Ed Lynskeys Favorite Noir Fiction List

Cheapskates

By Charlie Stella

Former bus driver and ex-con Reese Waters wants to help his prison buddy Peter Rizzo, but his good intentions will land him in hot water with the mafia and the Nation of Islam, as well as New York's finest.

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Lemons Never Lie

By Richard Stark

Professional thief Alan Grofield turns down a heist, then has to defend himself and his wife against the attacks of the fellow thief he spurned.

Double Indemnity

By James M. Cain

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • James M. Cain, virtuoso of the roman noir, gives us a tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful story in Double Indemnity, an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.

A Feast of Snakes

By Harry Crews

From the acclaimed author of such novels as "Blood and Grits" and "Childhood" comes a wildly weird and breathtakingly original visit to the rural South that reveals the exotic subculture that erupts in all its glory at the Rattlesnake Roundup in Mystic, Georgia. "No number of adjectives in the thesaurus can do full justice to the dazzlingly bizarre nature of Crews' creations".--"Washington Post Book World".

Deadfolk

By Charlie Williams

Royston Blake is the head doorman of Hoppers Wine Bar & Bistro. He drives a Capri 2.8i and can walk down the street in Mangel knowing folks respect him. But now there's a rumor out that Blake's lost his bottle. Even Sal's heard the rumour. What's more, the Muntons are after him and the thought of ending up in the back of their Meat Wagon is almost too much to bear . . . Murder, mayhem and a chainsaw called Susan intertwine in this astonishing debut which marks the appearance of a funny and brutal new voice in British crime fiction.