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Mickey Spillane’s The SnakeMickey Spillane’s 1964 novel The Snake is a sequel to The Girl Hunters and you absolutely must read The Girl Hunters first. This is a very...
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Paul S. Meskil’s Sin PitSin Pit (1954) is Paul S. Meskil’s only novel. It's seriously hardboiled, most definitely noir and pretty sleazy. This is the seamy underside of...
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The Saint Goes WestLeslie Charteris's The Saint Goes West , a 1942 collection of three Saint novellas. A transitional slightly Americanised version of Simon Templar...
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W.R. Burnett's High SierraW.R. Burnett's High Sierra , a great noir novel by a great writer. A bank robber just out of jail gets mixed up in a heist with a bunch of...
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Fredric Brown's The Screaming MimiFredric Brown's 1949 crime novel The Screaming Mimi was adapted by Dario Argento as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage . The novel is a fine...
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Noël Calef’s FranticNoël Calef’s novel Frantic (original French title Ascenseur pour ’échafaud ) was published in 1956. It was the basis for Louis Malle’s superb...
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Nick Quarry's The Girl With No Place To HideThe Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake...
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Day Keene's Joy HouseDay Keene's Joy House was published in 1954. A man loses five weeks of his life in an alcoholic haze. All he remembers is that he was a...
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Lorenz Heller's Dead WrongLorenz Heller's superb 1957 noir novel Dead Wrong (written under the name Larry Holden) concerns a guy in danger because of a package people...
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Death and the Naked LadyJohn Flagg's 1951 spy novel Death and the Naked Lady starts when the hero finds the jade owls in his luggage. They're not his and they're going to...
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Charles Williams' Nothing in Her WayCharles Williams' novel Nothing in Her Way (1953) deals with a whole series of fascinating confidence tricks. Intricate and skilful...
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William O’Farrell’s Repeat PerformanceWilliam O’Farrell’s Repeat Performance was published in 1942. Failed actor Barney Page gets to relive the previous year, so that he can avoid...
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William Fuller's Back CountryWilliam Fuller's 1954 novel Back Country is backwoods noir. A drifter gets mixed up with a shady political operator in a Florida hick town. The...
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Donald E. Westlake's The CutieThe Cutie (also published as The Mercenaries and The Smashers ) was Donald E. Westlake's first crime novel, published in 1960, and with an...
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John N. Makris's NightshadeThe hero of John N. Makris's Nightshade has a couple of dangerous dames to deal with, the cops are closing in on him and his judgment is not too...
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Robert van Gulik’s The Red PavilionThe Red Pavilion , published in 1961, is one of Robert van Gulik’s wonderful Judge Dee mysteries. It follows the usual pattern, with Judge Dee...
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Richard B. Sale’s The Isle of Troubled NightRichard B. Sale’s The Isle of Troubled Night was published in the May 1938 issue of the pulp magazine Thrilling Mystery . It's a fun mix of...
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Bodies in BedlamBodies in Bedlam (published 1951) is a Shell Scott private eye mystery thriller by Richard S. Prather. It's fast-paced fun with a nice mix of...
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Fletcher Flora's Killing CousinsKilling Cousins is a 1961 novel by Fletcher Flora which could have been noir fiction is instead rather too whimsical and light-hearted to be...
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Laurence Meynell's The Frightened ManThe Frightened Man is a 1952 private eye novel by Laurence Meynell, one of those writers who enjoyed quite a bit of success in his day only to...
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Robert van Gulik's The Chinese Nail MurdersRobert van Gulik's The Chinese Nail Murders was the fifth of his Judge Dee mysteries, set in Imperial China during the Tang Dynasty. It was...
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Gil Brewer's The Three-Way SplitThe Three-Way Split is a 1960 pulp noir title by Gil Brewer. It's a kind of character-driven adventure noir and it's pretty good. Here's the...
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Bruce Graeme's Seven Clues in Search of a CrimeSeven Clues in Search of a Crime is a very clever and intriguingly unconventional 1941 mystery by Bruce Graeme and it’s a very bookish mystery -...
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Sexton Blake Versus the Master CrooksSexton Blake Versus the Master Crooks is a collection of three ripping yarns about master detective Sexton Blake, published between 1919 and...
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Evelyn Piper’s Bunny Lake Is MissingEvelyn Piper’s Bunny Lake Is Missing was published in 1957. It’s a reasonably effective suspense novel with some domestic and psychological...
