Detective

[close] With an emphasis on Noir, and Pulp crime fiction. Please try to avoid true crime for the most part.

[close] Just a bunch of kids reading books

[close] If you enjoy reading pulse-pounding, high octane action and adventure novels, this is the group for you. We discuss books from authors such as Lee Child, James Rollins, Clive Cussler, Matt Reilly, Robert Crais, Gregg Hurwitz, Robert Ludlum, and lots o of others. We also discuss books in other genres that are high on action and adventure thrills. If you enjoy the adrenaline rush of a good action-filled book of any genre, come over and join the discussion.

[close] Started somewhat as a reaction to the British cozy mystery of the Agatha Christie style (think Murder She Wrote), there came a demand for something more real, action where the stakes were higher, the participants (good and bad) sleazier, the police on the take, the ladies fatal for any would-be patsy. Thus was born, largely in the 1920s, and often in the pulps (foremost among them Black Mask), the American answer to Sherlock Holmes, the genre that in turn became the basis for the film noir revolution of the 1940s. Our original big three writers in this genre are Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain. This modest beginning spawned an international phenomenon with writers in other countries picking up the tropes, some adhering to original themes, others blending in other genres such as science fiction dystopia or urban fantasy, to craft a new literature known simply as noir. These writers and settings come from communities as diverse and complex as can be found throughout the modern world. Half our focus is on original hardboiled crime fiction, its formation in the middle third of twentieth century United States. The other half is on modern noir throughout the world as it has developed since. Join in on the fun as the outsider champion of justice tries to bring its criminal elements to account, won't you?