“What are the best Noir Books and Novels ever written?” We looked at 397 of the top Noir books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
With nearly 400 different noir books, we assembled enough shadowed mysteries books to read one a day for more than a year. Below you will find both fiction as well as non-fiction books about the genera. We ranked the top 27 titles, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Noir” book lists, by how many times they appear. The additional 350+ books, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Lists It Appears On:
“In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.
Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning. . . .”
Lists It Appears On:
“Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there’d be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn’s late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room . . .
Thus begins Drive , the story of a man who works as a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night.”
Lists It Appears On:
In hardboiled crime fiction master Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, Philip Marlowe’s about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.
Lists It Appears On:
“In the three police procedurals that comprise the Factory Series, Derek Raymond has created a narrator who threatens to become a cult figure while preserving his anonymity. A loner and cynic, undervalued and underpaid, our hero is a nameless detective sergeant in the Department of Unexplained Deaths, a catch-all unit that investigates low-life crimes and is shunned by the blokes in the Serious Crimes Division of the Metropolitan Police.
But our narrator, working out of the Factory, named by the villains because it has a bad reputation for doing suspects over in the interrogation rooms, is fired by a real feeling for justice. He believes that an alcoholic, found obscenely battered to death in a seedy, down-and-out part of London, deserves as much official attention as, say, a dead politician. This “nobody” becomes a somebody—a kindred spirit who left behind a strange legacy. Our cop becomes obsessed by the case. But even he could not have imagined how vicious, evil, and perversely attractive his opponent will turn out to be.”
Lists It Appears On:
L.A. Confidential is epic “noir”, a crime novel of astonishing detail and scope written by the bestselling author of The Black Dahlia. A horrific mass murder invades the lives of victims and victimizers on both sides of the law. And three lawmen are caught in a deadly spiral, a nightmare that tests loyalty and courage, and offers no mercy, grants no survivors.
Lists It Appears On:
“Nick Corey is a terrible sheriff on purpose. He doesn’t solve problems, enforce rules or arrest criminals. He knows that nobody in tiny Potts County actually wants to follow the law and he is perfectly content lazing about, eating five meals a day, and sleeping with all the eligible women.
Still, Nick has some very complex problems to deal with. Two local pimps have been sassing him, ruining his already tattered reputation. His girlfriend Rose is being terrorized by her husband. And then, there’s his wife and her brother Lenny who won’t stop troubling Nick’s already stressed mind. Are they a little too close for a brother and a sister?
With an election coming up, Nick needs to fix his problems and fast. Because the one thing Nick does know is that he will do anything to stay sheriff. Because, as it turns out, Sheriff Nick Corey is not nearly as dumb as he seems.”
Lists It Appears On:
“Once upon a time Eddie played conert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall. Now he bangs out honky-tonk for drunks in a dive in Philadelphia. But then two people walk into Eddie’s life–the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past.
Shoot the Piano Player is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty: the kind a man owes his family, no matter how bad that family is; the kind a man owes a woman; and, ultimately, the loyalty he owes himself. The result is a moody thriller that, like the best hard-boiled fiction, carries a moral depth charge.”
Lists It Appears On:
The world of Patricia Highsmith has always been filled with ordinary people, all of whom are capable of very ordinary crimes. This theme was present from the beginning, when her debut, Strangers on a Train, galvanized the reading public. Here we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. “Some people are better off dead,” Bruno remarks, “like your wife and my father, for instance.” As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith’s perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder.
Lists It Appears On:
Los Angeles, 1950 Red crosscurrents: the Commie Scare and a string of brutal mutilation killings. Gangland intrigue and Hollywood sleaze. Three cops caught in a hellish web of ambition, perversion, and deceit. Danny Upshaw is a Sheriff’s deputy stuck with a bunch of snuffs nobody cares about; they’re his chance to make his name as a cop…and to sate his darkest curiosities. Mal Considine is D.A.’s Bureau brass. He’s climbing on the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his career and to gain custody of his adopted son, a child he saved from the horror of postwar Europe. Buzz Meeks-bagman, ex-Narco goon, and pimp for Howard Hughes-is fighting communism for the money. All three men have purchased tickets to a nightmare.
Lists It Appears On:
A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.
Lists It Appears On:
On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a Los Angeles vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia-and so begins the greatest manhunt in California history.Caught up in the investigation are Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard: Warrants Squad cops, friends, and rivals in love with the same woman. But both are obsessed with the Dahlia-driven by dark needs to know everything about her past, to capture her killer, to possess the woman even in death. Their quest will take them on a hellish journey through the underbelly of postwar Hollywood, to the core of the dead girl’s twisted life, past the extremes of their own psyches-into a region of total madness.
Lists It Appears On:
In this savagely audacious novel, James Ellroy plants a pipe bomb under the America in the 1960s, lights the fuse, and watches the shrapnel fly. On November 22, 1963 three men converge in Dallas. Their job: to clean up the JFK hit’s loose ends and inconvenient witnesses. They are Wayne Tedrow, Jr., a Las Vegas cop with family ties to the lunatic right; Ward J. Littell, a defrocked FBI man turned underworld mouthpiece; and Pete Bondurant, a dope-runner and hit-man who serves as the mob’s emissary to the anti-Castro underground.
Lists It Appears On:
George V. Higgins’s seminal crime novel is a down-and-dirty tale of thieves, mobsters, and cops on the mean streets of Boston. When small-time gunrunner Eddie Coyle is convicted on a felony, he’s looking at three years in the pen–that is, unless he sells out one of his big-fish clients to the DA. But which of the many hoods, gunmen, and executioners whom he calls his friends should he send up the river? Told almost entirely in crackling dialogue by a vivid cast of lowlifes and detectives, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of the greatest crime novels ever written.
Lists It Appears On:
Doc McCoy knows everything there is to know about pulling off the perfect bank job. But there are some things he has forgotten–such as a partner who is not only treacherous but insane and a wife who is still an amateur. Worst of all, McCoy has forgotten that when the crime is big and bloody enough, there is no such thing as a clean getaway.
Lists It Appears On:
A one-time detective and master of deft understatement, Dashiell Hammett virtually invented the hardboiled crime novel. This classic work of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness. Paul Madvig was a cheerfully corrupt ward-heeler who aspired to something better: the daughter of Senator Ralph Bancroft Henry, the heiress to a dynasty of political purebreds. Did he want her badly enough to commit murder? And if Madvig was innocent, which of his dozens of enemies was doing an awfully good job of framing him?
Lists It Appears On:
“You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.
They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.
Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to.”
Lists It Appears On:
In The Lady in the Lake, hardboiled crime fiction master Raymond Chandler brings us the story of a couple of missing wives—one a rich man’s and one a poor man’s—who have become the objects of Philip Marlowe’s investigation. One of them may have gotten a Mexican divorce and married a gigolo and the other may be dead. Marlowe’s not sure he cares about either one, but he’s not paid to care.
Lists It Appears On:
In noir master Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, Philip Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, whom he divorced and remarried and who ends up dead. And now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.
Lists It Appears On:
In Dashiell Hammett’s famous crime novel, we meet one of the detective-story master’s most enchanting creations, Nick and Nora Charles, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a classic murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.
Lists It Appears On:
Ree Dolly’s father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn’t show up for his next court date. With two young brothers depending on her, 16-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. Living in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks, Ree learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But, as an unsettling revelation lurks, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.
Lists It Appears On:
Vince Parry, sentenced to life in San Quentin for the alleged murder of his wife, escapes in an attempt to prove his innocence. A fugitive from justice in the depths of despair, he is sheltered by a woman as he tries to discover who framed him.
Lists It Appears On:
In No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines.
Lists It Appears On:
No one knew who she was, where she came from, or why she had entered their lives. All they really knew about her was that she possessed a terrifying beauty and that each time she appeared, a man died in a particularly horrible way. A reissue from one of the masters of the genre noir.
Lists It Appears On:
“Everyone in the small town of Central City, Texas loves Lou Ford. A deputy sheriff, Lou’s known to the small-time criminals, the real-estate entrepreneurs, and all of his coworkers–the low-lifes, the big-timers, and everyone in-between–as the nicest guy around. He may not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town, but nevertheless, he’s the kind of officer you’re happy to have keeping your streets safe. The sort of man you might even wish your daughter would end up with someday.
But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen. An urge that has already claimed multiple lives, and cost Lou his brother Mike, a self-sacrificing construction worker fell to his death on the job in what was anything but an accident. A murder that Lou is determined to avenge–and if innocent people have to die in the process, well, that’s perfectly all right with him.”
Lists It Appears On:
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.
Lists It Appears On:
A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo, a fat man name Gutman, and Brigid O’Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiel Hammett’s iconic, influential, and beloved The Maltese Falcon.
Lists It Appears On:
An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one grisly solution–a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve.
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| (Titles Appear On 2 Lists Each) | |||
| 28 | A Drink Before the War (Kenzie & Gennaro, #1) | Dennis Lehane | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 29 | American Tabloid (Underworld USA, #1) | James Ellroy | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 30 | Arts of Darkness: American Noir and the Quest For Redemption | Thomas S. Hibbs | Fil Noir |
| Fil Noir | |||
| 31 | Blood’s a Rover (Underworld USA, #3) | James Ellroy | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 32 | Brighton Rock | Graham Greene | Dead Good Books |
| Men’s Journal | |||
| 33 | Clandestine | James Ellroy | Best Horror Novels |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 34 | Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s | Robert Polito | Goodreads 2 |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 35 | Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1) | Walter Mosley | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 36 | Die a Little | Megan Abbott | Mulholland Books |
| Goodreads | |||
| 37 | Dirty Snow | Georges Simenon. | Huffington Post |
| Mystery Fanfare | |||
| 38 | Fade To Blonde | Max Phillips | Criminal Element |
| Goodreads | |||
| 39 | Gone, Baby, Gone (Kenzie & Gennaro, #4) | Dennis Lehane | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 40 | Good Dog, Bad Dog (A Sam Russo Mystery, #2) | Ki Longfellow | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 41 | Hell On Church Street | Jake Hinkson | Goodreads |
| Criminal Element | |||
| 42 | In a Lonely Place | Dorothy B. Hughes | Men’s Journal |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 43 | In Cold Blood | Truman Capote | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 44 | London Boulevard | Ken Bruen | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 45 | Mildred Pierce | James M. Cain | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 46 | Night and the City | Gerald Kersh: | Mystery Fanfare |
| Dead Good Books | |||
| 47 | Priest (Jack Taylor, #5) | Ken Bruen | Psycho Noir |
| Goodreads | |||
| 48 | Queenpin | Megan Abbott | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 49 | Rear Window | Cornell Woolrich | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 50 | Red Harvest | Dashiell Hammett | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 51 | Savage Night | Allan Guthrie | Psycho Noir |
| Goodreads | |||
| 52 | Savages (Savages #2) | Don Winslow | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 53 | Shadow Roll (A Sam Russo Mystery, #1) | Ki Longfellow | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 54 | Sin City | Frank Miller | Ranker |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 55 | Small Crimes | Dave Zeltserman | Goodreads |
| Criminal Element | |||
| 56 | Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir & the American City | Nicholas Christopher | Fil Noir |
| Fil Noir | |||
| 57 | The Black Echo (Harry Bosch, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #1) | Michael Connelly | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 58 | The Continental Op | Dashiell Hammett | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 59 | The Dain Curse | Dashiell Hammett | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 60 | The Girl in the Next Room (A Sam Russo Mystery, #3) | Ki Longfellow | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 61 | The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson | Best Horror Novels |
| Flashlight Worthy | |||
| 62 | The Grifters | Jim Thompson | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 63 | The High Window | Raymond Chandler | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 64 | The Little Sister | Raymond Chandler | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 65 | The Meat Market (Jonathan Harkon Adventures #1) | James Chalk | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 66 | The Power of the Dog | Don Winslow | Goodreads |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 67 | The Talented Mr Ripley (Ripley, #1) | Patricia Highsmith | Goodreads 2 |
| List Challenges | |||
| 68 | They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? | Horace McCoy | Goodreads 2 |
| List Challenges | |||
| 69 | Trouble Is My Business | Raymond Chandler | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| 70 | White Jazz (L.A. Quartet, #4) | James Ellroy | List Challenges |
| Goodreads 2 | |||
| (Titles Appear On 1 List Each) | |||
| 71 | 100 Bullets | Ranker | |
| 72 | A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide | John Grant | Fil Noir |
| 73 | A Dame to Kill For | Ranker | |
| 74 | A Darkness More Than Night (Harry Bosch, #7; Terry McCaleb, #2; Harry Bosch Universe, #9) | Michael Connelly | Goodreads |
| 75 | A Girl and a Gun: The Complete Guide to Film Noir On Video | David N. Meyer | Fil Noir |
| 76 | A Hell of a Woman | Jim Thompson | Goodreads 2 |
| 77 | A History of Violence | Ranker | |
| 78 | A Land More Kind Than Home | Wiley Cash | The Guardian 2 |
| 79 | A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941-1953 | Raymond Borde | Fil Noir |
| 80 | A Prayer for Dawn | Nathan Singer | Mulholland Books |
| 81 | A Rage in Harlem (Harlem Cycle, #1) | Chester Himes | Goodreads 2 |
| 82 | A Reference Guide to the American Film Noir 1940-1958 | Robert Ottoson | Fil Noir |
| 83 | A Swell Looking Babe | Jim Thompson | Huffington Post |
| 84 | A Swollen Red Sun | Matthew McBride | Publishers Weekly |
| 85 | A Touch of Death (Hard Case Crime #17) | Charles Williams | Goodreads 2 |
| 86 | A Very Simple Crime | Grant Jerkins | Criminal Element |
| 87 | Absolute Zero Cool | Declan Burke | Goodreads |
| 88 | After Dark, My Sweet | Jim Thompson | Goodreads 2 |
| 89 | All That Glitters: A Jake & Laura Mystery | Michael Murphy | Goodreads |
| 90 | Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned | Walter Mosley | Goodreads 2 |
| 91 | American Salvage | Bonnie Jo Campbell | The Guardian 2 |
| 92 | American Skin | Ken Bruen | Goodreads |
| 93 | Any novel | Ross MacDonald | The Guardian |
| 94 | Apple Tree Yard | Louise Doughty | WHSmith |
| 95 | Ask The Parrot (Parker, #23) | Richard Stark | Goodreads |
| 96 | At the End of the Road | Grant Jerkins | Goodreads |
| 97 | Baby Shark | Goodreads | |
| 98 | Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir | Karen Burroughs Hannsberry | Fil Noir |
| 99 | Batman: The Long Halloween | Ranker | |
| 100 | Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled 2 | David Cranmer | Goodreads |
| 101 | Beautiful, Naked & Dead | Josh Stallings | Goodreads |
| 102 | Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead | Michael Ledwidge | Mystery Fanfare |
| 103 | Before We Met | Lucie Whitehouse | WHSmith |
| 104 | Berlin Noir: March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem | Philip Kerr | Goodreads 2 |
| 105 | Black & White & Noir | Paula Rabinowitz | Fil Noir |
| 106 | Black Art | V.T. Davy | Goodreads |
| 107 | Black Flowers | Steve Mos | Goodreads |
| 108 | Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir | Sheri Chinen Biesen | Fil Noir |
| 109 | Blackwater | Kerstin Ekman | Flashlight Worthy |
| 110 | Borkmann’s Point: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery | Hakan Nesser | Flashlight Worthy |
| 111 | Borrowed Trouble | J.B. Kohl | Goodreads |
| 112 | Bury Me Deep | Megan Abbott | Psycho Noir |
| 113 | Butterfly Effect | Pernille Rygg | Flashlight Worthy |
| 114 | Caught Stealing (Hank Thompson, #1) | Charlie Huston | Goodreads |
| 115 | Cemetery Road | Gar Anthony Haywood | Criminal Element |
| 116 | Chasm City | Alastair Reynolds | Syfy |
| 117 | City of Champions | Daniel Stanton | Goodreads 2 |
| 118 | Closing Time | Jim Fusilli | Mulholland Books |
| 119 | Cold Caller | Jason Starr | Publishers Weekly |
| 120 | Colorado Noir | John Dwaine McKenna | Goodreads |
| 121 | Cornell Woolrich from Pulp Noir to Film Noir | Thomas C. Renzi | Fil Noir |
| 122 | Cotton Comes to Harlem (Harlem Cycle, #7) | Chester Himes | Goodreads 2 |
| 123 | Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Goodreads 2 |
| 124 | Crime Scenes: Movie Poster Art of the Film Noir: The Classic PerioD: 1941-1959 | Lawrence Bassoff | Fil Noir |
| 125 | Criminal Vol. 2 | Ranker | |
| 126 | Criminal, Volume 1 | Ranker | |
| 127 | Cross (Jack Taylor, #6) | Ken Bruen | Goodreads |
| 128 | Dames in the Driver’s Seat: Rereading Film Noir | Jans B. Wager | Fil Noir |
| 129 | Damn Near Dead 2: Live Noir or Die Trying | Bill Crider | Goodreads |
| 130 | Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir | Duane Swierczynski | Goodreads |
| 131 | Dare Me | Megan Abbott | Goodreads |
| 132 | Dark Cinema: American Film Noir | Jon Tuska | Fil Noir |
| 133 | Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir | Eddie Muller | Fil Noir |
| 134 | Dark City: The Film Noir | Spencer Selby | Fil Noir |
| 135 | Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir | Eddie Muller | Fil Noir |
| 136 | Darkness, Take My Hand (Kenzie & Gennaro, #2) | Dennis Lehane | Goodreads 2 |
| 137 | Dead Harvest (The Collector, #1) | Chris Holm | Goodreads |
| 138 | Dead on the Rocks (Sam Russo, #4) | Ki Longfellow | Goodreads |
| 139 | Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir | Arthur Lyons | Fil Noir |
| 140 | Dermaphoria | Craig Clevenger | Best Horror Novels |
| 141 | Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir | Foster Hirsch | Fil Noir |
| 142 | Directors on the Edge: Outliers in Hollywood | James Ursini | Fil Noir |
| 143 | Disclaimer | Renee Knight | WHSmith |
| 144 | Dope | Sara Gran | Criminal Element |
| 145 | Dove Season (A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco, #1) | Johnny Shaw | Goodreads |
| 146 | Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust and Murder Hollywood Style | William Hare | Fil Noir |
| 147 | Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour on Poverty Row | Fil Noir | |
| 148 | Eight Million Ways to Die (Matthew Scudder, #5) | Lawrence Block | Goodreads 2 |
| 149 | Eloise – Loving a Sociopath | Catherine Lockwood | Goodreads 2 |
| 150 | Encyclopedia of Film Noir | Geoff Mayer | Fil Noir |
| 151 | European Film Noir | Fil Noir | |
| 152 | Expiration Date | Duane Swierczynski | Goodreads |
| 153 | Faceless Killers | Henning Mankell | Flashlight Worthy |
| 154 | Fake I.D. | Jason Starr | Psycho Noir |
| 155 | Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film | Karen Burroughs Hannsberry | Fil Noir |
| 156 | Field Gray (Bernard Gunther, #7) | Philip Kerr | Goodreads |
| 157 | Film Noir | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 158 | Film Noir | Andrew Spicer | Fil Noir |
| 159 | Film Noir | Bruce Crowther | Fil Noir |
| 160 | Film Noir | Elizabeth M. Ward | Fil Noir |
| 161 | Film Noir (Virgin Film) | Fil Noir | |
| 162 | Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity | Edward Dimendberg | Fil Noir |
| 163 | Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era 1940-1959 | Michael F. Keaney | Fil Noir |
| 164 | Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 165 | Film Noir Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 166 | Film Noir Reader Alain Silver & James Ursini (Editors) | Fil Noir | |
| 167 | Film Noir, American Workers, and Postwar Hollywood (Working in the Americas) | Dennis Broe | Fil Noir |
| 168 | Film Noir, The Directors Alain Silver and James Ursini | Fil Noir | |
| 169 | Film Noir: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Ref… | Michael L. Stephens | Fil Noir |
| 170 | Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 171 | Film Noir: Films of Trust and Betrayal | Paul Duncan | Fil Noir |
| 172 | Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City | Mark Bould | Fil Noir |
| 173 | Find Virgil | Frank Freudberg | Goodreads |
| 174 | Frank Sinatra in a Blender | Matthew McBride | Goodreads |
| 175 | Freak Show (The Nightshade Cases #1) | Patti Larsen | Goodreads |
| 176 | Freaky Deaky | Elmore Leonard | Best Horror Novels |
| 177 | French Film Noir | Robin Buss | Fil Noir |
| 178 | Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner | Paul M. Sammon | Fil Noir |
| 179 | Get Rich Quick | Peter Doyle | Goodreads |
| 180 | Gloria Grahame, Bad Girl of Film Noir: The Complete Career | RobertJ. Lentz | Fil Noir |
| 181 | Godchild | Vincent Zandri | Psycho Noir |
| 182 | Gone Bad | Julie Morrigan | Goodreads |
| 183 | Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | Goodreads 2 |
| 184 | Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square | Arthur La Bern | Dead Good Books |
| 185 | Great Spanish Films Since 1950 | Ronald Schwartz | Fil Noir |
| 186 | Grifter’s Game (Hard Case Crime #1) | Lawrence Block | Goodreads 2 |
| 187 | Gun, with Occasional Music | Jonathan Lethem | Syfy |
| 188 | Hangover Square | Patrick Hamilton | Dead Good Books |
| 189 | Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noirs | Peggy Thompson | Fil Noir |
| 190 | Hard Magic (Grimnoir Chronicles, #1) | Larry Correia | Goodreads |
| 191 | Harry Banner in Notice To Die | Steve Horsfall | Goodreads |
| 192 | Hausfrau | Jill Alexander Essbaum | WHSmith |
| 193 | Headstone (Jack Taylor, #9) | Ken Bruen | Goodreads |
| 194 | Heartsick | Chelsea Cain | Best Horror Novels |
| 195 | Hell’s Half Acre | Will Christopher Baer | Goodreads |
| 196 | Hellblazer | Syfy | |
| 197 | Hill Country | R. Thomas Brown | Goodreads |
| 198 | Historical Dictionary of Film Noir | Andrew Spicer | Fil Noir |
| 199 | Hollywood’s Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir | R. Barton Palmer | Fil Noir |
| 200 | Houses of Noir: Dark Visions from Thirteen Film Studios | Ronald Schwartz | Fil Noir |
| 201 | How to Be a Good Wife | Emma Chapman | WHSmith |
| 202 | I Married a Dead Man | Cornell Woolrich | Goodreads 2 |
| 203 | I Was Dora Suarez | Derek Raymond | Dead Good Books |
| 204 | I, the Jury (Mike Hammer, #1) | Mickey Spillane | Goodreads 2 |
| 205 | Ice Moon | Jan Costin Wagner | Flashlight Worthy |
| 206 | In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity | Frank Krutnik | Fil Noir |
| 207 | In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City | Imogen Sara Smith | Fil Noir |
| 208 | In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead (Dave Robicheaux, #6) | James Lee Burke | Goodreads 2 |
| 209 | Into the Darkest Corner | Elizabeth Haynes | WHSmith |
| 210 | Its A Bitter Little World: The Smartest Toughest Nastiest Quotes from Film Noir | Fil Noir | |
| 211 | Jack’s Return Home | Ted Lewis | Dead Good Books |
| 212 | Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller | Arnaldur Indridason | Flashlight Worthy |
| 213 | Joe | Larry Brown | The Guardian 2 |
| 214 | Joe Pitt series | Charlie Huston | Syfy |
| 215 | Killer | Dave Zeltserman | Psycho Noir |
| 216 | Killing Suki Flood | Rob Leininger | Publishers Weekly |
| 217 | Kiss Her Goodbye | Goodreads | |
| 218 | Kiss Me, Deadly | Mickey Spillane | Goodreads 2 |
| 219 | Kiss Me, Judas | Will Christopher Baer | Best Horror Novels |
| 220 | Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: On Classic Film Noir | Robert Miklistch | Fil Noir |
| 221 | L. A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels | William Hare | Fil Noir |
| 222 | L.A. Noir: The City as Character | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 223 | Lady Killer | David Krae | Goodreads |
| 224 | Laidlaw | William McIlvanney | Dead Good Books |
| 225 | Late Rain | Lynn Kostoff | Goodreads |
| 226 | Latin American Films, 1932-1994: A Critical Filmography | Ronald Schwartz | Fil Noir |
| 227 | LIFE Film Noir: 75 Years of the Greatest | Fil Noir | |
| 228 | Magnolias in Paradise | Leonard Seet | Goodreads |
| 229 | Matchstick Men | Eric Garcia | Mystery Fanfare |
| 230 | Miami Blues | Charles Willeford | Goodreads 2 |
| 231 | More Than Night: Film Noir and Its Contexts | Paul Arthur | Fil Noir |
| 232 | More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts | James Naremore | Fil Noir |
| 233 | Neo-Noir: The New Film Noir Style from Psycho to Collateral | Ronald Schwartz | Fil Noir |
| 234 | Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction | Woody Haut | Fil Noir |
| 235 | Night Has a Thousand Eyes | Cornell Woolrich | Mystery Fanfare |
| 236 | Nightmare Alley | William Lindsay Gresham | Goodreads 2 |
| 237 | Nightmare Town | Dashiell Hammett | Goodreads 2 |
| 238 | Noir Anxiety | Kelly Oliver | Fil Noir |
| 239 | Noir Is My Beat | Lara Fisher | Fil Noir |
| 240 | Noir Movies Facts, Figures & Fun | John Grant | Fil Noir |
| 241 | Noir, Now and Then: Film Noir Originals and Remakes (1944-1999) | Ronald Schwartz | Fil Noir |
| 242 | Once Were Cops | Ken Bruen | Goodreads |
| 243 | One Too Many Blows To The Head | J.B. Kohl | Goodreads |
| 244 | Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir | Barry Gifford | Fil Noir |
| 245 | Out There Bad | Josh Stallings | Goodreads |
| 246 | Pariah | Dave Zeltserman | Goodreads |
| 247 | Payback | Russell James | Mystery Fanfare |
| 248 | Penny Dreadful | Will Christopher Baer | Goodreads |
| 249 | Phantom Lady | Cornell Woolrich | Goodreads 2 |
| 250 | Pick-Up | Charles Willeford | Goodreads 2 |
| 251 | Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro, #5) | Dennis Lehane | Goodreads 2 |
| 252 | Psychosomatic | Anthony Neil Smith | Psycho Noir |
| 253 | Red Cat | Peter Spiegelman | Mulholland Books |
| 254 | Rendezvous in Black | Cornell Woolrich | Goodreads 2 |
| 255 | Reverb | J. Cafesin | Goodreads |
| 256 | Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter | Ranker | |
| 257 | Right as Rain (Derek Strange and Terry Quinn #1) | George Pelecanos | Goodreads 2 |
| 258 | Road to Perdition | Ranker | |
| 259 | Robert Siodmak: A Biography, With Critical Analyses | Deborah Lazaroff Alpi | Fil Noir |
| 260 | Roseanna | Per Wahloo | Flashlight Worthy |
| 261 | San Francisco Noir | Nathaniel Rich | Fil Noir |
| 262 | Sanctuary | William Faulkner | Men’s Journal |
| 263 | Sandman | Syfy | |
| 264 | Santa Barbara Noir (California Journeys) | Barbara Tannenbaum | Fil Noir |
| 265 | Scalped | Ranker | |
| 266 | Screwball Comedy and Film Noir: An Analysis of Their Imagery and Character Kinship | Thomas C. Renzi | Fil Noir |
| 267 | Season to Taste (or How to Eat your Husband) | Natalie Young | WHSmith |
| 268 | Second Life | S. J. Watson | WHSmith |
| 269 | Shades of Noir: A Reader | Fil Noir | |
| 270 | Shadow Man: A Biography of Lewis Miles Archer | Gabriel Blackwell | Goodreads |
| 271 | Sharp Objects | Gillian Flynn | Goodreads 2 |
| 272 | Shoedog | George Pelecanos | Mystery Fanfare |
| 273 | Sing a Song of Homicide | James R. Langham | Publishers Weekly |
| 274 | Slammer | Allan Guthrie | Psycho Noir |
| 275 | Sleeper, Season 1 | Ranker | |
| 276 | Solomon’s Vineyard | Jonathan Latimer | The Guardian |
| 277 | Spring Water | John Fitzgerald | Goodreads |
| 278 | Stagger Bay | Pearce Hansen | Goodreads |
| 279 | Staring Into the Abyss | Richard Thomas | Best Horror Novels |
| 280 | Stray Dog | Bookglow | |
| 281 | Street with No Name: A History of the Classic Film Noir | Andrew Dickos | Fil Noir |
| 282 | Surrogates | Syfy | |
| 283 | Swann’s Lake of Despair (Henry Swann #3) | Charles Salzberg | Goodreads |
| 284 | Swann’s Way Out (Henry Swann #4) | Charles Salzberg | Goodreads |
| 285 | Table 21 | T. Rafael Cimino | Goodreads |
| 286 | Tech-Noir: The Fusion of Science Fiction and Film Noir | Paul Meehan | Fil Noir |
| 287 | The Adjustment | Scott Phillips | Goodreads |
| 288 | The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir | Eddie Muller | Fil Noir |
| 289 | The Automatic Detective | A. Lee Martinez | Syfy |
| 290 | The Bastard Hand | Heath Lowrance | Goodreads |
| 291 | The Beloved Bs.(Mediocre or B Motion Pictures) | Dan Georgakas | Fil Noir |
| 292 | The Big Book of Noir | Fil Noir | |
| 293 | The Big Clock | Kenneth Fearing | Goodreads 2 |
| 294 | The Blonde on the Street Corner | Ralph Creel | Huffington Post |
| 295 | The Book of Film Noir | Fil Noir | |
| 296 | The Book of You | Claire Kendal | WHSmith |
| 297 | The Cartel | Don Winslow | Goodreads |
| 298 | The Caves of Steel | Isaac Asimov | Syfy |
| 299 | The Chaos We Know: Stories | Keith Rawson | Goodreads |
| 300 | The Chill | Ross Macdonald | Goodreads 2 |
| 301 | The City and the City | China Mieville | Syfy |
| 302 | The Cleaner (Jonathan Quinn, #1) | Brett Battles | Goodreads |
| 303 | The Cleanup | Sean Doolittle | Criminal Element |
| 304 | The Cold Kiss | John Rector | Criminal Element |
| 305 | The Color Purple | Alice Walker | The Guardian 2 |
| 306 | The Complete Stories | Flannery O’Connor | The Guardian 2 |
| 307 | The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1) | Robert Galbraith | Goodreads |
| 308 | The Dark Mirror: Psychiatry and Film Noir | Marlisa Santos | Fil Noir |
| 309 | The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir | Foster Hirsch | Fil Noir |
| 310 | The Dave Robicheaux Series | James Lee Burke | The Guardian 2 |
| 311 | The Day of the Locust | Nathanael West | The Guardian |
| 312 | The Deputy | Victor Gischler | Goodreads |
| 313 | The Devil All the Time | Donald Ray Pollock | Goodreads |
| 314 | The Devil She Knows (Maureen Coughlin, #1) | Bill Loehfelm | Goodreads |
| 315 | The Dresden Files | Jim Butcher | Syfy |
| 316 | The Drowning Pool | Ross Macdonald | Goodreads 2 |
| 317 | The Elephant Tree | R.D. Ronald | Goodreads |
| 318 | The Eye of the Beholder | Marc Behm | The Guardian |
| 319 | The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in.Film Noir 1941-1991 | James F. Maxfield | Fil Noir |
| 320 | The Felix Castor series | Mike Carey | Syfy |
| 321 | The Fever Kill | Tom Piccirilli | Publishers Weekly |
| 322 | The Film Noir Bible: When White People Had The Blues | Fil Noir | |
| 323 | The Film Noir Encyclopedia (new edition) | Alain Silver; Elizabeth Ward; James Ursini; Robert Porfirio | Fil Noir |
| 324 | The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I’ll Kill You! | Lisa Dombrowski | Fil Noir |
| 325 | The Galton Case | Ross Macdonald | Goodreads 2 |
| 326 | The Gangster Film Reader | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 327 | The Getaway Man | Andrew Vachss | Psycho Noir |
| 328 | The Gilt Kid | James Curtis | Dead Good Books |
| 329 | The Girl on the Train | Paula Hawkins | WHSmith |
| 330 | The Graving Dock | Gabriel Cohen | Mulholland Books |
| 331 | The Guards (Jack Taylor, #1) | Ken Bruen | Goodreads 2 |
| 332 | The Ice Harvest | Scott Phillips | Criminal Element |
| 333 | The Ice Princess (Patrik Hedström, #1) | Camilla Läckberg | Goodreads |
| 334 | The Kept Girl | Kim Cooper | Goodreads |
| 335 | The Kind Worth Killing | Peter Swanson | WHSmith |
| 336 | The Kinsey Milhone books | Sue Grafton | The Guardian |
| 337 | The Last Good Day | Peter Blauner | Mulholland Books |
| 338 | The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1) | James Crumley | Goodreads 2 |
| 339 | The Liar’s Chair | Rebecca Whitney | WHSmith |
| 340 | The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir fom the 40s and 50s | Peg Thompson | Fil Noir |
| 341 | The Long Fall (Leonid McGill, #1) | Walter Mosley | Goodreads |
| 342 | The Lowlife | Alexander Baron | Dead Good Books |
| 343 | The Lucky Stiff | Craig Rice | Publishers Weekly |
| 344 | The Maltese Touch of Evil: Film Noir and Potential Criticism | Shannon Scott Clute | Fil Noir |
| 345 | The Man With The Getaway Face (Parker, #2) | Richard Stark | Goodreads 2 |
| 346 | The Midnight Road | Tom Piccirilli | Best Horror Novels |
| 347 | The Movie Book of Film Noir | Fil Noir | |
| 348 | The Moving Target | Ross Macdonald | Goodreads 2 |
| 349 | The Narrows (Harry Bosch, #10; Harry Bosch Universe, #12) | Michael Connelly | Goodreads 2 |
| 350 | The Nightside Series | Simon Green | Syfy |
| 351 | The Ninth Step | Grant Jerkins | Goodreads |
| 352 | The Noir Style | Alain Silver | Fil Noir |
| 353 | The Office of Lost and Found | Vincent Holland-Keen | Goodreads |
| 354 | The One from the Other (Bernard Gunther, #4) | Philip Kerr | Goodreads |
| 355 | The Outfit (Parker, #3) | Richard Stark | Goodreads 2 |
| 356 | The Perfect Crime | Les Edgerton | Goodreads |
| 357 | The Philosophy of Neo-Noir (Philosophy and Popular Culture) | Fil Noir | |
| 358 | The Poet (Jack McEvoy, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #5) | Michael Connelly | Goodreads 2 |
| 359 | The Poison Tree | Erin Kelly | WHSmith |
| 360 | The Princess of Burundi | Kjell Eriksson | Flashlight Worthy |
| 361 | The Punisher Vol. 5 | Ranker | |
| 362 | The Resnick novels | John Harvey | The Guardian |
| 363 | The Rough Guide to Film Noir A great introduction that covers the genre from early German expressionism to the latest neo-noirs, and highlights the movies to look out for. | Fil Noir | |
| 364 | The Salome Effect | James Sajo | Goodreads |
| 365 | The Sandman Slim series | Richard Kadrey | Syfy |
| 366 | The Second Bat Guano War | J.M. Porup | Goodreads |
| 367 | The Shanghai Moon | SJ Rozan | Mulholland Books |
| 368 | The Shark-Infested Custard | Charles Willeford | Publishers Weekly |
| 369 | The Silent Wife | A. S. A. Harrison | WHSmith |
| 370 | The Song is You | Megan Abbott | Goodreads |
| 371 | The Terror of Living | Urban Waite | Goodreads |
| 372 | The Torch Singer (An Overnight Sensation #1) | Robert Westbrook | Goodreads |
| 373 | The Transylvania Detective Squad (Transylvania #1) | M.L. Dunn | Goodreads |
| 374 | The Wheelman | Duane Swierczynski | Best Horror Novels |
| 375 | The Whisperer | Donato Carrisi | Publishers Weekly |
| 376 | The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | Goodreads |
| 377 | The Winter of Frankie Machine | Don Winslow | Goodreads |
| 378 | The World Made Straight | Ron Rash | The Guardian 2 |
| 379 | The Yankee Club | Michael Murphy | Goodreads |
| 380 | The Yiddish Policemen’s Union | Michael Chabon | Syfy |
| 381 | The Zebra-Striped Hearse | Ross Macdonald | Goodreads 2 |
| 382 | The Zombie Room | R.D. Ronald | Goodreads |
| 383 | Three to Kill | Jean-Patrick Manchette | Goodreads 2 |
| 384 | Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat | Andrez Bergen | Goodreads |
| 385 | Trunk Music (Harry Bosch, #5; Harry Bosch Universe, #6) | Michael Connelly | Goodreads 2 |
| 386 | TV Noir: The twentieth century | Ray Starman | Fil Noir |
| 387 | Twisted City | Jason Starr | Criminal Element |
| 388 | Two-Way Split | Allan Guthrie | Goodreads |
| 389 | Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them: … | John T. Irwin | Fil Noir |
| 390 | Voices in the Dark: THE NARRATIVE PATTERNS OF FILM NOIR | Fil Noir | |
| 391 | Weekend in Weighton | Terry Murphy | Goodreads |
| 392 | What is Film Noir? | William Park | Fil Noir |
| 393 | When Gravity Fails | George Alec Effinger | Syfy |
| 394 | Who Censored Roger Rabbit | Gary Wolf | Syfy |
| 395 | Wide Boys Never Work | Robert Westerby | Dead Good Books |
| 396 | Women in Film Noir | Fil Noir | |
| 397 | Yellow Medicine (Billy Lafitte, #1) | Anthony Neil Smith | Goodreads |
| Source | Article |
| Best Horror Novels | Popular Neo-Noir Horror Books |
| Bookglow | 5 1940s Film Noir Classics And The Books Behind Them |
| Criminal Element | 10 of the Best Noir Novels of the 21st Century |
| Dead Good Books | Top 10 British Noir Titles of Yesteryear |
| Fil Noir | Film Noir Books |
| Flashlight Worthy | Nordic Noir |
| Goodreads | Best Noir of the 21st Century |
| Goodreads 2 | Best Hardboiled PI & Noir |
| Huffington Post | Dark Journeys: The Best of Noir Fiction |
| List Challenges | Pulp Fiction – The Best Noir Novels |
| Men’s Journal | The Best Old-School Noir Novels |
| Mulholland Books | The Amazing Noir Books You Have To Read |
| Mystery Fanfare | 20 Essential Works of Noir Fiction |
| Psycho Noir | 10 Best Noirs of the Last 10 Years (or so) |
| Publishers Weekly | 10 Best Noir Novels |
| Ranker | The Best Crime Comics to Ever Hit the Shelves |
| Syfy | 12 SCI-FI/FANTASY BOOKS THAT CHANNEL THE BLOOD OF HARDBOILED NOIR INTO THEIR BLACK, BLACK HEARTS |
| The Guardian | Jonathan Kellerman’s top 10 LA noir novels |
| The Guardian 2 | Top 10 rural noir novels |
| WHSmith | Domestic Noir Books Every ‘Gone Girl’ Fan Should Read |
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