If you only read one story today, check out “Sticky Fingers” by Kellie Scott-Reed. She does noir really well in the flash format. Every time I read one of Kellie’s stories I get a chill.
I‘ve been shocked* recently by a number of purported mystery/suspense stories that I’ve read which have barely any mystery at all. For example, Kate Braverman’s story “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” (in Los Angeles Noir: The Classics (ad) by Akashic Noir) is a gripping account of a woman’s struggle with addiction and her slow slide backwards from sobriety, told from a subjective point of view. A great story, sure… but there’s just one problem! The “problem” with the story was that there wasn’t one hard-boiled detective in a fedora anywhere to be found. What kind of crazy mystery is that? Fail!
Another story I read recently is by the otherwise brilliant Walter Mosley. “Crimson Shadow” is a suspenseful story which I still can’t really summarize, but again, was not a mystery or thriller or even a suspense story. Scandalous!
And these aren’t isolated incidents. In other mystery/suspense anthologies and magazines, I’ve encountered other stories which didn’t include any traditional mystery or suspense elements. What the heck is going on with these stories? Why include them in mystery/suspense anthologies? Is there a conspiracy to defraud readers?
Fortunately (or sadly, based on your individual perspective), I found no evidence of conspiracy. What I did find is a genre called noir.
Alex Segura’s essay “The Mindset of Darkness; Writing Noir” lays out the origins and the basic elements of noir:
Deeply flawed characters struggling to bring balance to an unfair world
Characters who, at their foundation, are driven by basic emotions
Right and wrong are ambiguous
The “right” path may not be attainable
An emotionally unsettling tone
Driven, in part, by a character’s decisions made in highly stressful situations
Segura nails it, in my opinion, that noir is “about the evolution of character… and the fallout of the decisions characters make under duress and how they react when things start to go south.” Noir has a “desperate energy that increases as the characters spin out of control” and a vibe that is “messy… dark… sexy… painful… real…” and yet can create “an eerie beauty.”
Wow. Sign me up for some of that!
I think of noir as the cousin of mystery/suspense writing because these genres fit so well together and often share elements with each other.
For examples of how the genres work together, the movie “Emily the Criminal” (reviewed on MFS here) is a great example of noir/crime. In the movie, a young woman’s attempt to escape her circumstances which only drives her deeper and deeper into crime.
Another example is the short story “Kimchi Kitty,” by Martin Limón (published in the March 2023 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine) which is set in Korea in the late 1950s and features noir-inspired criminals making increasingly bad decisions based on their twisted interpretations of love.
One of my favorite stories is “Sticky Fingers” by Kellie Scott-Reed, which I encourage everyone to check out. It’s a flash fiction piece that’s like a gritty noir Polaroid. Every time I read one of Kellie’s stories I get a chill.
Now that I’ve become more aware of noir, I realize that my own stories often lean into noir. For example:
“Coyotes in Winter” is a crime/detective story with noir elements. The protagonist, driven by a flawed sense of self, begins the story with a clear idea of what’s going on and what needs to happen, but his point of view is broken by the end of the story when he begins to see what’s really been going on around him, and how little he understood of the criminal world he was investigating.
“Where This Mystery Takes Us” can be thought of as a noir story. (A noir fable!) The main characters, Erland and Hedda, are making decisions from a desperate situation, where the world seems to be conspiring against them. The “right” and “wrong” paths in the story are subjective: Is the “right” path the one that Hedda chose, or the one that Erland chose?
The aspect of noir that I like the most is the ambiguity because I think it accurately reflects what people face every day. If you’re doing anything important, there are often no clear answers and you don’t really know if you’re doing what’s best. Every action has unanticipated consequences.
Is noir your thing? If you’re not sure, check out the authors and movies I’ve mentioned here, or a try a story from a noir magazine or anthology. You may find a new genre to enjoy!
*Yes, the first three paragraphs are intended as sarcasm.
Very well-written! I absolutely love reading “Noir is the cousin to Mystery/Suspense” and I certainly believe that. Going to read all of these recommendations, too.
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback!