The Best American Noir of the Century Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Introduction

  SPURS

  PASTORALE

  YOU'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER ME

  GUN CRAZY

  NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT

  THE HOMECOMING

  MAN IN THE DARK

  THE LADY SAYS DIE!

  PROFESSIONAL MAN

  THE HUNGER

  THE GESTURE

  THE LAST SPIN

  FOREVER AFTER

  FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE

  THE DRIPPING

  SLOWLY, SLOWLY IN THE WIND

  IRIS

  A TICKET OUT

  SINCE I DON'T HAVE YOU

  TEXAS CITY, 1947

  MEFISTO IN ONYX

  OUT THERE IN THE DARKNESS

  HOT SPRINGS

  THE WEEKENDER

  FAITHLESS

  POACHERS

  LIKE A BONE IN THE THROAT

  CRACK

  RUNNING OUT OF DOG

  THE PAPERHANGER

  MIDNIGHT EMISSIONS

  WHEN THE WOMEN COME OUT TO DANCE

  CONTROLLED BURN

  ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE

  WHAT SHE OFFERED

  HER LORD AND MASTER

  STAB

  THE HOARDER

  MISSING THE MORNING BUS

  First Mariner Books edition 2011

  Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

  Introduction copyright © 2010 by James Ellroy

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The Best American Series® is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  The best American noir of the century / edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler; with an

  introduction by James Ellroy.

  p. cm.—(The best American series)

  ISBN 978-0-547-33077-8 ISBN 978-0-547-57744-9 (pbk.)

  1. Noir fiction, American. 2. Detective and mystery stories, American. 3. American

  fiction—20th century. I. Ellroy, James, date. II. Penzler, Otto.

  PS648.N64B47 2010

  813'087208—dc22 2010017204

  Printed in the United States of America

  DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  "Stab" by Chris Adrian. First published in Zoetrope: All-Story, Summer 2006. Copyright © 2006 by

  Chris Adrian; published in Better Angel: Stories, by Chris Adrian, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

  Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

  "The Hunger" by Charles Beaumont. First published in Playboy, April 1955. Copyright © 1955 by

  HMH Publishing Company, renewed 1983 by Christopher Beaumont. Reprinted by permission of

  Don Congdon Associates, Inc.

  "Like a Bone in the Throat" by Lawrence Block. First published in Murder for Revenge, ed. by

  Otto Penzler. Copyright © 1998 by Lawrence Block. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "The Gesture" by Gil Brewer. First published in The Saint Mystery Magazine, March 1956. Copy-

  right © 1956 by the author. Reprinted by permission of Marvin N. Lee and Mary V. Rhodes.

  "Man in the Dark" by Howard Browne. First published in Fantastic, 1952. Copyright © 1952 by

  the author. Reprinted by permission of Melissa Browne, Trustee.

  "Texas City, 1947" by James Lee Burke. First published in Southern Review, 1991. Copyright ©

  1991 by James Lee Burke. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Pastorale" by James M. Cain. First published in American Mercury, March 1928. Copyright ©

  1928 by The American Mercury, Inc. Copyright © renewed 1955 by James M. Cain. Reprinted by

  permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

  "Missing the Morning Bus" by Lorenzo Carcaterra. First published in Dead Man's Hand, 2007.

  Copyright © 2007 by the author. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "All Through the House" by Christopher Coake. First published in Gettysburg Review, 2003.

  Copyright © 2003 by Christopher Coake; published in We're in Trouble by Christopher Coake,

  Harcourt, 2005. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

  "What She Offered" by Thomas H. Cook. First published in Dangerous Women, 2005. Copyright

  © 2005 by Thomas H. Cook. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Hot Springs" by James Crumley. First published in Murder for Love, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by

  James Crumley. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of James Crumley.

  "The Weekender" by Jeffery Deaver. First published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, De-

  cember 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Jeffery W. Deaver. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "A Ticket Out" by Brendan DuBois. First published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January

  1987. Copyright © 1987 by Brendan DuBois. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Mefisto in Onyx" by Harlan Ellison. From The Essential Ellison: A 50-Year Retrospective, 2005.

  Copyright © 1993 by the Kilimanjaro Corporation. Reprinted by arrangement with, and permis-

  sion of, the Author and the Author's agent, Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., New York. All rights

  reserved. Harlan Ellison is a registered trademark of the Kilimanjaro Corporation.

  "Since I Don't Have You" by James Ellroy. First published in A Matter of Crime, vol. 4. Copyright

  © 1988 by James Ellroy. Reprinted by permission of Sobel Weber Associates.

  "You'll Always Remember Me" by Steve Fisher. First published in Black Mask Magazine, March

  1938. Copyright © 1938 by the author. Reprinted by permission of Keith Alan Deutsch.

  "Poachers" by Tom Franklin. From Poachers. Copyright © 1999 by Tom Franklin. Reprinted by

  permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  "The Paperhanger" by William Gay. First published in Harper's Magazine, February 2000. Copy-

  right © 2000 by William Gay. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Out There in the Darkness" by Ed Gorman. First published in Out There in the Darkness, 1995.

  Copyright © 1995 by Ed Gorman. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Iris" by Stephen Greenleaf. First published in The Eyes Have It, 1984. Copyright © 1984 by Ste-

  phen Greenleaf. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Crack" by James W. Hall. First published in Murder and Obsession, 1999. Copyright © 1999 by

  James W. Hall. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind" by Patricia
Highsmith. First published in Slowly, Slowly in the Wind.

  Copyright © 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, and 1979 by Patricia Highsmith. Copyright © by Diogenes

  Verlag AG Zurich. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

  "The Homecoming" by Dorothy B. Hughes. First published in Murder Cavalcade, 1946. Copy-

  right © 1946 by Dorothy B. Hughes, Murder Cavalcade, New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce. Permis-

  sion granted by Blanche C. Gregory, Inc.

  "The Last Spin" by Evan Hunter. First published in Manhunt, September 1956. Copyright © 1956

  by Evan Hunter. Reprinted by permission of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents, Inc.

  "Gun Crazy" by MacKinlay Kantor. First published in the Saturday Evening Post, February 13,

  1940. Copyright © 1940 by MacKinlay Kantor. Reprinted by permission of Layne Schroder, Lydia

  Kantor and Melissa Poplazarova and by agreement with the estate's agent, Donald Maass Literary

  Agency, 121 West 27th Street, Suite 801, NY, NY 10001.

  "Nothing to Worry About" by Day Keene. First published in Detective Tales Magazine, August

  1945. Copyright © 1945 by Popular Publications, Inc. Copyright renewed © 1973 and assigned to

  Argosy Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission by arrangement with

  Argosy Communications, Inc.

  "Her Lord and Master" by Andrew Klavan. First published in Dangerous Women, 2005. Copy-

  right © 2005 by Andrew Klavan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Running Out of Dog" by Dennis Lehane. First published in Murder and Obsession, 1999. Copy-

  right © 1999 by Dennis Lehane. Reprinted with permission of Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency, Inc.

  "When the Women Come Out to Dance" by Elmore Leonard. First published in When the

  Women Come Out to Dance, 2002. Copyright © 2002 by Elmore Leonard, Inc. Reprinted by per-

  mission of the author.

  "The Dripping" by David Morrell. First published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August

  1972. Copyright © 1972 by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the au-

  thor.

  "The Hoarder" by Bradford Morrow. First published in Murder in the Rough, 2006. Copyright ©

  2006 by Bradford Morrow. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "Faithless" by Joyce Carol Oates. From Faithless: Tales of Transgression. Copyright © 1997 by The

  Ontario Review, Inc. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  "The Lady Says Die!" by Mickey Spillane. First published in Manhunt, October 1953. Copyright

  © 1953 by Mickey Spillane. Contributed by the Estate of Mickey Spillane.

  "Forever After" by Jim Thompson. First published in Shock, May 1960. Copyright © 1960 by Jim

  Thompson. Reprinted by permission of Vanessa Holt Ltd.

  "Midnight Emissions" by F. X. Toole. First published in Murder of the Ropes, 2001. Copyright ©

  2001 by F. X. Toole. Reprinted by permission of Sobel Weber Associates.

  "Controlled Burn" by Scott Wolven. First published in Harpur Palate, 2002. Copyright © 2002 by

  Scott Wolven. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  "For the Rest of Her Life" by Cornell Woolrich. First published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Maga-

  zine, May 1968. Copyright © 1968 by JP Morgan Chase Bank as Trustee for the Clair Woolrich Me-

  morial Scholarship Fund. Reprinted by permission of Renaissance Literary and Talent.

  Foreword

  The French word noir (whichmeans "black") was first connected to the word film by a French critic in 1946, and has subsequently become a prodigiously over used term to describe a certain type of film or literary work. Curiously, noir is not unlike pornography, in the sense that it is virtually impossible to define, but everyone thinks they know it when they see it. Like many other certainties, it is often wildly inaccurate.

  This volume is devoted to short noir fiction of the past century, but it is impossible to divorce the literary genre entirely from its film counterpart. Certainly, noir most commonly evokes the great crime films of the 1940s and 1950s that were shot in black-and-white with cinematography that was heavily influenced by early-twentieth-century German expressionism: sharp angles (venetian blinds, windows, railroad tracks) and strong contrasts between light and dark. Most of us have a collective impression of film noir as having certain essentials: a femme fatale, some tough criminals, an equally tough cop or private eye, an urban environment, and night ... endless night. There are bars, nightclubs, menacing alleys, seedy hotel rooms.

  While it may be comforting to recognize these elements as the very definition of film noir, it is as simplistic a view as that which limits the mystery genre to detective fiction, failing to accept the numerous other elements of that rich literature, such as the crime novel and suspense stories.

  Certainly the golden age of film noir occurred in those decades, the '40s and '50s, but there were superb examples in the 1930s, such as M (1931), in which Peter Lorre had his first starring role, and Freaks (1932), Tod Browning's unforgettable biopic in which the principal actors were actual carnival "human curiosities." Andno one is likely to dispute that the noir motion picture continued into the 1960s and beyond, as evidenced by such classics as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Taxi Driver (1976), Body Heat (1981), and L.A. Confidential (1997).

  Much of film noir lacks some or all of the usual cliched visual set pieces of the genre, of course, but the absolutist elements by which the films are known are less evident in the literature, which relies more on plot, tone, and theme than on the chiaroscuro effects choreographed by directors and cinematographers.

  Allowing for the differences of the two mediums, I also believe that most film and literary critics are entirely wrong about their definitions of noir, a genre which famously—but erroneously—has its roots in the American hard-boiled private eye novel. In fact, the two subcategories of the mystery genre, private detective stories and noir fiction, are diametrically opposed, with mutually exclusive philosophical premises.

  Noir works, whether films, novels, or short stories, are existential, pessimistic tales about people, including(or especially) protagonists, who are seriously flawed and morally questionable. The tone is generally bleak and nihilistic, with characters whose greed, lust, jealousy, and alienation lead them in to a downward spiral as their plans and schemes inevitably go awry. Whether their motivation is as overt as a bank robbery, or as subtle as the willingness to compromise integrity for personal gain, the central figures in noir stories are doomed to hopelessness. They may be motivated by the pursuit of seemingly easy money or by love—or, more commonly, physical desire—almost certainly for the wrong member of the opposite sex. The machinations of their relentless lust will cause them to lie, steal, cheat, and even kill as they become more and more entangled in a web from which they cannot possibly extricate themselves. And, while engaged in this hopeless quest, they will be double-crossed, betrayed, and, ultimately, ruined. The likelihood of a happy ending in a noir story is remote, even if the protagonist's own view of a satisfactory resolution is the criterion for defining happy. No, it will end badly, because the characters are inherently corrupt and that is the fate that inevitably awaits them.

  The private detective story is a different matter entirely. Raymond Chandler famously likened the private eye to a knight, a man who could walk mean streets but not himself be mean, and this is true of the overwhelming majority of those heroic figures. They may well be brought into an exceedingly dark situation, and encounter characters who are deceptive, violent, paranoid, and lacking a moral center, but the American private detective retains his sense of honor in the face of all the adversity and duplicity with which he must do battle. Sam Spade avenged the murder of a partner because he knew he "was supposed to do something about it." Mike Hammer found it easy to kill a woman to whom he had become at
tached because he learned she had murdered his friend. Lew Archer, Spenser, Elvis Cole, and other iconic private eyes, as well as policemen who, like Harry Bosch and Dave Robicheaux, often act as if they are unconstrained by their official positions, may bend(or break) the law, but their own sense of morality will be used in the pursuit of justice. Although not every one of their cases may have a happy conclusion, the hero nonetheless will emerge with a clean ethical slate.

  Film noir blurs the distinction between hard-boiled private eye narratives and true noir stories by employing similar design and camera-work techniques for both genres, though the discerning viewer will easily recognize the opposing life-views of a moral, even heroic, often romantic detective, and the lost characters in noir who are caught in the inescapable prisons of their own construction, forever trapped by their isolation from their own souls, as well as from society and the moral restrictions that permit it to be regarded as civilized.

  This massive collection seldom allows exceptions to these fundamental principles of noir stories. They are dark and often oppressive, failing to allow redemption for most of the people who inhabit their sad, violent, amoral world. Carefully wrought plans crumble, lovers deceive, normality morphs into decadence, and decency is scarce and unre-warded. Nonetheless, the writers who toil in this oppressive landscape have created stories of such relentless fascination that they rank among the giants of the literary world. Some, like Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, and Jim Thompson, wrote prolifically but produced little that did not fall into the noir category, accurately reflecting their own troubled, tragic lives. Others, like Elmore Leonard, Evan Hunter, and Lawrence Block, have written across a more varied range of crime fiction, from dark to light, from morose to hilarious. Just not in this volume. If you find light and hilarity in these pages, I strongly recommend a visit to a mental health professional.

  Otto Penzler

  May 2009

  Introduction

  We created it, but they love it more in France than they do here. 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. Noir is opportunity as fatality, social justice as sanctified shuck, and sexual love as a one-way ticket to hell. Noir indicts the other subgenres of the hard-boiled school as sissified, and canonizes the inherent human urge toward self-destruction.