Hard-Boiled Mysteries : Weblinks list 1

HARD-BOILED WEBSITES

(Links on the WEB)

NOIR - Regroup all possible links to Noir and Hard-boiled pages, mainly for literature.

THE GUMSHOE SITE - a Japanese fan, translator of American detective and crime novels, keeps a very complete list about what is available on the Web for the domain.
Has included lots of real HB and Noir sites

RARA-AVIS- a rather esoteric title for an interesting site for Hard-Boiled references. Maintained by Bill Denton, founder of a mailing List with the same RARA-AVIS name and gathering fans and amateurs for discussions on HB topics.
The pages give, under others, a rather complete bibliography of Raymond Chandler and several key authors.

Bill keeps also a list of American slang words, explaining their meaning. These words were used in HB and mystery writings. Check his page at: Twists, Slugs and Roscoes

THE MYSTERIOUS HOME PAGE - the Grandaddy of all references to Web pages devoted to the Mystery literature of all genres.
One of the very first site of this kind on the Web, in continuous expansion and well organized. Exhaustive, and regularly updated links by a fan from the Northern tip of continental Denmark. A good springboard to find interresting sites.

OLD SCHOOL BOOKS - this link will bring you to the chapter of this site devoted to modern HB literature written by Black Americans. Interesting and well-documented for a few of the best authors.
Should you not be familiar with Black HB authors, then we suggest you enter the O.S.B site through its front door, where an introduction to the subject is developed.

HARD-BOILED CHECKLIST - an alphabetic list of most of the authors with their basic bibliography. A good starting point to refresh an unfaithful memory, having the merit of being handy even if not complete.
Maintained by 'Writer 89' a.k.a Brad Lang

The ACE DOUBLES - image libray - interesting collection of scannings of cover art from the famous ACE series (single and doubles) wherein were published many authors belonging to hard-boiled in their "Mystery" catalog, along some oddities.

HARD BOILED - history of the genre ; pulp magazines; films Noir. You can listen to background music mixing well with the pages, and select it from the local juke-box. This web site unfortunately does not grow anymore since 98.

GOLD MEDAL BOOKS - mainly a collection of front covers of the paperbacks published by Fawcett in their famous series, wherein so many hard-boiled novels were first issued. Some very basic info about the books and a few of their authors are added.

Our Web site HARD - BOILED MYSTERIES was
selected (mid December 99) as the SITE OF THE WEEK
by Mystery.com , one of the A&E TV Web sites.
Their site is dedicated to the several genres of mystery novels,
from cozies to Noir.
We sincerely thank them for their support!

POETRY ON THE NET - check out for poem no 9.
Tittled THE GENRE by Sean O'Bien, it is induced by a mystery novel kind of ambiance.
As a matter of fact, several of the HB/Noir authors in the world were involved with poetry during their writing career.
In the US there was Raymond Chandler and in France Leo Malet, to name only the best-known ones.

BRITANNICA INTERNET GUIDE AND SEARCH ENGINE
Our HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES web site is given the Britannica Award, and is cited in their online pages as a Web reference for Hard-Boiled literature

FOREIGN DEPARTMENT

Outside the American domain, mother of all HBs, flourish a vast and less-known field full of foreign top writers and their works. We give here a base for exploration.
Britain or other English speaking countries sites will be listed here as well.

New web site devoted to Noir novels, films...etc. Interviews of some French authors, French references and links. In French only for the moment, but it deals also with authors and works from other origins.

SERIES NOIRES - CRIME AND DETECTIVE STORIES -site of the Montreal branch of the Gallimard editions from France(publishers of the legendary Série Noire, collection of HB/Noir and crime novels).
Good presentation of novelties by the editor, but apparently not updated frequently. Mostly in French.

NO EXIT PRESS - British publisher of Noir and HB novels. The catalog contents confirmed authors like Joseh Hansen, Edward Bunker, Charles Willeford as well as "first book" by Jason Starr and Fred Willard, published in UK. Good presentation of the books and extensive catalog all online.

LE CYBERPOULPE - French non-official web site, by Le Comité Poulpien, devoted to the original enterprise of Edition Baleine that has published approx 100 titles of the series LE POULPE (check out our chapter giving more details), all by different French authors but with the same central character. Extensive site with list of books, short bios of authors, list of charachters, comments and critics. Interesting site dedicated to this revival of "poulpe fiction" in France. All in French.

POLAR WEB- Was one of the best sites of its kind. Online from mid 1996 until March 2000, it now ceased to exist.
This French site was devoted to a broad set of Noir, crime and detective genres, inclusive of HB.

E.Borgers
freeweb@rocketmail.com

_{Copyright © 1997,1998,1999,2000 E.Borgers for texts and setup.

See front page of WEBORGERS - Hard-Boiled Mysteries - for complete disclaimer.

Most recent revision: 4 April, 2000}

HARD-BOILED AUTHORS ON THE WEB

(Links on the WEB)

NEW ON THE HARD-BOILED LEAGUE...
We list here a few links to new authors and their books.*

*JOKER POKER by Richard Helms
Hard-boiled and cooked with the real ingredients. Highly recommended!
A detailed review of 'Joker Poker' is available in our pages.
Richard Helms was attracted to Hard-Boiled literature mainly by reading the classics like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, John D. Mc Donald since his young adulthood. A good start, indeed!
His first HB novel 'Joker Poker' will be issued in May 2000.
This book will be produced and marketed with the new techniques of "publishing on demand", techniques that make books available in e-form (electronic) or as "hard" copies (the traditional printed paper form).
Richard Helms now works on the continuation of a series of novels with Pat Gallegher- the occasional PI of 'Joker Poker'- as central character.

See our detailed review, by E.Borgers
Check out our interview of Richard Helms.

*NOTHING PERSONAL by Jason Starr
The DePinos are miserable, living in a tiny rundown apartment above a deli on Tenth Avenue. The Sussmans live in a posh building on the Upper East Side. When Joey DePino loses his job and is threatened by his bookies and loan shark, he involves the Sussmans in a sick, desperate plan to pay off his gambling debts.
Joey DePino and David Sussman will plunge their families into a moral-less world where anything is possible and nothing is personal.
Part crime novel, part unflinching satire of compulsive gambling, eating disorders and cold-blooded evil, NOTHING PERSONAL is the second novel by the writer of COLD CALLER, Jason Starr.

*THE IMMORTAL GAME by Mark Coggins
A very advanced software program to play chess against humans has been stolen and Riordan, a private detective, is hired to discretely find by who and how. Tough luck, August Riordan is not really your average PI, and will bring in irreverence, a bit of cynicism and a lot of troubles...
Riordan’s quest will bring him in the somber “valleys” of the very sophisticated Silicon Kingdom of the San Francisco area. Add to it jazz, S&M enthusiasts, the underground world, and a new partner, all joining to spice his journey.

‘The Immortal Game’ is the first novel by Mark Coggins, published by Poltroon Press. The book is illustrated with 30 photographs, documenting the places mentioned in the story. The character of August Riordan was previously introduced in a novella published in The New Black Mask.
In fact Mark Coggins came to write mystery fiction in the hard-boiled tradition after he discovered abstracts of ‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler red by a lecturer for an undergraduate class. After a few readings of Chandler by himself, he was totally hooked to the genre. A very good filiation!

*EAST OF A by Russel Atwood
A private-eye is assaulted in New York City's East Village -- an area known as "Alphabet City." The search for his attackers puts him further in jeopardy when he discovers a dead body and now must defend himself not only from his assailants, but from a murder charge as well...
This is how Ballantine, publisher of the book, introduces the novel.

Hard-Boiled, fast paced and coated with some irony, is the first novel by Russel Atwood.

See our review of 'East of A' for details.

*COLD CALLER by Jason Starr
First he gets beaten up on the subway, then he gets sent home from work for being late! Things are only going to get worse as Moss is about to plunge deep into a hell of his own creation...
"Cold Caller has a lot to do with work, especially boss-employee relationships. I've had a lot of shitty jobs since college and a lot of shitty bosses too, so I'm sure a lot of the themes in the book had been simmering in my brain for years. The setting for the novel is an exaggerated version of a telemarketing company I once worked for. In the book I describe the company as having all of these Kafkaesque rules and regulations, but believe me: places like this really exist! " That's how Jason Starr presents the background set in his novel (Interview given to The richmond Press)

*DOWN ON PONCE by Fred Willard
Sam Fuller is a retired marijuana smuggler who has never figured out if it was a bomb or just a leaking gas line that blew up his boat, nearly drowned him and killed his closest friends.
Fred Willard presents his book: "What I'm trying to do with my writing is bring the hard-boiled sensibility to books that also use some of the approaches associated with mainstream fiction. It's an attempt to grow hard-boiled in a direction that embraces my own expriences, and off-beat take on the difficult business of being human . The result may not be typical hard-boiled, but has many historical precedents in the genre.
Above all, I try to keep it fun and exciting."

*FIRST DEGREE BURN by Peter Lance
'First Degree Burn' is the first-in-a-series of thrillers featuring FDNY Fire Marshal Eddie Burke. It's a take on the detective story that we don't often see.
Fire Marshals act just like Precinct Detectives. They drive the same Chevy Caprices. They pack the same Smith & Wessons "Nines." And they work the same streets collaring predicate felons.
(text extracted from the presentation web pages by P.Lance and Brett Wilcox)

E.Borgers
freeweb@rocketmail.com