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The Best American Noir of the Century (The Best American Series) Kindle Edition

by James Ellroy (Editor), Otto Penzler (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 484 ratings
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This “impressive crime anthology” presents a century of American greed, crime and comeuppance by some of the genre’s greatest authors (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
James Ellroy, the author of such noir classics as The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential, joins forces with award-winning editor Otto Penzler to present this treasure trove of stories. Ranging from the 1920s to the present day, this collection represents noir at its best across a century of literary evolution.
 
From the genre’s infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,” while its postwar 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 from the 21st century.
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  1. Part of series
    The Best American: Noir
  2. Print length
    755 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. Publication date
    October 4, 2011
  7. File size
    1723 KB
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  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“There is no denying that The Best American Noir of the Century is a source of unsettling but

essential and valuable reading, and should immediately be added to your ‘must read’ list.”

(Bookgasm )

“Well worth its impressive weight in gold, it would be a crime not to have his seminal masterpiece in your collection.” (New York Journal of Books )

"Read them if you want to feel your flesh creep." (National Post )

From the Back Cover

“Well worth its impressive weight in gold, it would be a crime not to have this seminal masterpiece in your collection.”—New York Journal of Books

In his introduction to 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 mined writings of the past century 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 postwar 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 from the past decade.

“Delightfully devilish . . . A strange trek through the years that includes stories from household names in the hard-boiled genre to lesser-known authors who nonetheless can hold their own with the legends.”—Associated Press



James Ellroy is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy—American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s a Rover—and the L.A. Quartet novels, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. His most recent book is The Hillicker Curse, a memoir.

Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press, has won two Edgar Allan Poe Awards (most recently for The Lineup), and is series editor of The Best American Mystery Stories.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005LVR786
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 4, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1723 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 755 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 484 ratings

About the author

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Otto Penzler

Otto Penzler

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Otto Penzler is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop (www.mysteriousbookshop.com) in New York City and is regarded as the world's foremost authority on crime, mystery and suspense fiction. He founded The Mysterious Press in 1975, which he later sold to Warner Books (1989). He reacquired the imprint in 2010 and it now publishes original books as an imprint at Grove/Atlantic, and both original works and classic crime fiction through MysteriousPress.com (www.mysteriouspress.com), in partnership with Open Road Integrated Media.

Penzler is a prolific editor, and has won two Edgar Awards, for Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977 and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994 and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
484 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Josh Mauthe
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic series of stories that go as dark as they possibly can
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2012
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In their introductions to this superb volume of noir fiction, Penzler and Ellroy point out that crime fiction and noir, while often sharing some characteristics, couldn't be more different from each other, and set out to remind the reader that true noir fiction is about as pitch-black and bleak as you can possibly imagine, without even the hope of justice being served. And over the course of the 700+ pages of this anthology, they'll give you a master's level course in just how dark writing can get. I had assumed that this volume would focus more on the noir written during the first half of the century, and to be sure, you get a dizzying array of stories from some of the masters of the genre - Cain, Spillane, Thompson, and more - as well as some less well-known but equally superb stories ("Gun Crazy" and "You'll Always Remember Me" are two of my favorites in the early going). But there's no shortage of more modern works here, with incredible contributions ranging from known authors like Deaver, Lehane, Harlan Ellison, and more, as well as once again diving deeply into some more obscure stories to flesh out the volume. And Ellroy and Penzler have created an absolutely superb selection; in the nearly 40 stories they've chosen, the worst you can say about any of them is that they're pretty fantastic, while most of them are absolutely superb. More than that, it's given me a list of new authors to check out. I've got to read more by Chris Adrian, for instance, simply based off of the brilliant story of childhood trauma "Stab," and you can count me as ready to dive into more by James W. Hall after the twisted voyeuristic darkness of "Crack." And if that's not enough for you, how about superb stories by Elmore Leonard, or F.X. Toole, or Patricia Highsmith, or...look, the list could go on forever. Here's the essence of the thing: if you like your stories icy cold, vicious, and rough, this is a must read collection for you.
20 people found this helpful
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Timbo
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and easy reading
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2024
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Good stories although, not surprisingly, some much better than others. The short history about each author before his or her story was especially interesting to me.
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Fiona Webster
5.0 out of 5 stars James Ellroy says "Doom is fun," and he's RIGHT!
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2020
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Too bad the last story in this anthology was kind of a dud, because almost without exception, all the other nearly 40 tales (this is a BIG slug of fiction) are top-notch—better even than I expected. And I expected a lot, given the reputations of the editors. This book must have been a labor of love, because not only have Penzler and Ellroy combed through what must have been zillions of contenders to find the very best of the best, they have each written powerful front pieces (don't skip them!), and they provide meaty mini-bios for each of the featured authors, suggesting numerous other novels & story collections I plan to check out. I knew I was a crime buff, but little did I know how very much I like literary noir. I was pleasantly surprised, for one thing, that this fiction doesn't feel depressing to me. As I read along, James Ellroy's words, from his foreword/intro, kept echoing in my mind: "Doom is fun... Doom is fun." One suggestion: if you can make yourself do it, read all of these through in chronological order, because as the decades go by, each author is learning from his or her predecessors. It's fascinating to see the influences unfurl and blossom.
39 people found this helpful
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czz
5.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of stories.
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2019
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Honestly some stories are unreadable and others are wrong or bad or contrived, like implausable. Sometimes it feels a bit heavy on the scene without the sense of adventure or pursuit. Also, a bit too ... low life from time to time. Of course, it is difficult to describe all of the stories when each one is so very different. Thankfully, they are short so you can skip the ones you dislike. Unfortunately, you risk skipping 2/3rds of the book. Also, you can't unread the bad ones. Some of it is just not very good. For comparison, some television shows are just not very good: the mystery isn't mysterious at all, or the suspense is not very suspenseful. Or the quick thinking detective isn't so smart, only has a so-so intelligence, it is just that her adversary was brain dead, a little too formulaic -or anti-formulaic for the sake of being anti-formulaic. But I liked it, obviously. I wouldn't spend this much time reviewing something I didn't.
10 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Not the usual Stories
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2014
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There are so many unexpected chills and surprises in this collection; and they keep coming as the stories span the better part of a century. Every story is good to amazing (I can only think of one that bored me a little) and they are not the typically collected Noir stories. They vary in style and length, so it is not just the hard boiled variety, but they can all be considered Noir. The intro for each writer is short and sweet giving insight into their careers and other noteworthy works. I have been reading a few of its stories at a time in between other novels and I am sorry to say that I am 3 stories away from the end of the collection and will really miss not having it to go back to.
3 people found this helpful
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Arthur H. Weintraub
4.0 out of 5 stars Great dark and menacing short fiction by a who's who of noir and some talented newbies.
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2022
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Great reading for those of us who love noir fiction, many turned into screenplays. Lots of bad guys, losers, calculating femme fatales and inventive plots. Just what you need for fun reading at bedtime or anytime. Plenty of pages to last a while. Short bios of the authors proceed each story which are often revealing and interesting.
6 people found this helpful
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AmazonCustomer
3.0 out of 5 stars Too gory. Maybe I've just changed.
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2018
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Too gory. Maybe I've just changed.
2 people found this helpful
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Yalobusha
5.0 out of 5 stars Penzler"s "Noir" truly is the Best
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2013
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Best American Noir is a well-collected anthology exhibiting prime examples of the genre both for the readers' pleasure and to further show what noir is. As delivered by Hollywood, the film aspect of the genre usually starts with a voiceover and recap of the yarn via flashback, but the literary versions offered here are far more varied and probably more bizarre than the screen vesions (many of which were inspired by these stories). Penzler continues to demonstrate he is the best at presenting tough-guy (grit-lit?) examples of a truly American genre (read his other anthologies from Black Mask etc). His knowledge of the authors presented here is exceptional and he might be blamed (or credited by used book dealers) for inspiring a massive run on their shelves for out-of-print originals of their other work. Worth it at any price.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Every story, even those from early in the century, is great, a fine example of noir fiction.
Reviewed in Canada on October 28, 2021
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Nothing disappointing here. Amazed me to realize that noir fiction has really not changed much over the century. Every story in Best American Noir delivers the grit and bad actors that define the genre.
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Bob Buckley
5.0 out of 5 stars Good but Grim reading
Reviewed in Australia on April 29, 2023
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Whenever I see the name Otto Penzler on a collection of stories I know that if I buy that I am in for a good read. This anthology of American, mostly crime stories, from a hundred years up until 2010 proves to be just that. The writers selected were mostly known to me and those that I was not familiar with proved to be well worth knowing. The stories cover a wide range of plots and styles and some are absolute page turners, but none disappointed me. However one small note of warning, everyone of these stories is unrelentingly grim and in this collection of tales there are certainly no happy endings. To my mind the earlier stories, although they come from a time of a world wide recession and two world wars, are less despondent than those that have been written nearer to our own time. Does this reflect today's world. Who knows. I would say a good read for the right person.
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ruben
5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection not to be missed
Reviewed in Spain on May 19, 2016
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If you are into dark stories this is your perfect book. It includes some classic tales and some little gems by lesser-known writers, like Ellison's Mefisto in Onyx.
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Warren Stalley
5.0 out of 5 stars Born To Lose
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2014
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The Best American Noir of the Century collects together a wide range of crime authors from the U.S. and is a great way to find interesting writers who you may not have come across before. Each story is preceded by a brief yet informative introduction to the author. All the pieces were interesting in one way or another but some of my personal favourites were as follows:

Nothing To Worry About – Day Keene
A teenage boy thinks he’s got away with murder but his homicidal tendencies may yet give him away. A slice of crime fiction from the Nineteen Forties era.

Man In The Dark – Howard Browne
A distraught husband tries to piece together the mystery of his wife’s disappearance and find out just who is the dead body in his wife’s burnt out car wreck? An engrossing mystery story from an author who was new to me.

The Lady Says Die! – Mickey Spillane
A wall street dealer tells the story of his friends’ demise to a police detective in a short but powerful piece of work from the legendary Mr Spillane. This is no Mike Hammer but still a solid enticing story.

Professional Man – David Goodis
Freddy Lamb is a lift attendant by day and hitman by night. He works for the owner of The Yellow Cat nightclub Herman Charn but his boss has eyes for Freddy’s girlfriend Pearl. This can only lead to trouble for the professional man. A riveting and emotional story plus a stand out piece in this collection from one of the truly great noir writers David Goodis.

The Last Spin – Evan Hunter
Two rival gang members try to settle a dispute over a tense game of Russian roulette in this powerful and harrowing tale that really delivers a punch. A true American classic.

Slowly, Slowly In The Wind – Patricia Highsmith
A retired businessman moves to the country for the sake of his health but ends up fighting with a local land owner in this impressive and chilling tale from a superb author.

Iris – Stephen Greenleaf
A travelling businessman thinks he’s picking up a quirky hitchhiker called Iris but ends up holding the baby and a whole lot more in this engrossing and hypnotic piece with a killer ending. Bleak just like good noir should be.

A Ticket Out – Brendan Dubois
Brad and Monroe two teenage boys dream of going to college and escaping/leaving their small town of Boston Falls. But the need for money and a dangerous robbery leave one of the boys scarred for life in this moving, evocative story.

Since I Don’t Have You – James Ellroy
A fixer who works for both Howard Hughes and gangster Mickey Cohen is tasked with tracking down a mysterious girl who both his bosses want back. But who is smarter the dame with the brains or the fixer in the mix? Written in a highly stylised way this is a tough talking and gripping crime piece from a well known author.

Texas City, 1947 - James Lee Burke
A young boy and his siblings suffer poverty and cruelty from their father’s girlfriend in this evocative and moving story that squeezes the heart and stays with you long after finishing. Truly memorable.

Mefisto In Onyx – Harlan Ellison
A man with psychic powers finds himself face to face with a death row serial killer but did the prisoner really commit the hideous crimes? A lengthy mystery story but worth sticking with for the killer payoff.

Out There in the Darkness - Ed Gorman
Four friends who have a regular poker night capture an intruder and suffer the consequences of rough justice in this gripping, involving story from the modern age of crime.

Hot Springs - James Crumley
Benbow and Mona Sue, a couple on the run hide out in a mountain lodge at Hidden Springs Canyon. Even with a familiar noir plot the talented writer James Crumley creates a rich and colourful tale that heads to a dark and graphic conclusion.

The Weekender - Jeffery Deaver
On the run from a drugstore armed robbery two criminals Jack Prescot and Joe Roy Toth hideout in a remote town called Winchester. They have a hostage Randall Weller who tries to plea for his freedom and life in a compelling story with a true noir kick in the guts ending. Great work from a well known author.

Like a Bone in the Throat - Lawrence Block
William Croydon, a killer on death row strikes up an unlikely friendship with Paul Dandridge, the brother of a young woman Croydon murdered. But who is kidding who in this riveting slice of gritty crime drama with a twisted ending.

Crack - James W. Hall
A University teacher living near Bilbao, Spain discovers a crack in the wall between his home and his neighbours, so begins a downward spiral of voyeurism, obsession and doom as he spies on the young girl next door. A short yet hypnotic piece that stays long in the memory.

Running Out of Dog - Dennis Lehane
In the small Southern town of Eden a dangerous equation of people exists – Elgin, his partner Shelley Briggs, his girlfriend Jewel Lut, her husband Perkin Lut and Elgin’s odd friend Blue. What follows is a mixture of friendship, love, lust and madness superbly told by Dennis Lehane. You can feel the dust at the back of your throat with this story, another stand out piece in this collection.

Midnight Emissions - F. X. Toole
A masculine story of promising heavyweight boxer Kenny Coyle and the trainers and business people around him. Full of sweat, grit and greed this is a lengthy developed story full of realistic details yet still noir at its core.

When the Women come Out to Dance - Elmore Leonard
Lourdes is hired as a personal maid to Mrs Mahmood, soon after they’re talking about murder. Events lead to a dark conclusion in this classic smooth piece of storytelling from one of the masters of crime fiction.

Controlled Burn - Scott Wolven
Bill Allen is hiding out after an armed robbery that went wrong. While working at a remote woodlot he goes on a job to burn some fields then disappears on the run again in a poetic reflection of one man’s troubled life on the run.

What She Offered - Thomas H. Cook
An author meets Victoria, a strange woman in a bar with an offer that’s both unusual and enticing to him in this original story.

Her Lord and Master - Andrew Klavan
Susan and Jim are having a masochistic relationship that leads them to dark things in this original yet highly controversial and thought provoking story.

Stab - Chris Adrian
Someone is murdering small animals in the quiet neighbourhood of Severna Forest. Calvin, a young boy who mourns the loss of his identical twin discovers who is behind the stabbings but can he stop them? A truly haunting tale of the loss of childhood innocence and mortality.

The Hoarder - Bradford Morrow
In Bayside Park a young man gets a job at a rundown miniature golf course. As he begins spying on the players he becomes obsessed with Penny, his brother’s girlfriend which leads to a heart of darkness in this hypnotic and poetic story of desire.

Missing the Morning Bus - Lorenzo Carcaterra
A husband uses his weekly poker evening to try to find out which of his card buddies is responsible for the death of his wife in this friendship story with a surprising twist in the tale.

To summarise you may not like all the stories contained within The Best American Noir of the Century but you’re sure to find something that will spark your interest among the wide variety of authors featured in the book. Enjoy.
10 people found this helpful
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jimweibo
4.0 out of 5 stars A curate's egg, hard boiled
Reviewed in Canada on April 9, 2015
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There's a lot of material here, by a large number of authors, so it's inevitable that the quality, like that of the proverbial curate's egg, will vary somewhat. The contribution from Mickey Spillane, for example, is very disappointing. However, on average the standard is high. There are introductory/biographical notes for each story, probably written by James Ellroy's co-editor Otto Penzler; these are fascinating not least because they show just how much writing (especially TV scripts) a full-time author has to do in his or her lifetime. Ellroy's own contribution is a little gem, set in one of his favourite locales (post war LA) and featuring an unholy mix of badly behaved historical figures and fictional criminals; as his more recent works become longer and longer, it's good to be reminded that there was a time when he could tell a tale with punch and brevity. All in all, this collection has much to recommend it.
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