This Hard Case Crime publisher knows what he's doing. I've devoured several and have yet to find a dud. They are even in the library system, which surprised me. Yeah, I tell ya, most people think Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler when thinking hardboiled, which of course they are, but their heroes are basically good guys, flawed but good. What noir fiction did was move from hero to anti-hero -- and the big three of the noir genre (1950's) are Jim Thompson, David Goodis, and Patricia Highsmith (I'm quoting here from Robert Polito, a scholar of the noir school). Patricia Highsmith -- good lord, ain't nothing "soft" about that dame. I would add to those three as must reads Cornell Woolrich, Charles Willeford,and Chester Himes. And of course James M. Cain, who hated being "categorized" to any genre -- The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity are pristine works of fiction. Of course there are more, and my new mission in life is to exhaust the entire catalogue. Bottoms-up.