RARA-AVIS: Re: Sports Noir

From: jimdohertyjr ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 14 Feb 2007


Chan,

Re your question below:

> Does anyone recommend any other sports noir books? Or if
> there even are any?

Lionel White's CLEAN BREAK is a caper novel about the robbery of a racetrack. I've never read it, but I have seen the film version, THE KILLING, an early noir by Stanley Kubrick, justly regarded as one of the all-time great caper movies.

Dashiell Hammett's RED HARVEST devotes a chapter to a rigged boxing match, and his short story "His Brother's Keeper," is also set in the world of the sweet science.

Robert J. Randisi's EYE IN THE RING is the first novel to feature Manhattan PI Miles Jacboy, simultaneously a licensed private detective and a middle-weight contender.

Michael Black's Ron Shade, introduced in A KILLING FROST, is a Chicago PI who also moonlights as a professional full-contact karate competitor.

Dick Francis, the former champion jockey whose novels all involve horse racing, seems an obvious choice at first, since his books are all admirably tough. They have never quite struck me as noir, though, neither by my definition nor by Jack's. They're great books, though. Four of them feature an ex-jockey turned PI named Sid Halley.

JIM DOHERTY



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 14 Feb 2007 EST