Musings - Hard Boiled Detective Fiction

 

Noir detective fiction, also called hard boiled fiction, is where the main character is usually a private investigator or police detectives in urban settigns. Noir fiction are essentially crime novels where the crime-ridden city is a character and the outlook is dark (thus noir-french for black) and cynical.

The 1920s dime novel (what we would call a novela now) detective was the pre-cursor for the noir detective novel.  It was an early influence on crime fiction and was critical to sustain mystery novels after Edgar Alan Poe until Sherlock Holmes exploded on the scene.

Cheap American fiction around 1860s for working class people first appeared with Beadle's Dime Novels and featured series novels.  They were hugely successful from the get-go.  As the American populace became more literate, the demand for affordable entertaining novels grew and soldiers during the Civil War on both sides devoured dime novels that were so portable. 

Old Sleuth was the first Dime novel detective in 1872 and the word "sleuth" was first used in this detective series where the detective would often wear the disguise of an old man.  This saw a shift from frontier themes in dime novels to crime fiction tales set in cities with more sensationalism. Thus, it was an indication of cities becoming population centers (also called the age of the metropolis).  The novels also typified the dynamics of urban settings that the nation was dealing with at the time and was therefore a sign of the times.

These novels had their own tropes that included diabolical villains, cruelly treated women in distress, and last minute escapes from danger.  But they also served up a variety of settings, including even Russia.  Bankers and mail carriers were detectives, and even a few ladies were featured as dime novel detectives.

Early examples of the formula to the success of the genre were a series of exciting and dangerous encounters one after another, infiltrating a criminal organization in disguise, his/her true identity uncovered, being captured and tortured, escaping through street smarts and strength, and ultimately solving the crime and descimating the criminals as a result.  There were all sorts of other elements but there was usually violence involved.  But a satisfactory outcome against the bad guys is the one element that was favored.

Nick Carter is probably the most famous and well known dime-novel detective.  The Nick Carter franchise shows the transition from dime novels to noir/hard boiled. The fictional character started as young, confident, a master of disguise, and role model with his clean living and family values.  By the 1920s and the advent of hard-boiled detective stories, Nick Carter adapted to the pulp magazine era and transitioned to a hard boiled detective who wasn't the clean living role model any longer and had a darker outlook (classic anti-hero) and more harsh reality featured in the stories such as harsh violence and rampant corruption.  

By 1949, there were around 4000 Nick Carter dime novels, pulp magazines, films (silent or talkies, and a few in French), comic books, comic strips, and radio shows.  After Ian Fleming's Bond novels came out, Nick Carter was reconstituted in 1964-1990 for intrigue as Nick Carter: Kill Master with plenty of gratuitous sex.

The 1920-40s detective was harsher and tougher (thus hard-boiled) and although more realistic, tended toward utter pessimism.  Raymond Chandler called the cozy "English country-house mystery" of Agatha Christie artificial and proclaimed it dead and replaced by the rougher hard-boiled detectives like what Dashiel Hammet wrote. But the traditional mysteries, puzzle mysteries, and cozy mysteries continued selling even during the hard-boiled rise in popularity.

MasterClass articles "What Is Noir Fiction?" says that classic noir fiction has these four elements as hallmarks of the genre: 

1. Enduring mystery: Nearly all noir novels are mystery stories if not detectives or private investigators—as in the work of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, but this is not a requirement of noir.

2. A femme fatale: Classic noir often features a femme fatale, a mysterious and seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to seduce and entrap her enemies.

3. Gritty urban settings: Like many works of mystery fiction, noir fiction fits perfectly with the urban landscapes of twentieth-century America. West coast cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City are favorites of noir novelists.

4. Grim assessments of human nature: Although pulpy and driven by action and intrigue, some noir books are works of literary fiction that make statements on the human condition. In a great number of cases, they are very dismal and disheartening, even downright depressing. From the villains to the protagonists to society itself, the world seems to conspire against good people in noir fiction.

If you wish to explore noir fiction, check out these iconic classic novels that Masterclass recommends:

1. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930): The book was later adapted into a blockbuster film starring Humphrey Bogart.

2. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939): Another hardboiled detective classic set in Los Angeles made into a movie once again starring Humphrey Bogart. 

3. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (1950): Highsmith's debut novel inspired a famous Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. 

4. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (1934): shocking plot points that led to book bannings after its publication.

5. Queenpin by Megan Abbott (2007): A touchstone of contemporary noir fiction focuses on a ruthless mob veteran.

6. The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy (1987): The Black Dahlia is a contemporary noir novel and the first in Ellroy's "L.A. Quartet," a series of neo-noir books where corruption reigns, human nature fails, and happy endings are in short supply.

7. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy (1935):

Nordic noir has become quite popular.  They are written by
authors from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.  Although these countries aren't usually associated with much crime, the novels range from police procedurals to private eyes and feature a wide range of crimes and equally large variety of criminals. Of course Steig Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is perhaps the most well known nordic noir title, but it is by no means the first nor the biggest.  

Swedish authors Maj Sjöwall and her husband Per Wahlöö began the Nordic Noir in the 1965 with their first mystery novel Roseanna.  The series featured Stockholm police detective Martin Beck and consisted of ten novels published between 1965 and 1975- when Per Wahlöö passed away.  They had originally detailed out only 10 books anyway.   

Michael Connelly said of their work: “One of the most authentic, gripping, and profound collection of police procedurals ever accomplished.”  That is high praise indeed. Jo Nesbo calls Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö the godfathers of Scandinavian crime.  

Their fourth book, The Laughing Policeman, won the Edgar Award for best novel in 1971 from Mystery Writers of America and the book was also adapted into a film of the same name starring Walter Matthau.   

The ten novels emphasized the National Homicide Squad as a team and wrote it like an ensemble cast.  Author Ed McBain feels "they revolutionized the police procedural, emphasizing the squad as a whole."  In the ten books Sjöwall and Wahlöö wrote about suicide, serial killers, pornography, pedophilia, drug-smuggling, arms-dealing, and even madness; while their characters married, divorced, retired; aged, and yes-died.  Apparently all nordic noir authors after them give full credit to Sjöwall and Wahlöö as the pioneers of the genre.

If you like your books dark and gritty, then perhaps modern noir/hard-boiled is for you.  Modern hard-boiled novels include the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly,  Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley, James Ellroy in general, Derek Strange & Terry Quinn series by George Pelecanos, and Kenzie & Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane are a few to begin with.