New, Now, Noir: More Noir Mystery Fiction
Abandon most hope ye who enter here in #126
In yet another fiction trend (see Unreliable Narrators from two weeks ago … you guys, am I in my September issue era of trendspotting?) - definitely there’s a noir fiction trend. Crime fiction with a gritty setting, a pessimistic outlook, morally impeachable protagonists, and a thoroughly modern lens even in period writing.
I’m not sure what it might say about us as a Collective People such that we are writing, publishing, and/or consuming this genre more. But I’d hazard a guess that it has something to do with the increasing fatigue brought on by seeing communities, institutions, and optimistic expectations crumble around us. Of the desperation that the machine has become too powerful and we too fractured to reverse it.
Further, I’m not sure what it says about me as an Individual Reader right now, that this week’s low-lamb books are some of my favorites of the year. I, an avowed aspirant to a utopian Five Lamb Future! First of all, I think they are all engrossing and excellent, and in a year of Meh, that stands out. But also, what really speaks to me with these books is that while they may be bleak (and oh, my babies, they are), they aren’t actually all that cynical. And they remind us of the terrible beauty in doing a right thing - not even necessarily the right thing - even when it seems too late or doomed to fail.
Hopeful even while hopeless, a 2023 emotion. Enjoy this week’s suggestions!
Have you read any of these? Are you more hopeful or hopeless? If this is my September issue am I, in fact, Anna Wintour? Let me know in the comments!
Summary: In Everybody Knows, high-powered publicist Mae Pruitt’s boss is killed in Beverly Hills in an apparently random carjacking, but she thinks there’s more to his murder than the official report. Investigating his death forces her to confront Hollywood’s - and society’s - appetite for power, youth, and positive spin, and what she’s done to feed the beast.
Why I liked it: This is a fresh take on a crime novel, brilliantly set as it is in the world of crisis communications (Scandal walked so this book could run). The author gets that world just right while also capably spinning plates of #MeToo, politics, influencer/creator culture, and inequity. Los Angeles is pitch-perfect here, vividly and absolutely impeccably rendered in all its lushness and desperation. Mae is both badass and maybe just bad? Dark and superb. I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t make my personal top-10 list of the year.
Power summary: In All the Sinners Bleed, Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in his rural Virginia town. When a popular high school teacher is shot by a former student and that student is shot by one of his deputies, Titus’s investigation of the shootings exposes much more than any suspected.
Why I liked it: Honest to god, is S.A. Cosby not one of the best mystery/crime writers working today? Like Razorblade Tears before it (here’s why I loved that), his books flip the “traditional South” narratives to spotlight the systemic racist and classist underpinnings, and yet he’s never without empathy nor full of pat answers - his protagonist is a Black cop with a checkered history! Plus, his writing is muscular, tight, in your face, with outstanding characters. Very violent and disturbing scenarios - like, take all the cautions - but I’m a fan.
Power summary: In the heatwave Boston summer of 1974, Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to keep her electricity on, keep up with her 17-year-old daughter, and stop the desegregation of her local high school. One night her daughter doesn’t come home, on the same night a seemingly unrelated death of a Black teen. In trying to find her daughter, Mary Pat has to confront everything she has long held to be true and good, from her community’s beliefs to the local mob boss to what she believes about herself and her family.
Why I liked it: Yes. I’m just reading Dennis Lehane for the first time. I’ve also never watched The Wire and at this point I probably won’t. Judge my shortcomings all you like, for you are not mistaken.
Anyway - Small Mercies is a real vibe, people. You’ll be sweating on your Formica countertops from page one. What’s great about this is that Mary Pat is both the heroine and the antagonist, full of heart and breathtaking meanness, extremely offputting and loyal, courageous and craven, absolutely enraging but also sympathetic. You can have fair quarrels with centering her story while also appreciating how Lehane depicts a hard life with a series of bad choices.
I didn’t mean to pick all 1.5 lambers, everyone. It’s just … a lot of bad things happen in these books, people, and it doesn’t all get resolved. I’m not trying to scare you, I’m trying to prepare you.
Final thoughts: I needed a shower, a shave, and stiff shot of whiskey. But most of all I needed time to think.
… could I be a noir writer too? I have all the clichés thanks to absolutely devouring all my dad’s Spenser novels at an impressionable age.
All links today go to Tombolo Books, an indie bookstore in St. Petersburg, FL, that looks very cute and very smart. Recommended by Kira W, who is very smart and probably is also very cute? I’m just guessing. Thanks, Kira, and remember - buy local and indie, y’all!
If you need more lambies in your reading life than what this week’s newsletter has on offer, I understand. Check the archive (I probably need one running post of 4 and 5-lambers for emergencies, right? Do we need this?) and come back next week for a whole different genre/recommendation!
Likes, comments, and shares are gratefully received - I want to talk books more than I want to talk just about anything else in my life.
Your analysis is spot on. Times are tough and dark and noir mystery fiction is oddly the right prescription. But yes, please do publish a list of 4's and 5's. Can't be dark all the time.