In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the
Century, James Ellroy writes, “noir is the most scrutinized
offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It’s the long drop
off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect
misalliance. It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and
the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.”
Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this
collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker,
more thorough distillation of American noir
fiction.
James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The
Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of
writing—1910–2010—to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine
stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M.
Cain’s “Pastorale,” and its post-war heyday boasts giants like
Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch,
diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Patricia
Highsmith, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lehane, and William Gay, with
many page-turners appearing in the last decade.