Love Noir? Try Iyamisu and Dark Japanese Crime Novels

The crime genre umbrella has many subgenres that are easy to define and categorize, like puzzle mysteries and detective fiction. But on the flip side, there are the slippery ones like suspense and noir. The former can be defined by a feeling that readers can interpret differently, and as for the latter, well, there’s a history. Noir refers to a specific genre of film from the ‘40s and ‘50, with the later revival of that style being labeled neo-noir. While many of the original noir films were adaptations of books, film noir is heavily recognized by its mood and aesthetic. Adding a bit of complication is the confusion created by hard-boiled fiction often being interchanged with a noir label, even though they are not really the same. While film noir is heavily associated with American culture, you can find the term used throughout the world, like with Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s early works (Drunken Angel and Stray Dog) and the massively popular Scandinavian books known as Nordic noir. So what does it mean when a book has the “noir” label? Think of noir as nihilistic, dark, seedy, a spectrum of gray-area morals and criminals, all in the absence of a detective doing the right th...