Addictive Books

Noir fiction (or the French 'novel noir') is a subgenre of crime fiction. In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject matter, generally featuring a disturbing mixture of sex and violence. Noir works are existential pessimistic tales about people who are seriously flawed or morally questionable. The tone is generally bleak and nihilistic, with characters whose greed, lust, jealousy, and alienation lead them into a downward spiral as their plans and schemes inevitably go awry. American hardboiled fiction are related to noir fiction. Howerver, they are essentially an extension of the Wild West narratives of the 19th century. The wilderness becomes the city, and the hero is usually a somewhat fallen character, a detective or a cop. Nordic Noir typically feature seriously flawed protagonists who stumble through scenes of intense violence, such as Mankell's detective Kurt Walander, who is fighting his depression with alcohol.