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8 Great Noir Thrillers
Sara Gran — whose 2003 novel of demonic possession, “Come Closer,” is a cult favorite — recommends her favorites.
Some people use noir to mean a spare writing style; others, a type of plot that tends toward deceit and despair. But it’s maybe best described as a place where no one wants to end up, literally or metaphorically.
It’s probably my favorite genre. I first got into noir through my father’s Black Lizard Press paperbacks. My father was not a criminally-minded man, but he gave me what every writer needs: good taste and a difficult childhood. Miss you, Dad.
These books will thrill you enough that you ought not to start them before bedtime — you won’t want to stop. But don’t look for happy endings here, or inspiration, unless you, too, want to be a be a writer whose work leaves people shellshocked.
The Black Dahlia
By James Ellroy
This sprawling masterpiece about two Los Angeles police officers and the desires that drive and bind them was inspired by the real Black Dahlia: Elizabeth Short, found murdered and mutilated in Leimert Park in 1947, nicknamed for the floral tattoo on her thigh.
The case has never been solved, and there are a few books out there by people who think their own father was the killer. Ellroy’s father is in the clear, but his mother, Jean Hilliker, was murdered in 1958, and the two unsolved cases are forever linked in Ellroy’s psyche.
