Can You Recommend Fantasy-Detective Works with a Film Noir Flavor?

[Rl'Halsinor]

I love Glen Cook's Garret, P.I. series that is set in a fantasy world replete with dwarves, elves, half-elves, ogres, etc. You name it, it's in there. It is high fantasy mixed with 1940s film noir grittiness. Garret, a human detective, reminds you of Humphrey Bogart's portral of Sam Spade with a sizable mix of Robert Mitchum and a dash of James Cagney. Good stuff and the plots are actually compelling set against the backdrop of the seedy town of TunFaire, reigning capital of Karentain.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could direct me to any other authors/books that have this kind of flavor. Much appreciated.

 

[takyris]

This isn't an exact fit, by any stretch, but to get the ball rolling, try Emma Bull's "Finder" -- it's a fantasy/mystery with a lot of the same elements, although I'd argue that it's more Sam-Spade-in-Elfland than true noir.

I don't know if "Finder" is still in print, but it really should be, if it isn't. You could probably find it on Amazon or at a used bookstore if it's not.

 

[Felix]

Dan Simmons' Hyperion is written in several different styles, as it's something of a Decameron-esque work, but one of the stories is a very well written bit of film-noir. There's a detective, a murder, a chase, the big finish... and the rest of the book is pretty killer too.

 

[cybertalus]

The Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher. They're set in modern day Chicago, where Dresden is both a wizard and a private detective. I've read a lot of Robert Parker's Spenser novels, and the Dresden books seem in the flavor of those books, except with vampires, werewolves, magic, and fae creatures thrown in. The first Dresden book is called Storm Front.

I haven't checked them out, but I keep hearing Dresden fans tend to enjoy Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series as well. Can't speak to the noir content in those though.

 

[Tonguez]

Disc World of course - Pratchett

 

[DarkOra]

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could direct me to any other authors/books that have this kind of flavor. Much appreciated.

I was working on a comic a while back called "The Detectives Grimm" that I scrapped when Fables came out (but it's coming back to life...one of my friends is publishing a short of it in a trade paperback of his coming out this summer). It was that kind of a story, and I had a book research list for it. I'll see if I can dig that out of my files when I get home.

And even though it's not prose, you can check out the comic "Fables" which runs through fairy tale beings hiding out in modern times. Vertigo has a .pdf version of the first issue online that you can check out for free. The first story arc deals with Bigby Wolf and Snow White investigating crimes against "fables" (the fairy tale creatures).

 

[Rackhir]

The Jehreg novels by Steven Brust are the only really similar books I can think of. They aren't exactly film noir, but deal with the rise of a crime lord in a fantasy empire called Dragnaria. He's not exactly your "criminal with the heart of gold", but neither is he Scarface. Some of the books are more fantasy adventure though. Still worth a read in any case. There are collected volumes out that have 2-3 of the books collected.

There really aren't a lot of fantasy noir stuff out there. There is somewhat more SF, but cyberpunk was really more noir-ish than punk-ish.

 

[FreeXenon]

There's an Eberron book brewing about a Shifter Detective...

I'll try to find a link for ya..

Voila!! Marked for Death

 

[trancejeremy]

"Stalking the Unicorn" by Mike Resnick

Also, for the fantany noir setting "Bloodshadows" from WEG, there were 4 novels. Which pretty much fit the bill.

 

[Ferret]

Disc World of course - Pratchett

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