Hard-boiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. Derived from the romantic tradition which emphasized the emotions of apprehension, awe, horror and terror, hardboiled fiction deviates from that tradition in the detective’s cynical attitude towards those emotions. Enjoy our selection of 10 Classic Hard Boiled Novels to Read.
10 Classic Hard-Boiled Novels to Read
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Sam Spade- the toughest man you’ll meet in any novel. His most treacherous, emotional, deadly case- The Maltese Falcon. Never has there been a more intriguing, captivating story of crime, obsession, and murder. Dashiell Hammett’s masterpiece novel inspired countless readers, a classic movie, and numerous imitators.
This novel is alive with electricity- filled with suspense and action that will make your heart ache, shudder and skip a beat or two. Whether you’ve only seen the movie, or haven’t owned a copy of this definitive book, the true art of Hammett’s novel can only be seen through the reading.
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
The bestselling sensation—and one of the most outstanding crime novels of the 20th century—that was banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, and acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger.
An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one grisly solution—a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve.
First published in 1934, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir. It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America’s bleak underside.
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Cynical Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe always falls for a sob story. Eight years ago Moose Malloy and cute little redhead Velma were getting married – until Malloy was framed for armed robbery. Now he’s out and he wants Velma back. Marlowe meets Malloy one hot day in Hollywood and, out of the generosity of his jaded heart, agrees to help. Dragged from one smoky bar to another, Marlowe’s search for Velma turns up plenty of gangsters with a nasty habit of shooting first and talking later. And soon what started as a search for a missing person becomes a matter of life and death . . .
Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
Nick Corey is a terrible sheriff on purpose. He doesn’t solve problems, enforce rules or arrest criminals. He knows that nobody in tiny Potts County actually wants to follow the law and he is perfectly content lazing about, eating five meals a day, and sleeping with all the eligible women.
With an election coming up, Nick needs to fix his problems and fast. Because the one thing Nick does know is that he will do anything to stay sheriff. Because, as it turns out, Sheriff Nick Corey is not nearly as dumb as he seems.
In Pop. 1280, widely regarded as a classic of mid-20th century crime, Thompson offers up one of his best, in a tale of lust, murder, and betrayal in the Deep South.
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
How does a man escape from himself…? A classic masterpiece of American noir fiction.
George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking, unscrupulous journalist working for tyrannical Earl Janoth’s media empire. And he’s involved with the wrong woman – his boss’s mistress, Pauline Delos. One day, as Stroud escorts Pauline home, he spies his boss returning from a trip. The next day, Pauline is found dead in her apartment.
Janoth knows someone saw him enter Pauline’s apartment on the night of the murder; he knows it must have been the man Pauline was seeing on the side; but he doesn’t know his identity. To get his hands on the man and pin the crime on him, Janoth assigns his best investigative reporter and most trusted employee to track him down: George Stroud…
Rear Window by Cornell Woolrich
Rear window “tells the tale of Hal Jeffries, trapped in his apartment because of a broken leg, who watches his neighbors through his rear window– until he is certain he’s discovered a murder. In this story, as in the other four– all featured as ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ episodes– Woolrich proves he is the all-time master of the noir genre”.
The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald
The first book in Ross Macdonald’s acclaimed Lew Archer series introduces the detective who redefined the role of the American private eye and gave the crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity only hinted at before.
Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There’s the sun-worshipping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson’s friends may have arranged his kidnapping.
As Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, and family hatred into an explosively readable crime novel.
The Snarl of the Beast by Carroll John Daly
Race Williams returns! Originally appearing in the pages of Black Mask Magazine, author Carroll John Daly pioneered the hard-boiled detective P.I. story and perfected the genre with his classic character, Race Williams.
Apart from the novel-length Race Williams stories, these classic hard-boiled thrillers have rarely been reprinted, if ever. Volume 2 contains the next batch of Race Williams stories, all from 1927–29 as Daly broke the mold of Black Mask by running serialized novels in the pages of that important magazine.
The Outfit by Richard Stark
In The Outfit, Parker goes toe-to-toe with the mob—hitting them with heist after heist after heist—and the entire underworld learns an unforgettable lesson: whatever Parker does, he does deadly.
Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
Los Angeles, the late 1940’s. A serial killer stalks the foggy streets at night …
Dix Steele, a former fighter pilot, moved to L.A. after the war, looking for a new life. But the city is gripped by fear of a murderer in its midst. Dix, however, is not scared. And when he bumps into his old friend Brub, now a detective on the trail of the culprit, he is excited to follow the police’s progress. A dark and terrible truth is revealed, in a noir novel like no other.
If you enjoyed our Classic Hard-Boiled Novels, check out our selection of the 20 Best Detective Series to Read
