fav noir book or writer?

[[deleted user]]

Dominic Stansberry, The Last Days of il Ducce. I read this when it was nominated for an Edgar, and fell in love with noir.

[Jim]

David Goodis. I'm rereading all of his books before I start picking up the ones I don't have. I'm a sucker for his doomed protagonists and his presentation of women is more nuanced (sometimes) than other writers who published in the 40s and 50s.

[[deleted user]]

Indridason? These are the books set in Iceland? I really liked the first one as well, but I thought the translation was done by someone who was not expert in English

[[deleted user]]

Old School: The Killer Inside Me- Jim Thompson (it was the first noir I read & it damn near took the top of my head off, conversely Elijah's right. After Dark, My Sweet is absolutely fantastic. Hell, they're all pretty good.)

New School: It's a tie between Ken Bruen's The Guards or The White Trilogy. (I would've given it to Henning Mankell but he seems more procedural than noir)

Anyone else read Cornell Woolrich?

[Pinky]

I have to admit, I haven't read much, but I fell in love with Hammett years ago, and it is a love that I want to reinquaint myself with.
I got lost in the world of film noir, but I'm ready to come home.

[[deleted user]]

I love Cornell Woolrich. When I was in college I went through a binge of buying up all the old Dell paperbacks of his I could find. I love the frentic terror that so many of them evoke ... like Phantom Lady or Deadline at Dawn.

[[deleted user]]

I just realized I never answered the original question. I love a lot of the Fawcett Gold Medal guys .... some which Hard Case has started to re-publish - Day Keene, Gil Brewer, Wade Miller. I love the Miller team especially. Branded Woman is the one in print now, but all of the non-Max Thursday books are good. I never got into his serial detective so much...

As for the newer guys/girls - I like Andrew Vachss a lot. I need to get Terminal and read it. I'm wishy-washy on Ellroy - I liked him more when I was younger.

[Brooke]

Have you tried The Confession, Stansberry's 2005 Edgar Award-winning novel, which is part of the Hard Case line? It's the only Stansberry book I've read, and it's fabulous. I imagine The Last Days of Il Duce is incredible based on my limited knowledge of his style. I'll have to check that out. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Brooke]

Did you know that Queenpin was just nominated for the Edgar Award (Best Paperback Original)? If you go here (http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html), you can get a list of all of the nominees.

[Brooke]

Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime) was also nominated for the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. Did anyone read that one? It's been compared to The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain by many reviewers.

[Dfordoom]

I'm frantically trying to buy anything of Woolrich's that I can get my hands on. I especially love his short stories.

[Dan]

I have to go with Red Harvest as my favorite noir book, though I always like Lawrence Block's Hard Case stuff, and Joe Lansdale's redneck noir stuff is also quite good.

[Michelle]

I LOVE Megan Abbott! I've read Queenpin," "The Song is You," and "Die a Little." She writes like I wish I could. Or at least I wish I could star in the movie adaptations...

[Adam]

This is the first I've heard of Megan Abbott, but the description of Queenpin sounds great. I'll have to read it.

Also, according to the Edgars website link that Brooke posted above, Queenpin was not only nominated for best paperback original, it won!