Interesting topic as I'm working my way through Cowboy novels right now.
I'd recommend "The Ox-Bow Incident" by Walter Van Tillburg Clark as a great Cowboy noir. Published in 1940 as an intentional deconstruction of the Western (as in Cowboy) novel.
Sinister and surreal, dark and hopeless, but also quintessentially of the Old West. It's about cattle rustling and frontier justice which would be difficult to transpose to a modern setting.
Best wishes,
Channing
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