Where to start for reading classic crime/noir fiction?

March 30, 2005 11:42 PM

I'm a pretty dedicated reader, but one of the genres I haven't explored much is classic crime/noir fiction. (I do love James Ellroy, but that's about all I've read.) I know that the big guns are Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson. Any suggestions as to which titles to start with (The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and The Grifters all come to mind first, of course, because of the films), as well as other authors to consider? I'd also be happy to entertain suggestions of really high quality true crime, though my hunch is that In Cold Blood is probably unbeatable.
posted by scody to Writing & Language (42 answers total)

To be honest, the raymond chandler stuff all starts to blur together when you've read a bunch. Which isn't to say that they aren't addictive as crack. I've read them all and I'd say the high window and the lady in the lake aren't as good as the others. Going with the movie theme, maybe you'd want to start with the big sleep.
posted by juv3nal at 12:17 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

Oh boy, do you have a lot of great stuff ahead of you. I can heartily recommend The Killer Inside Me as a quick, grim, surprisingly intense read. It made Thompson's reputation, so I'd start there for him. There's a huge sea of crime fiction info online, but this site seems smart, clear and fairly concise.
posted by mediareport at 12:18 AM on March 31, 2005

Elmore Leonard.
posted by DelusionsofGrandeur at 12:20 AM on March 31, 2005

I started reading Chandler and started with Farewell, My Lovely and I thought (after reading most of his work) tht it was the perfect intro to his work.

I had never read him before but only knew him by hearing others faux mocking him. I was simply blown away when I actually read him.

Also, someone here recommended Word Made Flesh by O'Connell and that too is a brilliant read.
posted by Dagobert at 12:29 AM on March 31, 2005

I might be in the minority with this view, but having read a bit of crime fiction I feel that you're not going to find anything in the same league as James Ellroy. Chandler is good (and Hammett is better), and I do really enjoy Jim Thomson, but they mostly appeal to my sense of nostalgia more than anything else. I did read Kiss Me, Judas recently, based on a recommendation here. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The second book in that series...not so much.
posted by Doug at 1:06 AM on March 31, 2005

The Thin Man, as you know from the film, isn't really noir crime fiction, it's a social comedy pastiche of the form. (And it's brilliant!) But of Hammett, you want to start with Red Harvest, the purest and most boiled-down of all hard-boiled novels. Then probably The Maltese Falcon though of course you know the story so you might skip to the others: The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and The Continental Op.

Charles Willeford: Miami Blues, New Hope for the Dead, The Burnt Orange Heresy, Cockfighter, The Woman Chaser.

George V. Higgins: The Friends of Eddie Coyle, At End Of Day.

Ross MacDonald: The Drowning Pool and many others.

The books Lawrence Block writes under the name Richard Stark, about a thief named Parker, are pretty great.

I happen to be addicted to Robert B. Parker's Spencer books, but you'd have to start way back in the series.

The standout among the newer writers is George Pelecanos: his new one is Drama City but read all his interlocking intergenerational D.C. series.
posted by nicwolff at 1:22 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

And when I say Lawrence Block of course I mean Donald E. Westlake, who actually writes the Parker books under the pseudonym Richard Stark. Duh.
posted by nicwolff at 1:26 AM on March 31, 2005

And Robert B. Parker's character is named Spenser, like the poet, not Spencer.
posted by nicwolff at 1:31 AM on March 31, 2005

Yep "In Cold Blood" is the best true crime book I've read, but "Beyond Belief" By Emlyn Williams (?) about England's Moors Murderers is pretty fucking good, too. And, while the prose is decidedly dull, "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi (he prosecuted the Manson Family) is a fantastically entertaining piece of True crime writing.
posted by bunglin jones at 1:43 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

As a mystery writer, I would recommend a writer that hasn't been mentioned yet, but that some believe started the noir movement, Cornell Woolrich. He might be available in your local library, but if not, there are lots of collections available. Start with "Rear Window" (Yes, that Rear Window), and then perhaps "The Bride Wore Black", "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes", "I Married A Dead Man", etc. His short stories are excellent.

Bon appetit!
posted by willmize at 3:36 AM on March 31, 2005 [2 favorites]

I love Chandler and Ellroy and Thompson and Richard Stark. I would also suggest David Goodis and James M. Cain. Also, Fast One by Paul Cain, and Thieves Like Us, by Edward Anderson. Willeford's Cockfighter is so awesome. I can't recommend Patricia Highsmith strongly enough. The Ripley novels and Strangers on a Train and just about everything she wrote is great. A little more "literary" are Nelson Algren's stuff, Richard Wright, and Nathanael West. Also, the Third Man by Graham Greene.

As long as we are talking about genre fiction I really love John LeCarre, and recommend all the George Smiley books and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I read most of Thompson's books and I guess that beyond the Grifter's, The Getaway, and Pop 1280/The Killer Inside Me (The same book, really), I would say don't waste your time with his other stuff.

I think Hammett's books are dull.
posted by mokujin at 5:20 AM on March 31, 2005

I think you'd be best starting out with Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op.
posted by unreason at 5:48 AM on March 31, 2005

For true crime, read The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, about Gary Gilmore (and then follow it up with the made for TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, who gives a scorching performance.)
posted by thinkpiece at 6:02 AM on March 31, 2005

George Pelecanos (mentioned above), Richard Price (Clockers, most famously) and David Simon (Homicide and The Corner) are all very good modern writers in this vein (and, oddly, they all work on HBO's The Wire).

Modern crime writers in the love-'em-or-hate-'em category include Ian Rankin, Andrew Vachss, Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen.
posted by box at 6:13 AM on March 31, 2005

Please start with Hammett.

I took out a "Novels of Dashiell Hammett" omnibus from my high school library, read Falcon, then proceeded to read his other four novels. Then, his various collected short stories.
I pretty much burned through all his published works in about six months.
Totally changed the way I look at writing.

After that, I like all the recommendations here. Ross MacDonald is more fun to read than Chandler, though, to be totally honest. (Chandler is good, but turgid. Which is part of the goodness.)
posted by SoftRain at 6:34 AM on March 31, 2005

fiction:

Cornell Woolrich, by all means
William Lindsay Gresham's "Nightmare Alley" (I'm working on a FPP about Gresham, a forgotten American master)
Bradbury's Death is a Lonely Business

true crime:

the already mentioned The Executioner's Song.
Shot in the Heart is a masterpiece.
Fatal Vision may be journalistically flawed but McGinniss wrote like a motherfucker
posted by matteo at 6:36 AM on March 31, 2005

I'll second Shot In The Heart. Amazing piece of work.

Bag Men by John Flood is a nice noirish read too.
posted by jonmc at 6:43 AM on March 31, 2005

Fic: Dennis Lehane.

Nonfic: Jack Olsen.
posted by scratch at 6:56 AM on March 31, 2005

Oh, and if you read Shot in the Heart, by Gary Gilmore's brother, you might as well read Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song.
posted by scratch at 6:56 AM on March 31, 2005

I read all of Dennis Lehane's books in nothing flat. Very good, but you probably want to intersperse them with other works because they do tend to bleed together in my mind into one masterwork.

Robert Janes write some absolutely superb novels in English set in France during WWII, in which a French detective and a German one cooperate during the German occupation. The writing is exquisite: it's almost as if it's been written in French, translated into English, then edited by Hemingway to give it spareness and precision.
posted by Mo Nickels at 6:58 AM on March 31, 2005

Don't forget The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler. Amazing book and one of my favorites of the genre. Oddly enough, the book has the honor (?) of inspiring Robert Altman's weirdest film, a non-noir "re-imagining" of the book staring Elliot Gould (?) and a certain California governor in his second film role.
posted by Verdant at 7:10 AM on March 31, 2005

Donald E. Westlake was mentioned briefly above, however to expand, if you want a break from the cold action and want some comedy relief, look for any of Westlake's books that include the character John Dortmunder.

I am currently reading a collection titled The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction edited by Maxim Jakubowski. Weighing in at 600 pages, it includes stories from the crime pulp magazines from the 30s through the 80s. A couple are clunkers, but the rest are fairly good to excellent.
posted by mischief at 7:19 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

Private eye fiction--I really like Stephen Greenleaf's Tanner series. Except for the last two books, which were on the lame side. The series appears to be done.
posted by Savannah at 7:45 AM on March 31, 2005

woohoo - I get to mention a book before anyone else.
Walter Mosley writes in the Noir Genre. For an introduction, read an Omnibus (Devil in a blue dress --> White butterfly) or watch Devil in a Blue Dress (starring Denzil Washington). I'd be interested in other peoples opinions on this, but for my money Mosley is a natural progression from Chandler.
posted by seanyboy at 8:00 AM on March 31, 2005

I second mischief's Westlake suggestion, the Dortmunder stuff is great fun. He also has a few gritty works not under the Stark pseudonym, the one that I enjoyed most fondly was 'The Ax.'

Another good crime & shady character writer who is funny along the way is Carl Hiassen. As a former South Florida resident I can tell you that they're damned near non-fiction in their depiction of SFla politics and whackos.
posted by phearlez at 8:24 AM on March 31, 2005

A better introduction to the Easy Rawlins Canon.
posted by seanyboy at 8:27 AM on March 31, 2005

Also, I'm a pretty big fan of Vintage's Black Lizard imprint. Lots of good reissues, and decent modern stuff.

And James M. Cain and Mickey Spillane never did much for me, but they're fairly popular within the genre.
posted by box at 8:56 AM on March 31, 2005

Night and the City by Gerald Kersh is terrific and was the basis for one of my favorite films (no not the De Niro one, that was horrible).
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:58 AM on March 31, 2005

But of Hammett, you want to start with Red Harvest, the purest and most boiled-down of all hard-boiled novels

Red Harvest is brilliant, but you appreciate it a lot more after you've read The Continental Op. First read the short stories, where the Op starts off as Hammett's least ambiguous character: he's got a job to do and he does it. Then you can read Red Harvest and see how he gets sucked into the violence and starts to enjoy it. After that, you'll understand how Sam Spade isn't on anybody's side except his own.

Lots of great recommendations in this thread, I'll second James M. Cain, David Goodis, and Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me (the rest of his stuff varies wildly in quality). Of the more recent ones, you can't beat Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, and especially Edward Bunker. Bunker wrote a series of unbelievably great novels, as well as a true crime memoir Education of a Felon that's pretty good, although not as great as the novels.

Lots more in the recent MeFi crime lovers discussion here.
posted by fuzz at 10:00 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

Ooo! Ooo! Alan Furst is absolutely wonderful. He writes espionage novels about WWII. But saying that is sort of like saying that Hemingway a novel about bullfighting. Furst's research is impeccable (his novels have bibliographies, fer cryin' out loud!), and he can fully render a character in one short sentence. Try to read them in the order written, because some of his characters do re-appear - and the books will have more meaning if read in order. Have fun.
posted by dbmcd at 10:07 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks so much, everyone! I can't wait to get to the library this weekend.
posted by scody at 10:36 AM on March 31, 2005

Here's another vote for Philly's David Goodis. Dark Passage and Nightfall and, of course, Shoot the Piano Player.
posted by sixpack at 10:38 AM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

Really, truly, start with Chandler. Any Chandler, just to get the scent. I like Hammett, and I like the Cains and Woolrich and what have you, but if you want to begin to immerse yourself, begin with Chandler. And if you want a film fest, watch Bogart's The Big Sleep, Altman's The Long Goodbye and Coen's The Big Lebowski after you've read at least the two referenced Chandler novels.
posted by blueshammer at 10:56 AM on March 31, 2005

I think there are people who prefer Hammett & those who prefer Chandler, and once you figure out which you are, further exploring will be easier. As I cannot stand most of Hammett but reread Chandler yearly, take the following with that in mind.

Ross MacDonald, Ross MacDonald, Ross MacDonald. Very SoCal noir. His detective is perhaps the epitome of the existential sleuth as sketched by Chandler: a keen eye for the difficulty of doing good & the ways in which choices are twisted are wrapped around a compelling mystery set in postwar California. To paraphrase the deadhead girl on Freaks and Geeks, I wish I'd never read him just so I could read him again. I've tried to get into other detective fiction and have yet to find someone who stacks up. Cain is probably my third fave.

As far as films go, the old noirs are great but I really hate the updates.
posted by dame at 11:22 AM on March 31, 2005

Hammet is quite straightforward. If you've seen Bogart, Greenstreet, Lorre and Astor in The Maltese Falcon, you've seen everything that happens in the book, except that Cairo and Wilmer are explicitly homosexual in the book.

Chandler was a better writer, with a gift for creating the noir sensibility. Start with The Big Sleep, where you'll find the following:

"My rubber heels slithered on the sidewalk as I turned into the narrow lobby of the Fulwider Building. A single drop light burned far back, beyond an open, once gilt elevator. There was a tarnished and well-missed spittoon on a gnawed rubber mat. A case of false teeth hung on the mustard-colored wall like a fuse box in a screen porch. I shook the rain off my hat and looked at the building directory beside the case of teeth. Numbers with names and numbers without names. Plenty of vacancies or plenty of tenants who wished to remain anonymous. Painless dentists, shyster detective agencies, small sick businesses that had crawled there to die, mail order schools that would teach you how to become a railroad clerk or a radio technician or a screen writer—if the postal inspectors didn't catch up with them first. A nasty building. A building in which the smell of stale cigar butts would be the cleanest odor."
posted by KRS at 2:08 PM on March 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

Some people say that John Huston just had his secretary type the text of The Maltese Falcon in screenplay format (so maybe she should've gotten the Oscar for Best Adapated Screenplay instead of him), but there are some differences.

He wasn't a noir writer, but Hemingway did OK with capturing the sensibility with this line from The Sun Also Rises:

It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.

posted by kirkaracha at 2:35 PM on March 31, 2005

Have you read Crime and Punishment? Not exactly crime noir, but it centers on a crime and is impeccably written. It's one of my favorite books, anyway.
posted by crapulent at 2:45 PM on March 31, 2005

The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley.
posted by mlis at 4:48 PM on March 31, 2005

Another type of novel in this arena is the police procedural, of which Ed McBain is the king.
posted by mischief at 5:25 PM on March 31, 2005

I think there are people who prefer Hammett & those who prefer Chandler, and once you figure out which you are, further exploring will be easier.

I think dame (whose name, it must be said, is particularly appropriate for this thread) is right. I'd suggest starting with a short story from each of those two seminal writers and branch out from there. My bet's you go with Chandler. Try "I'll Be Waiting," a razor-sharp short story about an hour in the life of a hotel detective, a new guest and her fresh-from-prison boyfriend. The writing dances as it captures a snapshot of sadness, hope and decay in just a few beautiful pages; it's a perfect example of the cynical hero doing his best to assert his version of morality in a dark, corrupt world (and paying a heavy price).

"I'll Be Waiting" is part of a highly recommended collection that also includes Chandler's brilliantly pointed 1950 essay on detective fiction, "The Simple Art of Murder." It delicately savages the implausible assumptions of the typical Golden Age mystery, "an arid formula which could not even satisfy its own implications," while praising Hammett's accomplishment and even linking it back to to Walt Whitman ("It probably started in poetry; almost everything does").

At the end of that essay, Chandler also provides one of the clearest and most famous descriptions of the psychology of the hard-boiled detective. Reading it at work today, after seeing a sneak preview of Sin City Tuesday night, made me laugh out loud.

I'd say that essay is an absolute must-read for anyone with even the slightest interest in hard-boiled crime fiction. Don't leave it out as you start exploring the genre.
posted by mediareport at 7:38 PM on March 31, 2005 [2 favorites]

Second the suggestion for Black Lizard publishing. Everything they publish is carefully selected and well worthwhile. They reprint a lot of classic noir from the 30's 40's etc. that were done by lesser known authors but deserve greater recognition.

Andrew Vachs writes some of the grittiest, roughest, noirish novels being published today.

Max Allen Collins has his wonderful True Detective series wherein he places his fictional detective in the middle of real life historical mysteries.
posted by berek at 8:28 PM on March 31, 2005

Wow, I was just thinking (halfway through this thread) that I clearly had no interest in this genre (despite being an avid reader) and then I realize, I've read every book Dennis Lehane has ever written, and all the Easy Rawlins books that Walter Mosely ever wrote, and love them all. Clearly, I'm biased towards more recent hard boiled fiction, as I think all of the above are circa 1990 and later, and the stuff being mentioned initially (Chandler, Hammett, Thompson) is much earlier in the century. So, I guess, all of this is to say, if you like more modern work, you can't go wrong with Mosely or Lehane, and if you're an East Coaster (specifically Boston), Lehane's your choice, but for my money (being an Angeleno) Mosely's take on post wwII Los Angeles (even black post wwII Los Angeles) is the more personally relevant read.
posted by jonson at 6:04 PM on April 1, 2005