> Mark wrote:
>
> Looking forward to his next -- isn't it imminent
Dave?
Thanks, Mark. I have a crime thriller titled Bad Thoughts
that's out in July, and Serpent's Tail should also be
publishing a very dark noir novel of mine titled Small Crimes
later this year but I don't have a publishing date yet.
These days the industry seems to be lumping almost every
crime fiction novel into the thriller category, and calling a
lot of the darker, more violent and urban versions of this
noir. A lot of these books, and a lot of the authors
mentioned in this discussion trail, I don't think of as noir.
But what I see as the biggest influence in recent crime
fiction is Quentin Tarantino. I'm seeing a lot of his tone,
pacing, hipness, and ultra-stylized violence finding their
way into books like Huston's Caught Stealing, and many
others. And Guy Richie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
has also had an obvious influence on some of the crime
fiction I'm seeing come out of the UK.
As far as who has changed noir writing the most--the answer's
the big publishers. What they've done is broaden the noir
genre to include anything dark, violent and gritty, but at
the same time mostly eliminated true noir--Jim Thompson and
James M. Cain would have a hell of a time today getting any
large publishing house to buy their classic noir books like
Double Indemnity, Killer Inside Me, Savage Night, Hell of a
Woman, etc. The industry forcing this softening of noir has
had a bigger impact than anything else. Most of what we
consider as doomed classic noir that's been published over
the last 10 years has come from independant publishers, like
Hardcase, Serpent's Tail and No Exit Press.
As far as which writers have taken noir into new
directions--James Sallis and Vicki Hendricks have brought a
more literary quality to noir, and Vicki has also added a
degree of raw sexuality that I don't think anyone else had
done before (at least in the noir context). I also believe
Vicki's the first to have a female noir protagonist as broken
and psychotic as any of the male protagonists that Jim
Thompson, James M. Cain, Dan Marlowe, Charles Willefored gave
us.
As far as Ken Bruen goes, I think he's influencing all
writers, not just crime. The guy is an original. At times his
writing takes on a poetic, almost free-form quality that's
really beautiful to behold.
--Dave Z.
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