Best of
Noir

2008

The Dawn Patrol


Don Winslow - 2008
    The author of The Winter of Frankie Machine is back with a razor-sharp novel as cool as its California surfer heroes, and as heart-stopping as a wave none of them sees coming.

The Automatic Detective


A. Lee Martinez - 2008
    It’s even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack’s not interested in world domination. He’s just a bot trying to get by, trying to demonstrate that he isn’t just an automated smashing machine, and to earn his citizenship in the process. It should be as easy as crushing a tank for Mack, but some bots just can’t catch a break.When Mack’s neighbors are kidnapped, Mack sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way, he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire’s founders---not to mention more trouble than he bargained for. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home.

Spider-Man Noir #1


David Hine - 2008
    But when a fateful spider-bite gives the young rabble-rouser Peter Parker the power to fight back, will even that be enough?

The Ghost of Neil Diamond


David Milnes - 2008
    'The best novel I've read in years. Storytelling, architecture, poetry and painting - a few rare novels excel in all four categories. This is one such book' dissident books, New York 'We have a real corker of a tale on our hands. It's a special find, a story with a uniqueness' bookmunch, uk 'A dark comedy stemming from the howling despair of a man who is out of his element in ever way' harmlessfraud.com dublin, ireland 'A rare find. A totally original and fascinating novel that holds your interest from beginning to end' alternativereel.com Florida

Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost


Nate Evans - 2008
    The waitress says, "We don't serve breakfast." (This has nothing to do with this book.)"All kids have to go to school, even detectives' sidekicks. But Rat really doesn't want to. That is, until he finds out that he might be King Arthur reborn and gets invited to join Merlin's Institute for the Knowledge of Everything. But there is a problem. Princess Lily, Humpty and Rat's new friend, claims there is a ghost haunting the school. And not just any ghost one that eats magic! Can our three heroes banish the ghost from the school? Or will the ghost splatter and scramble Humpty and his friends?Don't forget to read Humpty's first egg*citing case: "Humpty Dumpty Jr: Hardboiled Detective The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop"

Detour


Noah Isenberg - 2008
    Ulmer’s Detour (1945) has recently earned a new wave of recognition. In the words of film Critic David Thomson, it is simply “beyond remarkable.”  The only B-picture to make it into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, Detour has outrun its fate as the bastard child of one of Hollywood’s lowliest studios.  Ulmer’s film follows, in flashback, the journey of Al Roberts (Tom Neal), a pianist hitching from New York to California to join his girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake), a singer gone to seek her fortune in Hollywood.  In classic noir style, Detour  features mysterious deaths, changes of identity, an unforgettable femme fatale called Vera (Ann Savage), and, in Roberts, a wretched, masochistic antihero.Noah Isenberg’s study of Detour draws on a vast array of archival sources, unpublished letters and interviews, to provide an animated and thorough account of the film’s production history, its critical reception, its afterlife (including various remakes) and the different ways in which the film has been understood since its release.  He devotes significant attention to each of the key players in the film--the crew as well as the principal actors--while charting the uneasy transformation of Martin Goldsmith’s pulp novel into Ulmer’s signature film, the disagreements between the director and writer, and the severe financial and formal limitations with which Ulmer grappled.  The story that Isenberg tells, rich in historical and critical insight, replicates the briskness of a B-movie.

The Avenger Chronicles:


Joe GentileRon Fortier - 2008
    In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human. Wealthy and successful at an early age, Richard Benson was preparing to enjoy a long and happy life with his family when crime took away his wife and young daughter. Once he was just a man, but now he is a machine of vengeance dedicated to the extermination of all crime. A figure of ice and steel, but more pitiless than both, Benson has become a symbol to crooks and killers--a terrible, almost impersonal force, masking cold genius and a nearly supernatural power behind a face as white and still as a dead man's mask. Only pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, hint at what awaits criminals when they invoke the rage of millionaire adventurer Richard Benson -- The Avenger! Now, for the first time in over 30 years, the fearless/expressionless crime fighter; the man with the moldable face, the man with the shock white hair and the pale grey eyes, is back in action in a stunning collection of stories featuring all the action, adventure, and revenge Avenger fans have come to expect! From noir adventure and two-fisted action, to emotional tales of inner demons, join The Avenger for the E-ticket thrill ride of your life!

Toros & Torsos


Craig McDonald - 2008
    Against the vivid backdrops of a killer hurricane that nearly destroyed the Florida Keys in 1935, the Spanish Civil War, post-war Hollywood and the first days of the Castro regime in Cuba, Hector Lassiter--legendary crime novelist--engages in a decades-long duel against a cabal of killer artists.

Criminal (2008-2009) #1


Ed Brubaker - 2008
    It's a hard-hitting period-piece, set in the grimy early 70s, where crime, seduction and betrayal go hand-in-hand.

Serpent Girl


Ray Garton - 2008
    On his way home from what he intends to be his final assignment, he stops at a carnival to kill some time. There he meets the Serpent Girl, a woman who mesmerizes him as no other woman has...and stirs in him desires that blind his own better judgment. They each have a dangerous secret. Steve decides to take her with him on the road, a decision that binds them and their secrets together in ways neither could ever suspect. They begin an erotic journey that takes them much farther than their physical destination...a bloody journey that will irrevocably change them both.

The Audran Sequence


George Alec Effinger - 2008
    Marid Audran has kept his independence the hard way, selling his detection skills in the slums of the Budayeen. By his standards, it's a comfortable life. But his hard-won freedom is about to be tested ..."--Jacket.

A Devil for O'Shaugnessy/The Three-way Split


Gil Brewer - 2008
    He's not very good at it he's a grifter with a conscience, a terrible combination. Just the thought of bilking old ladies out of their life savings sends him to the brandy bottle to ease his pain. But Miriam has a con that's worth too much money to ignore. Her cousin, Joseph Lancaster, has been away for years, and she has found out that he died in England. Their rich grandmother doted on Joseph, but doesn't know about his death. All Tolbert has to do is convince Grandma that he's Joseph returned, quietly smother her in her sleep, and the inheritance will be theirs. A fine plan if Tolbert can keep his conscience from getting in the way! THE THREE-WAY SPLIT Jack Holland needs a break. His girl Sally is pressuring him to get a real job. His freeloading old man, Sam, is coming to visit--indefinitely. He needs dough. While taking some obnoxious tourists out in his boat one afternoon, he has to dive overboard to retrieve a tossed necklace, and discovers an old sunken ship instead. Could there be treasure inside? This could be the chance he's been looking for. But then some killers come to town looking to settle a debt with Sam, and things get complicated. And soon it's a race against time to see who gets the treasure first.

British Film Noir Guide


Michael F. Keaney - 2008
    The book's main section features a quote from the film, the title and release date, a rating based on the five-star system, and much more.

The Philosophy of TV Noir (Philosophy of Popular Culture)


Steven M. Sanders - 2008
    In The Philosophy of TV Noir, Steven M. Sanders and Aeon J. Skoble argue that the legacy of film noir classics such as The Maltese Falcon, Kiss Me Deadly, and The Big Sleep is also found in episodic television from the mid-1950s to the present. In this first-of-its-kind collection, contributors from philoso