Ken Bruen is one of my favorite authors, so when he picks his favorite books, I’m interested. I have read one of these and I’m currently reading another on the list. Looks like I have 8 more books to add to my “To Read” list. Check out the link below for the full list.
How many are you adding to your “To Read” list?
Noir and hardboiled author Eric Beetner wrote this article with his 10 favorite noir novels written in the 21st Century. Some of these books where already on my “to read” list, and others have now been added. I unfortunately have not read any of these books yet! That will soon change.
Here is the link to the article:
Is there any books out there you feel should be on this list? How many have you read on this list?
13 Shots of Noir is a short story collection from Paul D. Brazill. All 13 of these stories are very short and snappy. In most of these stories I felt if Raymond Chandler was writing today, it would read a lot like this. His characters have sharp tongues and use smart ass remarks mixed with popular culture references that put a smile on your face as you read them. These stories are obviously drenched in noir like the great story with a hardboiled private detective, but we also get a bit of other genre fiction. One story even involving werewolves and one of my favorites from the collection involving vampires, strip club vampires no less! This has a good mix of stories to keep you entertained, some are shots to the knee that may drop you, some might be to the gut, even a few head shots that will leave you reeling. There are a few stories that you are thinking one thing…and then you read that last sentence or two and you think “I did not see that coming.” It’s amazing how some of these shorts can tell so much story on so few pages.
Paul D. Brazill is from across the pond in England and some of the language and references reflect that. I picked this up on my Nook for a whooping 99 cents, so not only is it a great read, it’s a bargain too. Snag a copy for your E-reader and you won’t be disappointed.
I think fans of good short stories, noir and even horror fans will enjoy this collection. I look forward to reading more from Brazill in the future.
Mirage is a neo noir film from 1965 starring Gregory Peck, directed by Edward Dmytryk. This is based on a book written by Howard Fast under the pseudonym Walter Ericson.
This story starts with Gregory Peck in a high-rise where he seems a little confused. The power is out, and he starts down a stairwell. He runs into a women, played by Diane Baker, who thinks she knows him, but he does not know her. They get to the bottom of the stairwell and she can see him in the light and does know him. He does not remember her and she runs away. He goes outside and sees a body on the street, somebody just jumped from the high-rise. We learn the body belongs to a well-respected man who is the head of a peace organization. As Peck tries to figure out what is going on, he realizing he doesn’t remember anything from the last two years. He finds thugs played by George Kennedy and Jack Weston chasing him. He hires a rookie private eye played by Walter Matthau and runs into supposed co-worker Kevin McCarthy throughout his adventure. He tries to get help from a psychiatrist, but that just makes things more confusing for us and Peck. How does this all fit together? Is everybody working against Peck? What do they want from him? Is Peck really just an accountant?
This film is a neo noir I believe by date alone. This movie is filmed in black and white with a very noir style cinematography, from a director who knew noir. This film came on the heals of the popularity of Charade substituting Peck and Baker for Grant and Hepburn and bringing Matthau and Kennedy over from that cast. It was also cashing in on the popularity of Hitchcock’s suspense movies. Sure this might be a little weaker substitute when compared to that company, but it is a good movie on it is own. If you haven’t seen this yet, it is worth checking out.
Favorite Tidbit: This film was remade only three years later and titled Jigsaw. I have not seen this version, but can’t imagine why this movie would be re-made so soon after the original?
I have heard a lot of good stuff about Sara Gran and the Claire DeWitt books from Goodreads and other sites and blogs. This book is the first in the series. Claire DeWitt is obviously our main character in this series and she is one of the best private investigators in the world.
This story revolves around DeWitt traveling from California to take a case of a missing lawyer in New Orleans. The missing lawyer disappeared during the Katrina storm. This gives us a look at how this city is doing after the horrible disaster as well as giving us an interesting backdrop to the story. We also flashback to DeWitt’s past, where we find DeWitt started learning to solve mysteries from an early age. She finds a book, written by the famous french detective Jacques Silette, called Détection. She uses this book as her life guide and often quotes from it. We also learn about her teacher Constance, who studied directly under Silette and lived in New Orleans. Though DeWitt does not live in New Orleans we learn part of her past is from this city.
I’ll be honest, the mystery of the missing lawyer was good, but I was way more intrigued with DeWitt’s past cases and history. The missing lawyer case does get solved, but a lot of interesting stories from DeWitt’s past are left open and I want to know more about her history. Her two best friends growing up, Silette, and Constance are all people I want to know more about and think I will in future books. I will be continuing this series for sure!
Sara Gran is a fun author to read, and I look forward to following this series and want to go back and read some of her stand alone books as well. I recommend this book if you are looking for a new series in the noir and mystery genre.
Two Bullets Solve Everything is a double feature of noir novellas from All Due Respect. Both stories are quite different from each other and unique in their own right.
Our first story is Disco Rumble Fish from Ryan Sayles. This is written from a first person perspective of a SWAT team member. A stranger who has bumped into a cop, while handing a mafia member a handgun. This happens while the mafia member is in custody and being transported. The mafia member uses the hand gun on the officer and escapes. The SWAT team is looking for the mysterious stranger who brought the gun to the mafia member. This is my first story I’ve read about a SWAT team and it was interesting and action packed, as you would expect.
The second story is A Pack of Lies by Chris Rhatigan. This story is about a small paper journalist, who is past his prime and basically going through the motions at his job. He also bribes people to keep their stories quiet. This story has him doing this twice, the first one may have him lose his job, the second may cause him to lose everything. A Pack of Lies is interesting as our protagonist starts out in a bad place, but in control and we witness him make one bad decision after another on his downward spiral.
I really liked the first story and really loved the second story. Disco Rumble Fish is action packed and has some good humor. A Pack of Lies kept me turning the pages and looking at how few pages where left and kept wondering “how is this going to end? Are there enough pages left to complete this story?” The tension was strong and kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end. I think noir fans will really like both of these stories. All Due Respect delivers again with this book. Check out their website for this book and other great books here;
http://allduerespectbooks.com/
I can’t wait to read more from this little publishing house! Thanks for getting these great noir stories out to the masses!
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.
I can’t believe this film is 20 years old this year! The Usual Suspects is one of the great modern neo-noir movies and launched the career of director Bryan Singer into the stratosphere.
This film is known for it’s all-star cast, and it is a great cast, but where they all-stars when this film was made? Kevin Spacey was a great actor before this film, but wasn’t in much you would have heard of. Though I loved Swimming with Sharks, most probably never heard of this film. This film gave him an Oscar win and made him a big name in Hollywood. Benicio Del Toro did some T.V. work and few movies before this as well, but as the scene stealing Fenster his star meter went up drastically. Kevin Pollak was already a star as a stand up comedian, but this movie showed his dramatic side. Pollak has worked steady ever since, bouncing from comedic to dramatic roles. Alec’s little brother Stephen Baldwin was doing well and may have been considered a big star at the time. His star power has dimmed in recent years, but he showed some great presence in this film. Gabriel Byrne was probably the biggest draw for this film at the time of its release, and was excellent as always. Chazz Palminteri plays his usual Italian tough guy from New York in this film and it fits perfectly.
Our story starts out with our Usual Suspects all getting arrested in connection to a load of gun parts being hijacked. They quickly become good friends and team up together on some more heists. The whole story is told in flashback fashion from Kevin Spacey’s character Verbal being interrogated in a police station in Los Angels. Our plot thickens as new evidence becomes available and they ask Verbal more questions on what happened. As the audience we want to know the answers as much as the police do. What is going on? What was really on the boat? Who got away alive? and of course Who is Keyser Söze?
I’m not going to lie, I love Singer’s X-men films, but what would really make me happy is if he made another neo noir film. This is a film you can watch over and over again and find little hints and clues to one of the greatest mysteries in movie history.
Favorite Tidbit: **semi-spoiler alert** As this film was being made, all the actors were told “they are Keyser Söze.” None of them learned the truth until the first screening of the movie.
Talaash is a neo noir from Bollywood revolving around 3 characters with Aamir Khan’s Inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat being the central character. The other two are his wife played by Rani Mukerji and a prostitute and our femme fatale for this tale played by Kareena Kapoor.
Our story starts with a tour through the red light district as our credits role. We soon come to a beach side road and a car swerving for an unknown reason and flying into the water. Our hero gets the case and soon finds out the victim is a popular Bollywood movie star. We find out the car was in good working order, he had no drugs or alcohol in his system and he died from drowning. Why did he swerve off the road? What was he doing down in the red light district at 4 in the morning by himself? The plot thickens as we soon meet a pimp who was with the star that night and he soon disappears. We learn from the dead movie star’s girlfriend that he recently had his accountant give him a large sum of money that night as well. Where did the money go? Our main character and detective on this case, has recently lost his young son in an accident. He blames himself for this and this causes tension between him and his wife. He soon turns to our femme fatale for support and help with the case. What is her part in this case? What does she know? What isn’t she telling our hero? Can our hero resist her charms?
The more we go the more we question what is going on in this film. It is well written and does make sense all in the end. In fact this may be the best plot twist and writing I’ve seen in a while. This movie deals with a lot of death and loss for all the characters and how they react to those loses. The mystery is strong and the cinematography is very good. I’m not going to lie, all the Bollywood movies I’ve ever seen feel a little campy and though in parts this one does too, it is the least campy film from India I have seen.(Not that I have seen a lot of Indian films.) We don’t have anybody break out in song and dance, though there are some music montage moments. There isn’t any over the top special effects, though there are a few that push the limit.
This is worth a watch for any foreign film fan and neo noir fans. The twists and turns are hard to see coming and are well executed. It definitely isn’t a traditional noir story and I think that is a good thing.
They say you can’t go home again, and man this book drives that point home with a gun shot to the gut. This book was released in 2013 and has been on my radar for sometime.
Our protagonist is Ray who has left his hometown 10 years ago. We slowly learn through out the book why he left in little flashbacks to the fateful time. Ray has some military experience, and I felt this was important to the character’s background. This explains why his boss hired him to begin with, his sense of loyalty to his family, and his never die attitude.
Tom is Ray’s cousin and is also an interesting character. He was the Sheriff of Coronado, New Mexico our hero’s hometown. He was kicked off the force 10 years ago and has been trying to get back on the police force ever since. We soon find out the 10 year mark that we see Ray leave town and Tom lose his job are because of the same event. Tom and Ray are the same age and though they are cousins they grew up very close and are more like brothers.
This story starts out with Ray taking one last job, classic last words in the world of noir. Ray is to do one last heist with his bosses inexperienced nephew. They are to heist a large amount of drugs near Coronado, this will give Ray a little money to start fresh back in his hometown and the 10 years away should have been enough time for things to blow over. When the heist goes down, Ray recognizes the driver and soon realizes things are not going to be as easy as he imagined.
As Ray tries to finish his job so he can start over and get his family life right, things just continue to go wrong for him. We also find Tom torn between doing the right thing so he can work his way back onto the police force or helping his cousin do what he needs to.
It took me longer then normal to get through this book, partly due to spring activities and partly because I could easily tear myself away from this book to do other things. This wasn’t the page turner I was hoping for, this took some effort to read. The story is very good and so is the story telling, but it did take me some extra effort for the payoff. I think this is for fans of people who like Cormac McCarthy. I’m not the first to say this about Waite and maybe that stuck in my mind, but it seems to fit. This book is in development to be made into a movie. I hope this isn’t put in development purgatory like a lot of great books out there, because I think this could make a great film in the right hands.
Homicide is a neo noir from 1991 by modern film great David Mamet. Mamet who wrote and directed this film has also wrote a ton of great neo noir and crime films over the last 4 decades. He writes some of the best dialog around with a rhythm to it that is hypnotic. It is street level crime poetry, and the flow and delivery from some of the best actors around. This is the first time I’ve seen this film, but it won’t be the last. I’m not sure how I missed this in the early 90’s at the video store, or never really heard much about it. It popped up on a few neo noir lists and when I seen who stared in it as well as it being a Mamet film, I put it to the top of my Netflix Queue.
This film revolves around Joe Mantegna as our Homicide Detective lead. He is tough, but tough in a different way than our normal hardboiled detective. He uses his people skills and smarts rather than his fists and gun. In fact we see a number of pivotal scenes where his physical strength is tested and he fails these tests. We also see him get back up and keep trucking along. This film has a lot of racial tension as well. Our hero is Jewish and seems to shun this at first, but later is torn between being a great cop or a good Jew.
William H. Macy plays Mantegna’s partner and their dialog and banter is some of the best in modern noir. Macy is always good and doesn’t disappoint here. He plays the sidekick who doesn’t question anything his partner does, because to him, his partner can do no wrong. Will this be his downfall?
This story starts with an F.B.I. raid on an apartment, they kill an innocent black women and their suspect gets away. It’s a mess the F.B.I. dumps on the local Homicide division. Our two detectives take the case, with a lead they think will pan out. On the way to apprehend the suspects brother to see if he will roll over on his brother, we come to some flashing lights and a cop in need of some help. As Macy takes the car and goes on to the planned meet with the suspects brother, Mantegna stays behind to help the uniformed police officers. An old Jewish women has been shot with a shotgun and her store robbed. Mantegna catches the case and is taken off the more high-profile original case. He continues to juggle the two cases. On one hand he is helping his people solve the murder case of a Jew. On the other he is trying to find the black man the F.B.I. is desperate to find.
This has some great actors in this besides our two leads. Though all are great in this, the two small parts that stand out to me are Ving Rhames in one of his earliest movie roles as the black suspect the first case revolves around, and Ricky Jay as one of the members of the Jewish community the second case revolves around.
The movie isn’t just noir in story but also is filmed in a classic film noir style, using washed out colors and shadows through out.
I really loved this film and think noir lovers of the classic era as well as the modern neo noir lovers will like it too. This film has more to say then a simple murder mystery and touches on racial tensions not only between whites and blacks but the Jewish community as well. I look forward to watching and re-watching more from Mamet for this site in the future.
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