The strongest novel I read during the last year was Richard
Matheson's I AM LEGEND from 1954 that was translated in
Finnish for the first time. It's hardboiled and it's noir and
I really think everyone on this list should read it, even
though it's also science fiction and horror. Forget the
films.
Other noirish and hardboiledish novels I enjoyed during
2007:
Allan Guthrie: HARD MAN Sean Chercover: BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD
Kevin Wignall: WHO IS CONRAD HIRST? (without Matheson, this
would be the book of the year), also Kevin's AMONG THE DEAD
Brian Garfield: KOLCHAK'S GOLD; HOPSCOTCH Reed Farrel
Coleman: THE JAMES DEANS a collection of Leigh Brackett's
Mars stories Stephen Greenleaf: GRAVE ERROR H.A. DeRosso: .44
(perhaps the noirest Western novel ever written, very much
like David Goodis)
I also might add that Marquis de Sade's JUSTINE is just as
chilling as any noir novel and qualifies as a crime novel.
Not hardboiled in the sense of
"colloquial", though.
One of the most important things on the publishing front in
Finnish was that Stephen Crane's Western short stories were
translated for the first time in a nice collection. Some
might detect pre-noir tones in them.
The major disappointment of the year was Paul Malmont's hyped
THE CHINATOWN CLOUD DEATH PERIL.
Juri
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