come together in this gripping tale of desperation. In Gasconade County, Missouri - once called the meth capital of the world - Deputy Sheriff Dale Banks discovers $52,000 hidden in the broken-down trailer that Jerry Dean Skaggs uses for cooking crystal. And he takes it. Banks knows what he did was wrong, but he did it for all the right reasons. At least, he thinks so. But for every wrong, there is a consequence. Jerry Dean can't afford to lose that $52,000 - he owes it to his partners and to a crooked cop. He also can't afford to disappoint the crazed and fearsome Reverend Butch Pogue, who is expecting Jerry Dean to deliver the chemicals the reverend needs for his next batch of meth. To avoid the holy man's wrath, Jerry Dean sets in motion a series of events that will threaten Banks's family, his life, and everything he thinks he knows about the world.
Take a Murder, Darling
Published in 2014
Of course my line of work has its perks-and it should when I lay my life on the line for dangerously daring women even if they are among the most luscious ladies I've ever met. It's not easy guarding these beautiful bodies . . . of course it takes a lot more than being a bodyguard these days, especially when there's so much body to be guarded. And she has plenty of body to keep me busy-uh, working-for quite a while, even if she's stacked for murder.
One for Our Baby
Published in 2013
For the sake of Ol' Blue Eyes, a pilot searches California for the woman they both love When World War II ended, fighter ace Joe Buonomo didn't make it back for the parades. After nearly a decade adrift in troubled seas, he washed up in California, determined to re-claim his life. In 1954, he met Helen, one of the fresh-faced girls eager to break into Hollywood. They fell blissfully in love and got engaged-until Joe's post-war past intervened, and he lost his fiancě. Years later, Joe's running an air freight business and doing the occasional odd job for a certain crooner named Frank Sinatra. One afternoon, Joe agrees to give Sinatra's latest honey a lift to Los Angeles, where she has a screen test the next morning. Not until she arrives at the airport does he realize it's Helen. After just a few hours together, Joe and Helen confess their old feelings still burn. But the next day, Helen never makes it to the studio. She's vanished into thin air. To find her, Joe will have to go up against the mob, the FBI, and the forces behind presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. The only catch is, who is he rescuing her for-Sinatra? Or himself?
A Long Time Dead
A Mike Hammer Casebook
Published in 2016
The first collection of stories starring legendary Mike Hammer, the toughest private investigator in history It starts with a few near-accidents. A car almost swipes Mike Hammer when he's crossing the street. A junkie robs the notoriously hardboiled detective at knifepoint. A fight on a subway platform comes close to pushing him in front of a train. While any one of these could be a coincidence, together they make a conspiracy--one that Hammer will have to end in order to survive. And when it comes to finishing something--or someone--nobody does it better than Hammer.
The Hunter
Published in 2014
'The Hunter' is the story of a man who hits New York head-on, like a shotgun blast to the chest. Betrayed by the woman he loves and double-crossed by his partner in crime, Parker makes his way cross-country with only one thought burning in his mind - to coldly exact his revenge and reclaim what was taken from him!
The Grifters
Published in 2012
To his friends, to his coworkers, and even to his mistress Moira, Roy Dillon is an honest, hardworking salesman. He lives in a cheap hotel just within his pay bracket. He goes to work every day. He has hundreds of friends and associates who could attest to his good character. Yet, hidden behind three gaudy clown paintings in Roy's pallid hotel room, sits $52,000-the money Roy makes from his short cons, his 'grifting.' For years Roy has effortlessly maintained control over his house-of-cards life-until the simplest con goes wrong, and he finds himself critically injured and at the mercy of the most dangerous woman he ever met: his own mother. The Grifters, one of the best novels ever written about the art of the con, is an ingeniously crafted story of deception and betrayal that was the basis for the critically acclaimed film of the same name.