Book description
In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the
Century, James Ellroy writes, "noir is the most scrutinised
offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It's the long drop off
the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect
misalliance. It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and
the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes
bad." Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone
bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a
darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction.
James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual
The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred
years of writing - 1910-2010 - to find this treasure trove of
thirty-nine stories. From noir's twenties-era infancy come gems like
James M. Cain's "Pastorale," and its post-war heyday boasts
giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable
punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard,
Dennis Lehane, Patricia Highsmith and William Gay, with many
page-turners appearing in the last decade.
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the
acclaimed LA Quartet,
The Black Dahlia
,
The Big Nowhere
,
LA Confidential
and
White Jazz
, as well as the first two parts of his Underworld USA trilogy,
American Tabloid
and
The Cold Six Thousand
which were both
Sunday Times
bestsellers.
