The Shroud Underground

Hey Tom,
You mentioned this (sub)-genre in your blog. I'm real interested in it now. If you had to make a list of ten Neo-noir writers, who would be on it? And what really takes a piece from being just Noir into this new label? Is it the brutality and mayhem or a combination of factors?

Nate

The difference, I suppose, between noir and neo-noir is simply an updating of those elements we consider noir or noir-ish. Taking them and bringing them into a modern era. Not even necessarily changing them so much as re-applying them to today.

When you harken back to the likes of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Charles Williams, Peter Rabe, Gil Brewer you find guys who really know how to turn the notch up on emotional pain and boiling blood despair.

Guys who work in that vein include Charlie Huston, Ken Bruen, Duane Swierczynski, Allan Guthrie, Ray Banks, Declan Hughes, Sean Doolittle, Matthew F. Jones, Vicki Hendricks, and Megan Abbott.

Tom Piccirilli wrote:The difference, I suppose, between noir and neo-noir is simply an updating of those elements we consider noir or noir-ish. Taking them and bringing them into a modern era. Not even necessarily changing them so much as re-applying them to today.

When you harken back to the likes of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Charles Williams, Peter Rabe, Gil Brewer you find guys who really know how to turn the notch up on emotional pain and boiling blood despair.

Guys who work in that vein include Charlie Huston, Ken Bruen, Duane Swierczynski, Allan Guthrie, Ray Banks, Declan Hughes, Sean Doolittle, Matthew F. Jones, Vicki Hendricks, and Megan Abbott.

Thanks for the list! I've read a few, recognize the rest. Of course, Tom Piccirilli belongs right there on the top.