Adieu Gloria

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with noir. I love the feel and pacing of it, and the intrigue and characterization. Part of this is, no doubt, because I grew up reading comic books, and noir literature comes out of the same tradition of pulp fiction that the comics do.

At the same time, though, a lot of classic noir - Spillane, for example - is very much a product of its time, which is a polite way of saying that its full of troubling attitudes regarding sex, politics, and race, and which also means that it can be difficult to read at times.

Queenpin does a great job of encapsulating everything I like about noir, but with a modern sensibility that makes it a lot more enjoyable to read. There's murder, intrigue, double-crosses, and an ending that I didn't quite see coming.

Recommended if you're a fan of modern noir (Sin City, Veronica Mars, etc) or of the classic stuff (Spillane, Hammett, Chandler, etc)