Dispatches From Noir

Once upon a time, I dreamed of being an author. I thought I would write a great noir novel. That never happened, but I still admire the spare, descriptive prose and retro sensibilities of the hard-boiled detective.

I also see people every day. Sometimes I can't help but wonder what Chandler, Hammett, Leonard, Cain or even Fleming might have to say about them. So I take a stab at it. Here is the rogue's gallery of the novels and stories I never wrote. Meet the villains, bystanders, toughs and low-lifes that would populate them.

This is also a journal of my own journeys through the wonderful world of hardboiled/noir crime fiction. I review books and movies, and I’m happy to answer crime fiction questions and give recommendations. I'm also starting to think I might just be able to write some fiction of my own. I don't know how that will turn out. I do know that anything that appears on this page is just a dispatch from the great land of Noir.

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Here’s some literature porn to end to help you end the week on a high note. This edition is chock-full of hardboiled attitude. We have Michael Z. Lewin’s Indianapolis private dick, Albert Samson. Arthur Lyons and Robert J. Ray each contribute a West Coast seamus: Jacob Asch and Matt Murdock. Private eyes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam are courtesy of A.A. Fair (pen name of Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner). And Philip Atlee’s spy Joe Gall is as hardboiled as any Cold Warrior ever was.

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