The Noir Thriller

336 Pages·2009·2.644 MB·English

by  Lee Horsley (auth.)

The Noir Thriller
Crime Files Series
General Editor: Clive Bloom
Since its invention in the nineteenth century, detective fiction has never been more popular.
In novels, short stories, films, radio, television and now in computer games, private detec-
tives and psychopaths, prim poisoners and overworked cops, tommy gun gangsters and
cocaine criminals are the very stuff of modern imagination, and their creators one mainstay
of popular consciousness. Crime Files is a ground-breaking series offering scholars, students
and discerning readers a comprehensive set of guides to the world of crime and detective
fiction. Every aspect of crime writing, detective fiction, gangster movie, true-crime exposé,
police procedural and post-colonial investigation is explored through clear and informative
texts offering comprehensive coverage and theoretical sophistication.
Published titles include:
Maurizio Ascari
A COUNTER-HISTORY OF CRIME FICTION
Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational
Hans Bertens and Theo D’haen
CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CRIME FICTION
Anita Biressi
CRIME, FEAR AND THE LAW IN TRUE CRIME STORIES
Ed Christian (editor)
THE POST-COLONIAL DETECTIVE
Paul Cobley
THE AMERICAN THRILLER
Generic Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s
Christiana Gregoriou
DEVIANCE IN CONTEMPORARY CRIME FICTION
Lee Horsley
THE NOIR THRILLER
Merja Makinen
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Investigating Femininity
Fran Mason
AMERICAN GANGSTER CINEMA
From Little Caesarto Pulp Fiction
Linden Peach
MASQUERADE, CRIME AND FICTION
Criminal Deceptions
Alistair Rolls and Deborah Walker
FRENCH AND AMERICAN NOIR
Dark Crossings
Susan Rowland
FROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO RUTH RENDELL
British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction
Adrian Schober
POSSESSED CHILD NARRATIVES IN LITERATURE AND FILM
Contrary States
Heather Worthington
THE RISE OF THE DETECTIVE IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY POPULAR FICTION
R. A. York
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Power and Illusion
Crime Files
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71471–3 (hardback) 978–0–333–93064–9 (paperback)
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with
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Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
The Noir Thriller
Lee Horsley
Reader in Literature and Culture
Department of English & Creative Writing
Lancaster University, UK
© Lee Horsley 2001,2009
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced,copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or
under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued
by the Copyright Licensing Agency,Saffron House,6–10 Kirby Street,
London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified
as the author of this work in accordance with the
Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in hardback 2001
First published in paperback 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers
Limited,registered in England,company number 785998,of Houndmills,
Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout
the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in
the United States,the United Kingdom,Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-21886-4 ISBN 978-0-230-28075-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230280755
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from
fully managed and sustained forest sources.Logging,pulping and
manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the
environmental regulations of the country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Horsley,Lee,1944–
The noir thriller / Lee Horsley.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Detective and mystery stories,American—History and criticism.2.
Detective and mystery stories,English—History and criticism.3.
American fiction—20th century—History and criticism.4.English
fiction—20th century—History and criticism.5.Literature and society–
–United States—History—20th century.6.Suspense fiction—History
and criticism.7.Crime in literature.I.Title.
PS374.D4 H65 2000
813'.087209—dc21
00–040453
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
In Memory of
Hilda Drewery,
1919–1998
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
Part I: 1920–45 15
1 Hard-boiled Investigators 23
From pulp heroes to Poisonville 25
Beautiful manners and flawless English 35
‘The hardest of the hard-boilers’ 40
2 Big-shot Gangsters and Small-time Crooks 45
Gutter Macbeths 50
Also-rans, has-beens and other losers 54
Britain’s armless bandits 61
3 Victims of Circumstance 67
American dreams 70
European nightmares 79
Part II: 1945–70 89
4 Fatal Men 103
Revenge-seekers 106
Money-grubbers and social climbers 112
Psychopaths 119
5 Fatal Women 125
Tramps and tomboys 131
Seeing double 137
Seeing through men 145
6 Strangers and Outcasts 153
Displaced persons 156
Civil wrongs 168
Rage in Harlem 174
vii
viii Contents
Part III: 1970–2009 183
7 Players, Voyeurs and Consumers 197
Players and their games 201
The eyes of the beholders 208
All-consuming quests 217
8 Pasts and Futures 228
A hell of a city 232
The mean streets of the Metaverse 238
Invitations to the underworld 246
9 Literary Noir in the Twenty-First Century 251
‘History is this cycle of arrogance and fall...’ 252
‘A little Eastwood going on in there...’ 256
‘She’s been around forever’ 263
‘No dawns ever did break...’ 268
Notes 272
Bibliography 298
Index 317
List of Illustrations
Figure 1 Martin Rowson, The Waste Land (1990) 2
Figure 2 The hard-boiled investigator: Pocket Books 1943
edition of Dashiell Hammett’s The Glass Key 26
Figure 3 The noir victim: Signet Books 1951 edition of Horace
McCoy’s I Should Have Stayed Home (artist: Ray Pease) 68
Figure 4 Ben Sarto, Miss Otis Blows Town (1953) 126
Figure 5 David Goodis, The Blonde on the Street Corner (1954) 127
Figure 6 Charles Williams, The Stain of Suspicion (Pan, 1959) 128
Figure 7 Hal Ellson, Tomboy (Bantam, 1957) 129
Figure 8 Helen Nielsen’s Detour to Death (Dell, 1953) 163
Figure 9 James Avati’s cover illustration for the 1949 Signet
edition of Chester Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go 177
ix