Hardboiled Noir

[funky dredd]

Anyone else reading some of these old pulp fiction classics? I've only read a couple but I really dig detective stuff and I can read these in just a few days so they are easy to pick up and read. I know they have been around for a while but I took one with me on vacation and was glued to the one by Ed McBain. I had bought it some time ago but never read it, it was really good. So I bought a couple more just to tie me over for a week or two until I can decide what I want to read next. I was thinking of maybe trying to find them all for a collection (not that they would be worth anything) and just have a shelf for them and read them at will.
Anyone got any other HCC books they recommend next?

[Jean]

at last another McBain reader! I have a whole McBain shelf, - mostly 87 precinct because it's his best - and reread him every time I feel down. The more you read him the more you get hooked, of course, since you get more and more familiar with all those people who eventually become part of your life; that's, I believe, what every author of series would dream of. And his sense of humor is absolutely great! If you've already read more than three 87 precinct novels, I would strongly recommend that you read Killer's Wedge (you'll see why I said you should read it only when you're already well acquainted with the character and their relationships).

[funky dredd]

I've read a few 87 Precinct books (not many, but enough). I'll check it out! Thanks Jean!

[Jean]

[funky dredd]

I just picked up 3 more HCC books yesterday! I should be good for about a week and a half.

[Darkthoughts]

Never read any McBain books, but when it comes to crime I'm Robert B Parker's Spenser ALL the way!! Read any of them?

[Jean]

Never read any McBain??? I suggest you do, I am sure you will enjoy him - it may sound paradoxical, but what makes me so sure is the fact that you enjoy Wodehouse. It's, basically, about the same: small things that may seem insignificant, but form our lives; and his sense of humor is fantastic, and the relationships of his main characters, and their dialogs about irrelevant things are so much more important than the plot!

[funky dredd]

Never read any McBain books, but when it comes to crime I'm Robert B Parker's Spenser ALL the way!! Read any of them?

I've never read any of them. I'll check them out.

[Brice]

I have a few of the older McBain books in storage which I still have never read. There are too many books and not enough time.

[Darkthoughts]

Ok - I'm off to ebay...which title should I look out for as a starter?

[Jean]

Cop Hater, Lady Killer, The Pusher, The Heckler, The Con Man, Long Time No See, and all the rest of them

and Killer's Wedge, of course - but no sooner that you've read at least three or four!

[Darkthoughts]

Yes sir!!

[Jean]

[Darkthoughts]

Aww...none of my teachers ever gave me roses or bearhugs before *signs up for more of Jean's classes*

[bluelph24]

alright, so i'm kinda easing myself into the whole hardboiled PI, noir lit and i don't quite know where to start. i understand raymond chandler is the tops, but i'm not to sure on which to start with. Naturally The Big Sleep, it being first in the series and all, but is it necessary to read them in order. i think probably not.

anyway, besides chandler, who else should i look into. dashiell hammet, i know, and john d macdonald. but who else?

nonethelss, please give me some advise on where to start.

[Darkthoughts]

It's not a genre I'm overly au fait with, but Robert B Parker is an author I'd highly recommend to anyone. I guess you could call him a contemporary of Hammett, Chandler and Macdonald - I know in his dissertation he wrote about characters from their books.

He has a couple of detectives he writes about, but my favourite - and my recommendation to you, are his Spenser novels - they are utterly fantastic

[bluelph24]

Thanks, I'll look into that.


meanwhile, anyother suggestions?

[jhanic]

The Burke novels by Andrew Vachss. They're not really about a hard-boiled PI, but they are about as noir as you can get!

John

[Bev Vincent]

Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer novels are excellent period noir. They're just being reissued by Vantage in trade paperback. I'm partial to Ian Rankin's Rebus novels, which are set in Edinburgh, and a recent favorite is Ken Bruen, whose novels are set in Galway, Ireland. Mickey Spillane was a popular practitioner is his time, too.

You might also want to check out: Elmore Leonard, Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, early James Ellroy

[The Cosmic Geek]

The only one I ever read was Hammett's The Maltest Falcon, which I loved.

[bluelph24]

i got the maltese falcon for christmas and bought the third marlowe book recently too. plus, i got the sin city dvd and two sin city yarns, i got some noir for awhile