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Mysteries - Hard-Boiled Originally, the genre's typical protagonist was a detective who daily witnessed the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition while dealing with a legal system that had become as corrupt as the organized crime itself. Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence, the detectives of hard-boiled fiction are classic antiheroes. To be hard-boiled is to be comparatively tough. The stories involve a street smart professional investigator at its core and are generally set in a world of violence and corruption. Click on the link in each series to find titles in publication order.
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Lawrence Block Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Scudder, a recovering alcoholic and ex-cop, works as an unlicensed private investigator in New York City. Starting out by doing "favors for friends," he continues to work on cases while trying to atone for past transgressions.
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Raymond Chandler Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Underneath the wisecracking, hard-drinking, tough private eye, Marlowe is quietly contemplative and philosophical and enjoys chess and poetry. Although he is not afraid to risk physical harm, he does not dish out violence merely to settle scores. Morally upright, he is not fooled by the genre's usual femmes fatales, such as Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep.
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Michael Connelly Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, named after the 15th-century Dutch artist, grew up in foster homes. He later joins the Army and does two tours of duty in Vietnam. Returning to Los Angeles, he joins the LAPD and after five years on patrol, he becomes a homicide detective. A complicated character, he is a superb police detective, with a penetrating deductive intelligence and superior perception.
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Robert Crais Find Hinsdale materials here.
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In the hard-boiled detective genre of Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Robert B. Parker, Cole is a 21st century detective who comes across as both brainy and emotional. Set in and around Los Angeles, the city’s tragedy and comedy are depicted. His partner and friend, Joe Pike, is a piece of work. As a former Marine and ex-LAPD cop, Pike is an indomitable force who assists Cole in his investigations.
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Sue Grafton Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Millhone is a tough-talking and resourceful former police officer who often uses her police connections to assist her with her cases.
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Chris KnopfFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery series.Sam is a wise-cracking, broody ex-boxer and ex-engineer who lives a life of mistakes. He has a messy divorce and a lost career to look back on. Set in the Hamptons area, murder is often on Sam’s doorstep, and he finds himself involved in investigating the circumstances. .
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Ed McBain Find Hinsdale materials here.
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This series focuses on the work of the police detectives of the 87th Precinct in a large fictional city based on the New York City borough of Manhattan. Other districts in McBain's fictionalized version of New York correspond to NYC's other four boroughs: Calm's Point, standing in for Brooklyn; Majesta, representing Queens; Riverhead, substituting for the Bronx; and Bethtown, representing Staten Island. Although different detectives "star" in the various novels, most 87th Precinct novels feature a significant role for the dogged and persistent Detective Stephen Louis "Steve" Carella.
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Walter Mosley Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Private investigator Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a black hard-boiled (unlicensed) detective and World War II veteran living in Los Angeles. The mysteries combine traditional conventions of detective fiction with descriptions of the racial inequities and social injustice experienced by persons of color from the 40's and 50's to the present. Rawlins is in the tradition of Philip Marlow (Raymond Chandler) or Lew Archer (Ross Macdonald).
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Marcia Muller Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Sharon McCone series.Generally credited with being the first liberated female private detective of the modern era, this series helped pave the way for later independent female investigators. McCone is a likable enough character and refreshingly down-to-earth, especially in the early books. She's a level-headed investigator with a tendency to get a bit too involved in her cases.
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Robert B. Parker Find Hinsdale materials here.
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We never learn Spenser's first name, but he is a private eye in the mold of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe -- a smart-mouthed tough guy with a heart of gold. Unlike Marlowe, Spenser maintains a committed relationship with one woman (Susan). He is an ex-boxer and lifts weights to stay in shape. He is quite well educated, cooks, and lives by a code of honor that he and Susan discuss occasionally—although as infrequently as he can manage.
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Mickey Spillane Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Hammer is no-holds barred, hard-boiled private investigator who describes himself as a misanthrope. Written in the first person, Hammer describes his violent encounters with relish. The character is loosely based on the real-life hard-boiled Texas Ranger and gunfighter Frank Hamer, famous for tracking down and killing Bonnie & Clyde in 1934.
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