What’s your favorite classic noir?
Fast One by Paul Cain, a.k.a. George Sims.
Why?
The book is a cold-eyed, unflinching gangster story centered on a tough guy named Kells and set in Prohibition-era Los Angeles. The novel shows what’s in those shadows cast by the city’s harsh sunlight.
What makes a great noir?
Like a Morricone score, there’s a beat in the characters’ heads they can’t shake. As they try to figure out why it drives them forward, they find themselves heading toward the dark at the end of the road.
Read more from Alta‘s Fall 2020 Noir Special Section.
Heather Scott Partington is a writer, teacher, and book critic. She is a regular contributor to Alta Journal and a board member of the National Book Critics Circle, where she serves as fiction chair. Her writing has appeared in publications such as the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in Elk Grove, California.
