Hard Boiled

Hard-boiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. Derived from the romantic tradition which emphasized the emotions of apprehension, awe, horror and terror, hardboiled fiction deviates from that tradition in the detective's cynical attitude towards those emotions. The attitude is conveyed through the detectives inner monologue describing to the audience what he is doing and feeling.

The genre's typical protagonist is a detective, who witnesses daily the violence of organized crime tha
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The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
The Maltese Falcon
Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe, #2)
The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, #6)
Red Harvest (The Continental Op #1)
The Lady in the Lake (Philip Marlowe, #4)
The High Window (Philip Marlowe, #3)
The Little Sister (Philip Marlowe, #5)
The Thin Man
L.A. Confidential (L.A. Quartet, #3)
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, #1)
The Big Nowhere (L.A. Quartet, #2)
Trouble Is My Business (Philip Marlowe, #8)
The Black Dahlia (L.A. Quartet, #1)

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Raymond Chandler
I'm not a young man. I'm old, tired and full of no coffee. ...more
Raymond Chandler, Playback

Leonard Gardner
Days were like long twilights in the house under the black walnut trees; through untrimmed shrubs screening the windows the sun scarcely shone. It was a low, white frame house with a sagging porch roof supported by two chains that through years of stress had cracked the overhang of the main roof where they were attached, pulling it downward at so noticeable an angle that everything—overhang, chains, porch roof—appeared checked from collapsing by nothing more than the tar paper over the cracked b ...more
Leonard Gardner, Fat City

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Point Blank Noir, hardboiled and pulp. This is the reading group linked to the Point Blank podcast. If you…more
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Hard Boiled Books Group A place to discuss and share Hard Boiled books. Hard-boiled books are a subgenre of crime ficti…more
4 members, last active one year ago