The hard-boiled private detective is among the most recognizable characters in popular fiction since the 1920s--a tough product of a violent world, in which police forces are inadequate and people with money can choose private help when facing threatening circumstances. Though a relatively recent arrival, the hard-boiled detective has undergone steady development and assumed diverse forms. This critical study analyzes the character of the hard-boiled detective, from literary antecedents through the early 21st century. It follows change in the novels through three main periods: the Early...

In this work, Moore explores John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee detective series, with special emphasis on MacDonald's examination of the conflicts and joys of 20th century American culture and society. Also discussed are his early novels of various genres and the four he wrote concurrently with the T

This work approaches Gissing's novels as purely imaginative works of art. By analyzing important themes in his novels and recognizing the power of the artist's imagination, the author reveals how Gissing's novels present a lived feel of the world Gissing knew firsthand.

A literary examination of the influence of 19th century sleuths on the early hard-boiled investigators, this book explores the importance of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the development of detective series by Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Brett Halliday, Mickey Spillane, Thomas B. Dewey, John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald, Richard S. Prather and William Campbell Gault. Authors from the transitional (1964 1977) and modern periods (1979 to the present) are also discussed to show the ongoing influence of the 19th...