I hesitate to offer something up but it seems to me that noir
is essentially a tragic form and the chief protagionist(s)
will generally come to a bad end because of some weakness or
terrible mistake or something like that. In general PI novels
do not operate like this and whether or not the actions of
the PI are wholly good or a bit murky they are not tragic in
the traditional sense. Some more modern books have muddied
the waters a bit here because of the extent to which the PI
character's private life has come to the foreground and
terrible things happen to them because of mistakes and
choices they have made. An example is James Lee Burke's
series. But even there I think you will find in most of his
novels there is another character who is the more truly
tragic figure and who comes to a bad end in the way of Hamlet
or Macbeth or Othello.
I would say if you are making a case for The Maltese Falcon
as a noir novel then Brigid is the character to focus on
rather than Sam Spade. If Spade was a true noir character he
would have gone down with her somehow.
Apologies if all this seems very obvious.
Raymond
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