My votes for best contempory hardboiled authors go to
Charles Willeford--while he wrote from 50s to the 80s, his
writing is as contemporary as anyone's, and more of his books
are now resurfacing (and hopefully Grimhaven will!)
Ken Bruen--dark, poetic, very contempory vision, his last 4
Jack Taylor books are classics-- Magdalene Martyrs,
Dramatist, Priest, Cross (yeah, I was able to see an early
draft of Cross--it is amazing)
Robert Crais--in my opinion the best of current
American-based PI writers, with Walter Mosley a very close
second (and he's on this list also)
Charlie Huston--Caught Stealing is the best hardboiled/pulp
debut novel I've read, 8 Bad Things is also very good, will
be reading Dangerous Man soon.
James Sallis--while very literate, definitely hardboiled, and
a great writer.
For best contemporary noir writers, Vicki Hendricks, Seymour
Shubin and Jason Starr head that list.
--Dave Z.
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