Die a little

Noir is a genre that I keep coming back to despite the fact that I apparently don't know what it actually is. For some reason whenever I hear "noir" I think of gangsters and private eyes in 1920's Chicago or New York. Instead, I keep getting Los Angeles in the 40's and 50's. I'm still having a good time, but clearly there's some kind of disconnect.

Having sampled the ~big three~ of noir fiction (Chandler, Hammett, and Cain), I could say that this book definitely hit the right feel and vibe, which is commendable because as far as I could tell this was actually written in 2005, way past the heyday of the genre. We still had the risky visits to the shady parts of town, characters pulling guns on each other in tense backroom conversations, not-so-subtle cars tailing drivers through downtown, it was all there. What made this one stand out obviously was that it was told from the perspective of a woman.

Lora does spend the first third of the book hyper-focused on her new sister-in-law and doesn't really exhibit any personality of her own, but once this extensive set-up happens and the plot proper begins, she does step up. I just wish we could have gotten to that point sooner. When the story calls for it, she does employ agency that surprises even herself, and this sister-in-law character was a fantastic foil to play off of who just cranked up every scene she was in. There was just one loose end that I don't remember being resolved at the end, but it wasn't too major, and it was still overall an enjoyable homage to a bygone era with it's own spin.

Also, fantastic cover (and let's not pretend that the cover doesn't matter).