Why Noir Mysteries Work

Noir Mysteries as a genre were created during the struggling times before World War ii. The world seemed broken then, as men with no morals made lots of money while good men seemed to struggle to get by. In America, the economy teetered on the edge of prosperity, and looked into the deep crevice of the depression.

Tough men took what they wanted and good men were victims. The world did not look past men as women were an afterthought, a temptation, or a side story on the way to a conclusion. They stayed home and raised families. Only good girls and bad girls existed, and neither was a fleshed out character. 

Yet, the noir stories worked so well, because somehow during the course of the mystery, evil was thwarted and justice preserved. The world returned to some balance of fairness and “the good guys” or at least, "the less bad guys" won.

It was every reader's wish for the real world to correspond to the written one. 

Eighty years later, the genre can still work. Madoff, Strehli, and insider trading the cheaters make profits and the honest suffer. When a President declares himself rich even though he declared bankruptcy in the past - building his empire on the backs of his broken creditors - and when police shoot innocent people without much justification – they always seem to have their body cams off when they do it. The world of the noir has become real life. We retrogress back to the world as it was in the 1930's and 1940's, but with the modern threat of environmental pollution recognized as fact not fiction. 

Reality offers justification for the noir mysteries on my pages. 

In my written world, I want a person who is Machiavellian enough to consider the path to justice immaterial, as long as justice is serviced. Forget the map, trespass, scam and swindle in the name of justice, but get it done right at the conclusion. 

I don’t want that in real life, but in fiction, I am so ready for Sam Cochran and Catherine Worthington. Let’s twist the noir paradigm and rebalance world through them. They are females who matter, because they won't let the world throw them aside. Welcome to the Sam-Cat mystery series.

L.A. Preschel