The Guardian: Dames, detectives and dope: why we still love hardboiled crime

The archetype was born: men out for justice and/or revenge, pounding perpetually rainy streets in a dark American city. But isn���t he an anachronism today?

���I suspect he always was,��� says author Lawrence Block, who has been writing noir for 60 years. ���Which is not to say that there aren���t a fair number of such lads walking around at present. I suppose the character owes much of his appeal to being the sort of person the reader would be if he could.���

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