Sunday, July 29, 2012

My Ten Favorite Noir Novels of All Time at This Moment


From out of the darkness, here I have found the greatest joy:

Frank Norris, McTeague (1899) 
Martin M. Goldsmith, Detour (1939) 
William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley (1946)
Bill S. Ballinger, Portrait in Smoke (1950)
Gil Brewer, A Killer Is Loose (1954)
Jim Thompson, A Hell of a Woman (1954) 
Charles Williams, A Touch of Death (1954)
James McKimmey, The Long Ride (1961) 
Richard Stark, The Score (1964)
Natsuo Kirino, Out (1997)

2 comments:

  1. Good list. Really glad to see some of these remembered. Did my M.A. thesis on Norris long, long ago, I loved MCTEAGUE. The scene with Trina and the money is classic. As are several others.

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  2. It's funny the frequency with which the scene with Trina and the gold gets replayed in various ways in later noir novels. . . . It always makes me wonder if the writers have read Norris or if they've wound up in the same place on their own.

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