200 Noirs

Given Paul's recent post about The Big Book of Pulps and our groups general love of noir, I thought y'all might find this interesting.

200 Noirs

Compiled by Allan Guthrie

A couple of years back I was asked to provide a list of my top 100 noir novels for the now sadly defunct magazine, Bullet. Recently I've had a few requests to ask if I would consider republishing the list, so I dug it out and had another look. I was horrified by some of the omissions, but my excuse is that 100 just isn’t nearly enough.

So I've taken this opportunity to add another 100 to the original list. And I've cut the list off at 1997 or there'd be 100 more.
Continued...

There were two surprising things about the list. The first was how many books I hadn't read. Some 32 of the 200 listed. The second was the noticeable absence of Raymond Chandler. How do you compile a list of 200 noirs with no Chandler?

While I don't always agree with Guthrie's assessment (L.A. Confidential? His earlier noir Black Dahlia is a much better book), and even with the Chandler oversight, Guthrie compiled an excellent list that is worthy of discussion. And a great resource for future reading.

(Thanks to Bill Crider for the link)

Next for Rowling?

Report: Rowling writing detective novel

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer Sun Aug 19, 3:29 AM ET

LONDON - J.K. Rowling has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday.

The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Ian Rankin, a fellow author and neighbor of Rowling's, as saying the creator of the "Harry Potter" books is turning to crime fiction.

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I wonder how many rumors like this we'll hear until she finally produces another book?