The hard-bitten PI with a bottle of bourbon in his desk drawer - it's an image as old as the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction itself. Alcohol has long been an important element of detective fiction, but it is no mere prop. Rather, the treatment of alcohol within the works informs and illustrates the detective's moral code, and casts light upon the society's attitudes towards drink. This examination of the role of alcohol in hard-boiled detective fiction begins with the genre's birth, in an era strongly influenced and affected by Prohibition, and follows both the genre's development and...
The hard-bitten PI with a bottle of bourbon in his desk drawer - it's an image as old as the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction itself. Alcohol ha...
