A noir thriller about a straight-edge police officer who becomes obsessed with the sultry married woman who moves in next door.

This novel was my first foray into noir fiction… and although I wasn’t thrilled with the characters, the plot, likely even this book,  I was enthralled with the genre.  From the beginning the narration was vivid with imagery for me.  It was perfectly gritty and seedy and ridiculous.  I imagined a trench coat wearing, chain smoking private dick as the narrator.  And a Jessica Rabbitesque seductress.  I imagined bryl cream and violence.  All in black and white.  Of course.

It should be said though, that these images were not necessarily the ones that the author painted.  But more of what I  wanted to get from the atmosphere of the story.

George Tuttle said of noir fiction: “In this sub-genre, the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. He is someone tied directly to the crime, not an outsider called to solve or fix the situation. Other common characteristics…are the emphasis on sexual relationships and the use of sex to advance the plot and the self-destructive qualities of the lead characters. This type of fiction also has the lean, direct writing style and the gritty realism commonly associated with hardboiled fiction.”

All this to say, I loved the idea much more than the actual book.  But as I have nothing to compare it to, I have to call it great.