As Noir As ...

James Thompson´s debut, Snow Angels, which I reviewed yesterday, is marketed as ´noir´.

But what exactly is ´noir´?

According to Wikipedia, ´Noir´ or ´Hard-boiled´ detective fiction “is a literary style which portrays crime and violence in an unsentimental way.”

Not a very helpful definition. Unsentimental? That covers a vast majority of the crime I read.


Googling a bit further, I found this quotation by Bill Pronzini:

"The noir crime story deals with disorder, disaffection, and dissatisfaction … The typical noir character (if not the typical noir writer) has a jaundiced view of government, power, and the law. He (or sometimes she) is often a loner, a social misfit. If he is on the side of the angels, he is probably a cynical idealist: he believes that society is corrupt, but he also believes in justice and will make it his business to do whatever is necessary to see that justice is done … In the noir world, extremes are the norm. Clashes between good and evil are never petty, and good does not always triumph, nor is justice always done."

Source: the blog NoirCon, posted by Lou Boxer.

I agree that Thompson´s novel in some ways is as dark as the ever-lasting Finnish winter night, but his protagonist, Inspector Kari Vaara, is neither cynical nor dissatisfied with life in general, he is happily married and will probably turn into an engaged and responsible family father soon.

So is there perhaps a growing tendency to call crime novels ´noir´ if the murders are cruel and unusual?

If so, it makes sense to call Henning Mankell and James Thompson´s novels noir.

Is ´noir´ one of your favourite genres? Then please tell me how you define it.

And now you should run off to read about Donna Moore´s "not altogether serious route from noir to cosy." - Enjoy!

James Thompson, Snow Angels (2010)

[Denne krimi er ikke udgivet på dansk endnu, men da den amerikansk-fødte forfatter er bosat i Finland, og hans første engelske krimi er af rigtig god kvalitet, må man næsten regne med den dukker op i Skandinavien inden så længe.]

This ARC was sent to me by the American publisher. The novel was out in the USA in January. The writer was born in Kentucky, but has lived in Finland for ten years. The novel is the first in a planned series about the Finnish Inspector Kari Vaara. It is not the author´s debut, but the first book which has been published in English.

The environment is the northern part of Finland, inside the dark winter of the Arctic Circle, and the temperature is minus forty degrees Celsius!

“There would be silence, but cold has a sound of its own. The branches of trees freeze solid and crack under the weight of snow with sounds like muted gunshots. The snow freezes so hard that its surface contracts and takes on a pebbled texture. It crackles underfoot, even when I think I´m standing still.”

Kari Vaara´s American wife Kate is the competent manager of a local entertainment centre with hotel, bar and restaurant. She is a beautiful, young woman who is expecting their first child, and only recently has she begun to realize that she is less than thrilled about living in the ´exotic´ Arctic Circle among perpetually happy people:

“This winter, I feel like the cold and dark will never end. I get it now that people weren´t happy, just drunk. It makes me depressed. It´s terrible. Being pregnant in Finland seems scary, makes me homesick for the States.”

The plot begins when a murder victim is found on a reindeer farm, a Somali movie star called Sufia Elmi. An unpleasant crime because, as Vaara explains, “Fins are sensitive about race relations because by and large we´re closet racists”, and because the woman has been horribly mutilated.

Within a day or two Vaara believes he has cracked the case when he discovers that his ex-wife´s lover was closely connected to the victim. But is it really so simple, or does he let his hate of his former wife colour his opinion?

This debut has several very strong points: the knowledgeable and observant writer conveys a strong sense of place in the winter-dark Finland, his new home country. The protagonist and his wife are a likeable couple, happily married but with the ups and downs any couple have to live with.

The plot is fine, and though it is dark and dramatic, I ´bought it´ because the writer convinced me that these things could easily happen during the seemingly eternal night of the Arctic Circle. So beware! In spite of the apparent reindeer idyll, this is noir, and not at all a cozy Christmas story.

One small minus because the writer is so eager to portray the Finnish environment that occasionally he tells his reader too much.

I read the book as part of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge, Europe, Finland.

Another review of Snow Angels by Material Witness