Hello! To be more specific, I’m asking for a noir book where the detective main character doesn’t have a romantic relationship with anyone throughout the entire book. I like the dark and grittiness of a noir book, but I don’t like the romantic subplots with the femme fatales and stuff. Is there anything for me? Please, if you have some suggestions, much would be obliged!
(P.S. Please, nothing without sex either! Gore and violence is completely fine though. Also preferably male main character. I just like male main characters more, despite being a woman)
by CheckmatedLincolnite
5 Comments
You might like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.
Not exactly what you are looking for but I get the gist of the general feel you want and this would fit the bill.
The Nightside series, by Green, ticks your boxes, mostly. There is a smidge of romance in the first one, then no real romance for almost 5 more books. And then what little romance is mentioned, is very sidelined, and reasonably healthy. {{Something From the Nightside, by Green}} Fair warning, as it takes place where sins are actively encouraged, there is definitely mentions of goings-on, even though the MC doesn’t really participate.
If you’re open to a criminal main character, rather than a detective, the Parker series by Donald Westlake (writing under the pseudonym Richard Stark) fits well. No reading of noir fiction is complete without them. Superbly written. Dark. Morally ambiguous. There’s no romance at all in the first eight. A relationship figures in later novels but isn’t central to the story of most, and I don’t recall any description of sex. Start with the first, “The Hunter,” published in 1962. Reading consecutively is useful, but not necessary. Avoid the Mel Gibson and Jason Stathman movie adaptations at all costs.
I’m not sure if your definition of noir includes hard-boiled. Some would see them as distinct. I guess “The Maltese Falcon” has a romantic subplot, but Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories don’t. I don’t recall romance figuring into Lawrence Block’s novels.
You might like the Bernie Gunther series. It takes place before, during and after WWII. He’s a German detective.
He does have relationships, but that’s not a major part of the series. The mystery and the time period in general is the focus.
LA confidential