Some of my UK noir favourites, two of them really obvious,
the other less so:
Gerald Kersh - Night and the City: I read this one in the
recent iBooks reprint edition. As well as being very well
designed and containing an essay by Paul Duncan (I think he
was a member of this list a while ago), the book itself is as
good as its reputation.
Ted Lewis - Jack's Return Home/Get Carter: This one was an
Allison and Busby UK reprint with Michael Caine on the cover
holding a shotgun. Another great book, and the only problem
with the movie version (the original one, not the crap
Stallone remake) was that they didn't use the ironic ending
involving that shotgun.
Donald Thomas - Dancing in the Dark: This book is from 1992,
but is set in England in the late 1940s. The plot involves a
small-time con man, Johnny McIver, trying to rip off gangster
boss Sonny Tarrant. The book features a number of memorable
characters, particularly McIver's girlfriend/whore Solitaire
and Tarrant. The atmosphere and style reminded me of other
gangster stories like Raoul Whitfield's 'Green Ice' and W.R.
Burnett's
'Asphalt Jungle', as well as Kersh's 'Night and the City'.
I've looked up the author on the web, and haven't found much,
though apparently there's another book featuring Sonny
Tarrant called Red Flowers for Lady Blue. Other than that,
Thomas' work seems to be mostly Victorian-era crime and
Sherlock Holmes stories.
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