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Contents Biography Early LifeAnna argues with MatthewAnna was a young woman and the wife of a man named, with whom she had a. At one point, their, was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo physically exhausting chemotherapy. During that time, the young couple cordially supported him in whatever he needed. However, their own relationship was severely strained, and the two of them engaged in heated arguments on an almost regular base. Anna became more and more unable to cope with her emotional stress caused by both her marital problems and her parental responsibility. ( )Family TragedyAnna, moments after killing her babyOne night, Anna's desperation reached its peak when her baby didn't stop crying and, thereby, prevented her from sleeping. At first, she tried to calm down her baby, but quickly lost her self-control and began screaming at her child.
When the infant still didn't stop crying, she smothered her child with a pillow in a fit of rage. After coming back to her senses, Anna realized what she had done and became worried about the consequences. Eventually, she put her baby's corpse next to her sleeping husband.
When Matthew woke up and realized that his baby was dead, Anna insinuated that Matthew had smothered their child by turning over the baby while he was asleep. When the arrived at their, Anna unjustly blamed her husband for the death of their baby.
Matthew, who believed Anna's lies, was arrested and taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he eventually committed suicide by hanging. ( )AbductionAnna and the other prisonersUnbeknownst to Anna, John Kramer overheard how she screamed at her child that night and rightfully came to the conclusion that she had unjustly incriminated her husband. When John later assumed the identity of the Jigsaw Killer, he her for her deeds. One day, he subdued Anna and took her unconscious body to an abandoned, which belonged to the family of his ex-wife, but had been closed down after an outbreak of Aujeszky's disease. Once they arrived there, John trapped her in a room along with four other people -, and - who were also abducted for previous misdeeds. John fettered each of them with metallic neck shackles, which were attached to long chains leading to five doors on the other side of the room.
Additionally, he put with eye slits on their heads. Those were connected to their shackles by two laterally attached metal pins. After finishing all of his preparations, John left the room through a hidden door. ( )First TestShortly afterward, the prisoners were awakened by an audible alarm.
As the lights turned on and they came back to their senses, they were initially confused, but quickly started to panic upon realizing that they were trapped. Anna desperately begged Ryan for help, as he stood right next to her. Ryan, however, angrily pushed her away.
Driven by fear, Anna and the others tried to free themselves from their shackles. These attempts were eventually interrupted by John, who spoke to them over a loudspeaker. He accused all of them of having harmed other people with their lies and demanded that they had to confess their sins to save themselves. Furthermore, he explained that they all had to offer a sacrifice of blood if they wanted to get out of the room alive.Anna makes the sacrifice of bloodFollowing John's speech, the chains were tightened, and the prisoners were dragged towards the five doors on the opposite side of the room. Attached to each of these doors were several rotating circular saw blades in various sizes.
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After they initially tried to fight back, Anna finally realized that each of them had to sacrifice a small amount of blood and, therefore, reluctantly cut her arm on one of the blades. Thereby, she only suffered a superficial slash wound and was able to take the bucket from her head. As she told the others what to do, Mitch and Ryan followed suit and managed to get free as well. Only Carly made a stand against Anna, who tried to help her. Thereby, Carly was jerked into the blades. Although she was freed from her bucket as well, she received a flesh wound on her back. After that, their doors opened, and they were dragged to the next room by their chains.
Logan, however, who only woke up near the end of the game, couldn't react fast enough and was pulled into the blades, despite Anna's attempt to tell him what to do. ( )Carly's TestAnna in the second roomMoments later, the doors closed behind them, and the chains stopped to pull them forward any further. While Mitch tried to kick in another door nearby, Anna grabbed a cloth to take care of Carly's wounds.
Even though Carly was highly distrustful and initially snapped at everyone who touched her, she ultimately allowed Anna to help her. When Mitch spotted a camera and demanded to know what their abductor wanted from them, Anna reminded him that they were told to confess their sins if they wanted to earn their freedom.Anna and the others are pulled towards the pulleysSuddenly, the group heard a noise and saw two red-glowing dots at the rear of the room. These dots quickly turned out to be the glowing eyes of a mechanical, which slowly approached them on a red. Hanging around its neck was a tape recorder as well as a note with the word 'Confess.' Written on it.
Despite its frightening appearance, the puppet eventually came to a standstill, seemingly posing no threat at all. However, when Mitch decided to make another try at opening the door, which was secured by a combination lock, the puppet started to mockingly laugh at them. At the same moment, the chains were tightened once more, and the group was pulled forward towards a series of large, upright standing pulleys.
Anna immediately tried to prevent this from happening by winding her chain around a nearby pillar. The pulling force, however, was too strong and she was pulled forward nonetheless, thereby receiving a minor slash wound from a string of razor wire wound around the pillar. When Anna desperately yelled at the others to confess their sins, Mitch made a start and told the others how he once sold a motorcycle to a who died in an accident about ten minutes later.
However, he put all the blame on his customer, stating that it wasn't his fault that the latter wasn't able to handle the bike properly. Anna was the next one to confess and revealed that she and Matthew had lost their child because her husband made a mistake, suppressing the fact that it was actually her who murdered her baby. When Ryan angrily stated that marital problems were not the kind of sins that their abductor was aking for, Anna admitted that she let their marriage break apart, but still refused to reveal the truth about her baby.Anna, moments after escaping deathAs they were dragged even further, Mitch got close enough to the puppet to grab the tape recorder and, in doing so, he pulled on a hidden wire attached to it. This triggered a mechanism, which caused the pulleys to fall to the ground, stopping the chains from pulling the prisoners further across the room. Anna, while initially relieved, was shocked when she realized that their abductor seemingly intended to hang them.
Just as they managed to calm down, Ryan told Mitch to play the tape when suddenly, a metallic contraption was lowered from the ceiling. The contraption held three syringes, each one marked with a different numerical sequence - 964583.4, 2034.23, and 3.53. Mitch played the recording, which introduced the group to their second. Jigsaw's voice warned them that more blood would be shed, and all of them would be judged if they refused to confess their misdeeds. He accused one of them of being a purse snatcher, whose actions once caused the death of another human. This person had been injected with a deadly poison before the start of the game and would die if they didn't get the right medication. Jigsaw explained that one of the syringes contained the antidote, another one held a saline solution, and the last one was filled with an acid that would cause a painful death.
If the purse snatcher chose the right one, all of them would be released from their chains. Otherwise, all of them would die. Jigsaw asked what a life was worth to them, thereby ending the tape and starting the game.The group tells Carly to make a choiceAs all of them remained silent, Ryan pointed out that they would all die if the person addressed by the tape didn't confess. Anna immediately told the others to check themselves for injection marks as Jigsaw had claimed that one of them had been injected with poison. As Carly was the only one who didn't do so, the others concluded that she was the purse snatcher. Therefore, Ryan picked up the syringes and told Carly to choose one, much to her dismay. As she started to panic and was too afraid to make a choice, Mitch and Ryan tried to convince her, with Ryan being much more aggressive.
Hoping that a confession might be enough to free them, Anna asked her if Jigsaw was telling the truth about her. Carly admitted that she stole purses from other people years earlier, but claimed that she didn't kill anyone in the process. Just when Ryan angrily accused her of lying, Carly finally revealed the truth. She once stole a purse from an, not knowing that it contained her inhaler. Even though this action resulted in the woman's death, Carly still claimed that it wasn't her fault. As their time was running out, Ryan aggressively yelled at her and threatened her with the needles, saying that he'd stick all three of them into her if she didn't choose one. The others tried to hold him back, and Mitch told Carly to look at the numbers on the syringes to see if they meant anything to her.
Despite her panic, she ultimately realized that the needle with the sequence 3.53 was referring to the amount of money she stole from the asthmatic woman, concluding that this was the answer to Jigsaw's question of what a life was worth to her.At this moment, the metal contraption formerly holding the needles was moved back to the ceiling. As their time was over, Ryan desperately begged Carly to tell him which needle she wanted. However, despite knowing which syringe was the correct one, she refused to choose one as she was too afraid that she might pick the acid. Eventually, the chains around their necks began to pull them upward, strangling them in the process. In an attempt to save their lives, Ryan grabbed Carly and tried to stab her with the syringes.
Anna wanted to prevent him from doing so but was unable to hold him back. After struggling with Carly several feet above the floor, Ryan ultimately managed to stick all three of the needles into her neck. This action immediately released all four of them from their shackles, causing them to fall to the ground and allowing them to breathe.
Moments later, however, Anna, Mitch, and Ryan witnessed the deadly effects of the acid as Carly started to bleed from her eyes and her neck. Although she ripped out the needles, the acid ate its way through her skin, killing her.Anna and Mitch examine the syringesShocked by Ryan's actions, Anna angrily attacked him for murdering Carly, although he pointed out that he had saved the three of them in the process. When Mitch eventually intervened, Anna managed to calm down again and remembered Carly's last words of a life being worth 3.53$. While she covered Carly's mutilated head with her jacket, Mitch examined the needles and thereby found another sequence - L24R45L23.
It was written on a metal piece inside the syringe but hadn't been visible until the piston was pushed. Assuming that this was the combination to the locked door, Mitch tried to open it once more and was finally successful this time around. ( )Ryan's TestThe group enters the next areaThe group carefully entered the next room.
After a few steps, the lights turned on, and the door slammed shut behind them, scaring them witless. Mitch wasn't able to open it again, leaving no other option than moving forward.
Ryan took a look out of a barred window and realized that they were somewhere in the countryside. However, he couldn't make out any landmarks.
Scared by the recent events, Anna slumped to the ground right next to the door and asked who did this to them. She also asked Ryan about his sin, to which he responded by listing several dishonest misdeeds such as selling bad mortgages, selling cocaine, committing tax fraud, and cheating on both of his wives. When he wanted to know about her sins, Anna went on with her lies and told him how her husband accidentally smothered their baby by rolling over it while sleeping. Ryan made it clear that he didn't believe her story of being innocent, causing Anna to get angry again and ask why she was punished for her husband's mistake.Seeing no point in discussing the matter any longer, Ryan suddenly grabbed a shovel and approached a nearby door with the words 'NO EXIT' written on it. Mitch immediately tried to hold him back, pointing out that they should heed Jigsaw's warnings as there were two other doors. Ryan, however, refused to listen to him as he wasn't willing to go where Jigsaw wanted them to go. Although Anna immediately sided with Mitch and tried to convince him, Ryan still didn't want to drop his plan and kept them at a distance with the shovel.
As they finally backed off, he prepared himself to open the door by destroying the padlock. However, as he was about to strike a blow, a part of the wooden floor beneath him broke away. Moments later, his right leg was trapped in a hollow space under the deck boards as several razor-sharp wrapped around his shank. Ryan immediately panicked and begged the others for help. Anna removed another wooden board and looked into the hollow space. Thereby, she saw that the wires were connected to a series of pulleys, and also discovered a lever.
Mitch used the shovel to break off more of the bords and spotted a tape recorder on the ground. At this moment, the wires tightened around Ryan's leg, causing him to scream in agony. Mitch then picked up a leaf rake and wanted to use it to obtain the key. However, when he accidentally touched one of the wires, they grew even tighter around Ryan's leg as well as the rake, causing it to break.Angered and terrified, Ryan yelled at Mitch and told him to grab the tape. Albeit Mitch initially refused to do so, he eventually gave in to his demand as Ryan had saved his life in the previous room.
Mitch slowly and carefully reached out his hand while avoiding the wires and, thereby, finally managed to retrieve it. When he gave it to Ryan, who played the tape, Jigsaw announced that he'd make an example of Ryan's attempt to break the rules and told him that he had to pull the lever to set himself free.
Assuming that this task wouldn't be as simple as it sounded, Ryan burst into tears.Anna at the windowWith Ryan being incapable of acting, Mitch tried to kick in the other door while Anna took another look out of the window in hopes that she might discover any hints about their location. Suddenly, the lights in the room turned off, whereas another light turned on in an adjacent room.
As Mitch and Anna followed the light, they noticed that the room was a large, cylindric. Upon entering, two TVs turned on simultaneously, one in the silo and one in the hollow space where Ryan's leg was trapped. A remote was hanging from the ceiling. With Mitch's help, who gave her a leg-up, Anna managed to obtain it.
However, as she did so, the door of the silo slammed shut, trapping them inside. Having no other option, Mitch used the remote to start a video feed. Jigsaw's puppet appeared on-screen and once again accused all of them of being liars and criminals. It explained that Anna and Mitch would be buried alive in the silo unless Ryan pulled the lever and freed all of them.Anna is buried aliveAfter giving them their instructions, the puppet disappeared.
Instead, Anna and Mitch were able to see Ryan on the TV screen, while Ryan was able to see them as well. Moments later, huge masses of grain started falling on them. As the grain filled the silo quickly, the prisoners immediately panicked. They tried to break out of the silo and desperately begged Ryan to pull the lever. Albeit Ryan was shocked by watching what happened in the silo, he couldn't bring himself to do so. Anna and Mitch weren't able to open the door on their own, and therefore, they were buried shoulder-deep until the grain suddenly stopped falling. However, seconds later, several sharp and pointy farming tools were thrown down on them, including knives, saw blades, and pitchforks.
Although most of the implements just missed them, they received some minor injuries. One of the knives impaled Mitch's left shoulder, whereas Anna was injured by three nails piercing her left arm. Seeing that the others were about to die, Ryan finally got over himself and pulled the lever, which opened the doors and allowed Anna and Mitch to escape from the silo. However, the handle also caused the wires to tighten one last time, severing Ryan's leg in the process. ( )Mitch's TestThe next game is revealed to Anna and MitchThe others took Ryan to the next room and lay him down on a cuboid hay bale.
While he was screaming in agony, Anna tried to stanch the flow of blood by tightly wrapping her blouse and a belt around his stump. The pain and bloodloss ultimately caused him to pass out, but by checking his pulse, Anna was relieved to discover that he was still alive.
At the next moment, the headlights of a car turned on. Mitch opened the engine hood, which had a red 'X' drawn on it. Under the hood, he found a tape recorder with his name. As Anna reminded him of what would happen if they didn't follow the rules, Mitch reluctantly played the recording. Upon doing so, a rope tightened around his legs before he had any chance to react.
Despite Anna's attempts to help him, Mitch was suspended above a large, funnel-like with a red, spiral-shaped blade in its center. Meanwhile, Jigsaw's voice confronted him with his story of how he once sold a motorcycle to a boy, which eventually caused the latter's death in an accident. However, contrary to Mitch's confession earlier in the game, Mitch had caused the accident by his carelessness because he knew that the brakes were faulty, but deliberately concealed that fact. Jigsaw revealed that the boy was his nephew and went on to explain the rules of the next game to Mitch.
Once the game started, the red blade would start rotating and eventually mangle him unless he pulled a brake handle below the spiral. Doing so would deactivate the construction's power source, which was, in fact, the engine of the bike Mitch sold to John's nephew.Anna jams the motorcycleWhen the tape ended, the blade began to rotate with immense speed, and Mitch was slowly lowered down. As he desperately begged Anna for help, she grabbed a long metal spike and climbed up to a wooden roof beam. While she made her way up, Mitch tried to reach the handle but was injured by the blade as he moved too hastily.
Eventually, Anna jumped over a gap and reached the motorcycle, which was mounted on another beam and powered the spiral blade. Seeing no other way to save Mitch, Anna used the spike to jam the gear that connected the cycle with the deadly construction and, thereby, managed to stop it. Mitch was immediately relieved and thanked Anna for saving his life. However, only moments later, the spike broke under the pressure, and the blade started spinning again, brutally mangling Mitch's body in the process. Covered in his blood, Anna watched in horror as Mitch's severely mutilated corpse was hurled on the floor.
( )Attempted EscapeAnna tries to escapeAfter witnessing his gruesome demise, Anna decided to flee from the barn. While ignoring Ryan's cries for help, Anna returned to the previous room and covered the hollow space, in which Ryan lost his leg, with a wooden board. Afterward, she grabbed the shovel and destroyed the padlock.
As Anna wasn't able to fully prize open the door, she attempted to squash through the narrow door crack. Although she almost got out, her hopes of escape were in vain as Jigsaw suddenly appeared before her, his face covered with a. Surprised and unable to defend herself, Anna was injected with an anesthetic and passed out immediately. ( )DeathAnna wakes upJigsaw took her and Ryan to a milking room and chained them across each other by their legs.
After doing so, he gave his attention to a construction in the middle of the room. Just as they woke up again, he removed the hood from his head and revealed himself to his prisoners.
Anna, shocked by recognizing him as John Kramer, immediately panicked and wanted to know what he wanted to do to them. When John explained that they were going to face their final, Ryan claimed to have passed his test already by sacrificing his leg. John, however, denied this, pointing out that the loss of his leg wasn't his test, but a sanction for his attempt to break the rules. Furthermore, he revealed why he had chosen Ryan for this game. When Ryan was still a high school student, he went on a car trip with two of his friends. As he was drunk and cocky, Ryan stood up from the back seat of the moving cabriolet and thereby distracted the driver, who was his best friend. When the latter angrily told him to sit down and tried to drag him back onto his seat, Ryan fell out of the car.
Moments later, the cabriolet collided with another vehicle and caused an explosion, which killed Ryan's friend as well as the other driver. Afraid of the consequences, Ryan lied to the police and blamed his best friend for having caused the car crash.
Upon being confronted with his misdeeds by John, Ryan finally confessed, but also begged him to let him live. As he listened to his pleading, John told him that he had cancer. However, his brain tumor had entered an inoperable state because the resident at the, Logan Nelson, accidentally mixed up John's X-rays with those of another.Afterward, John spoke to Anna, who tried to convince him to let her go as she supported him after his terminal diagnosis. John explained to Ryan that Anna used to be his neighbor and helped him during the time of his chemotherapy. However, he revealed to Anna that he knew the truth about her baby's death for which she had unjustly incriminated her husband. After listening to him, Ryan asked John what he was going to do to them, to which the latter responded that they finally had to assume responsibility for their crimes. As he did so, he eventually finished his work on the metal contraption, which turned out to be a mechanical holding device.
In a final attempt to gain John's mercy, Ryan told him that he'd do anything he wanted if the latter allowed him to leave. John, however, once more ignored his begging and instead introduced them to their final game. He told them that they had to realize that they had been doing everything 'backwards' and now had the opportunity to 'turn it all around.' Afterward, he took out a shotgun and showed them a single shell, which he described as their 'key to freedom.' After loading the gun, he placed it on the holding device and left the room along with his pig mask, before he closed the door behind him.Anna takes the gunOnce they were alone, Anna and Ryan quickly concluded that John wanted them to shoot each other.
Convinced that she had to kill Ryan to save herself, Anna promptly got up and grabbed the shotgun. As she aimed the weapon at Ryan, the latter burst into tears and desperately begged her not to shoot him, when he suddenly realized the true meaning of Jigsaw's previous hints. However, before he could warn Anna, she pulled the trigger and was killed when the gun backfired. Moments later, Ryan discovered that the keys to both of their shackles had been hidden inside the shell. They were destroyed when Anna pulled the trigger, robbing him of any chance to escape. ( )Post-MortemAnna's and Ryan's corpsesFollowing the game, Ryan soon died of blood loss.
When John returned to see the aftermath of their tests, he lay down Ryan's corpse right next to Anna's and covered them with a blanket. Their bodies were left there to rot for over a decade until Logan Nelson returned to the barn.
Unbeknownst to Anna and Ryan, Logan had been the fifth prisoner who was seemingly killed by the rotating saw blades in their first game. In fact, however, he was saved by John and thereby became his apprentice. About ten years later, long after John's, he used the barn to set up a new game on his own. By lying a false track, Logan had lured, a corrupt homicide detective, to the barn and rendered him unconscious. After that, he took Halloran to the milking room and put a metallic around his neck.
Having finished all of his preparations, Logan himself put on a similar collar and pretended to have been trapped as well. When Halloran woke up again, Logan told him that someone had subdued him and pointed out that there were seven laser cutters attached to each collar. Upon hearing this, Halloran started to panic as he knew how easily these lasers could cut through human tissue. Moments later, John's voice spoke to them over a loudspeaker and introduced them to their game.
All they had to do to survive was to confess their sins. Otherwise, they'd be killed by the lasers. After 60 seconds, one of them would be chosen to begin unless one of them decided to go first by pressing a button in front of them.
Whatever kind of reading you like best in life, you can find your match in a good noir detective novel. Great stories with complex plots? Hilarious humor, albeit of a generally dark variety?
Unforgettable characters? Breathless action? If you’ve fallen behind the curve on noir fiction, now’s the time to get on board that train, because some of the greatest novels ever written have fallen into this beloved, chameleonic genre. Here are 50 noir books in no particular order that any fan of detective fiction should have on their shelves—and if you’re not familiar with the label, any one of these would be the ideal introduction to the genre. Paperback $15.29 $16.99, by James EllroyThe third book in Ellroy’s L.A.
Quartet marks the point at which noir invaded the literary world and made a home for itself. Ellroy’s 1950s Los Angeles is corrupt, violent, soaked in lust and addictions, and populated by crooked cops and criminals. With its intricate plot and flawed characters, it’s much more than a violent story about violent people, following the career of three cops—ambitious Ed Exley, brutal Bud White, and slick Jack Vicennes—as they spiral into darkness. Paperback $10.59 $16.00, by Scott PhillipsA classic element of noir is the simple, perfect crime that is subverted ruinously by human nature. Phillips’ modern classic is the story of low-level crook and former attorney Charlie Arglist, who has a simple plan to make off with his mobster boss’s money in the middle of a Christmas Eve blizzard in Wichita. Charlie’s own poor judgment slowly unravels the scheme, however, leading him inexorably into an evening of violence and desperation, told in one of the funniest narrative voices in noir history. Paperback $15.00, by Derek RaymondThe first in Raymond’s Factory series introduces an unnamed police sergeant working in the Department of Unexplained Deaths, out of a building dubbed “The Factory” because of the efficient way the cops bring in, tune up, and turn out suspects.
The narrator is a misanthrope knee-deep in the worst of humanity at all times, and it’s his determination to somehow bring the dignity of investigation to the “nobodies” at the core of his cases that makes Raymond’s brutal universe sing. NOOK Book $6.99, by Mickey SpillaneSpillane’s Mike Hammer is another icon of the genre, a wrecking crew of a man whose “own rules” attitude toward legalities and social niceties predates Dirty Harry by decades. Kiss Me, Deadly is perhaps the ideal Hammer story, as a chance encounter leads Hammer to turn his furious vengeance on the mafia—an organization that has become so entrenched and political it’s basically the establishment, and is thus vulnerable to the disruption of a violent, determined man.
Paperback $10.59 $16.95, by Stieg LarssonLarsson’s first novel is a brilliant locked-room mystery, a study of an entire society, and a classic noir premise. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is lured into investigating a decades-old cold case, and his efforts bring him face to face with what can only be called the banality of evil.
Larsson gives the noir ingredients a 21st-century makeover—the femme fatale part is taken over by Lisbeth Salander, no pinup dame—and the result is a pitch-black noir story exposing the grimy underside of Swedish society. Paperback $17.95, by Russell JamesDrawing inspiration from the classics of the genre with dialogue that crackles with Hammett’s rhythmic style and dreamy prose that echoes Chandler, James tells the story of a Floyd Carter returning to London to bury his brother Albie, only to find himself dragged into his brother’s criminal world. A gangster pins Albie’s debts on Floyd, another urges him to consider a career in drug trafficking. Shot through with dark humor and a rising body count, James explores the consequences of living in a noir world. Paperback $18.00, by Graham GreenePinkie is one of the most dreadful and fascinating characters ever created, a fervent Catholic who possesses zero compassion or empathy, a violent criminal and sociopath who manipulates everyone around him.
He finds himself squaring off with Ida Arnold, a woman who decides to expose Pinkie’s crimes solely out of a sense of rightness. Greene deftly explores the conflict between the noir protagonist’s bleak worldview and a more moral and upright approach, resulting in a rich, complex story that transcends classification. NOOK Book $12.99, by Ross MacDonaldThe final Lew Archer novel is considered by many to be MacDonald’s triumph, a story involving a long-dead artist, a priceless work, and the violence, deception, and mounting moral costs involved in plumbing the mystery surrounding it. It’s easy to see the whole story as an investigation of noir itself, a metafictional exercise that wonders out loud whether Archer, a prototypical noir antihero who helped define the genre, is the hero or the villain, and whether it matters. Paperback $12.69 $14.00, by Sara GranJosephine Flannigan is a former junkie and prostitute in Hell’s Kitchen in this subversion of noir tropes. When a rich girl gets sucked into the junkie life and goes missing, who better to look for her than Joe, who could use the money and certainly knows the neighborhood. The mystery leads Joe to explore dark nooks of her world even she had somehow avoided, and leads to noir-typical betrayals, violence, and revelations that confirm everyone’s dark view of humanity.
Paperback $10.32 $16.00, by Walter MosleyMosley’s debut introduces Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, a down-on-his-luck laborer in desperate need of money in 1948 Los Angeles. He’s hired to find a white woman who has gone missing, and as he becomes embroiled in a complex web of crime and duplicity—and is framed for murder along the way—Rawlins undergoes a transformation, evolving into the classic noir detective right before readers’ eyes in a story that puts the race issues of the time—and our time—boldly front and center. Paperback $15.00, by Vicki HendricksHendricks’ story of low expectations and murderous lovers comes very, very close to going too far, and then nimbly steps back each time.
Sherri Parlay has just violently rid herself of an unwanted husband and decided to give up exotic dancing for a Day Job, applying at Miami Purity dry cleaners. There she meets mama’s boy Payne Mahoney and his domineering mother, who doesn’t like Sherri much. Payne likes Sherri a lot, however, and soon Mom is dead—and that’s when the story gets weird and violent.
Paperback $15.65 $16.00, by John D. MacdonaldThe first Travis McGee novel (all of them color-coded for your convenience) introduces a young McGee, a character who will age naturally over the course of twenty-one novels and two decades. McGee represents an evolution of the noir detective, shedding much of the dark, grim loneliness in favor of a more hedonistic enjoyment of his bachelorhood, even as he finds himself constantly enmeshed in the plots of psychopaths like Junior Allen, the superficially charming thief, murderer, and rapist seeking a buried treasure in this first adventure.
Paperback $14.95, by Agnes RavatnAn outlier in the world of noir, this dense, foreboding story of a television personality, Allis Hagtorn, who flees scandal for a job as a caretaker in a remote village, includes a heavy dose of psychological thrills. She discovers her employer isn’t a sickly old man, but a middle-aged, taciturn, and somewhat disturbingly intense man named Sigurd. While his wife is away, Allis is to tend to the garden and his needs—but from their first meeting an uneasy relationship threatens to explode into something terrible.
Paperback $11.83 $15.00, by Henning MankellAnother character who has aged with each successive book, Kurt Wallander lives in a secret- and violence-laden Sweden that predates and somehow predicts Stieg Larsson’s version of the country. The morally exhausted Wallander and his team investigate the savage murders of a couple; the wife’s last word was “foreign,” which, when leaked to the press, sparks a series of attacks on foreigners. Mankell uses this setup to explore the seamy underbelly of modern society and the way everyone is complicit in it.
Paperback $15.95, by James EllroyThe final volume in Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet is as cynical and bloody as the first three, introducing LAPD lieutenant Dave Klein, who paid for law school by doing work for the mob.
It’s work he continues to do as a police officer, and includes the occasional murder for hire. As is typical in classic noir stories, Klein is smart and capable, but finds himself dragged into a conflict out of his control, because when no one plays it straight, how can you trust anyone? NOOK Book $12.99, by Dorothy B. HughesShortly after World War II, Dix Steele roams the streets of Los Angeles. Claiming to be a writer in order to have an excuse to not have a job, Dix offers to help a detective friend named Brub hunt down a serial killer.
But Brub’s wife and another woman begin to have their own suspicions about Dix’s intentions—and connections. The taut story offers a reversal of the noir template with a study of a misogynist and sociopath who isn’t always aware of the trap tightening around him. Paperback $9.88 $14.95, by Patricia HighsmithPatricia Highsmith is perhaps the only author on this list who could challenge Jim Thompson for sheer bleakness when it comes to her view of human nature. The premise—two strangers share their troubles and consider how they could commit the perfect crime by killing the people troubling each other, people they have no connection to, and the cascading events that follow after one of the men takes the idea far more seriously than the other—once again dives into the fundamental noir concept of the illusion of control, that the idea that you can guide events is laughable, and even deadly.
Paperback $12.88 $15.00, by Jim ThompsonSome regard Pop. 1280 as Thompson’s masterpiece, and it’s a gloriously disturbing book. Nick Corey is a lazy small-town sheriff with no greater goal than to indulge his appetites and stay the course, cheating on his shrewish wife and ignoring her mentally slow brother. But Nick Corey isn’t just a liar—he’s a man with such a profound lack of self-awareness he doesn’t even realize how evil he is. As the depth of his depravity slowly dawns on the reader, everything that has come before is recast in a new, more awful light, and the betrayals and violence that come later suddenly seem perfectly in tune with the grimy universe Thompson has created. Paperback $17.00, by Nic PizzolattoPizzolatto, creator of HBO’s True Detective, wasn’t so famous when his debut novel was published, but it’s still a gorgeously mean-spirited noir, following low-level enforcer Roy Cady—recently diagnosed with a terminal illness—who flees New Orleans when his boss puts a hit on him. Taking a young girl along for the ride, Cady heads into Texas, trying to hide out in Galveston’s fleabag bars.
But Cady comes to realize that his decision to bring the girl along has doomed them both.
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