Eddie Muller

Woody Haut

Heartbreak and Vine tells the story of the close links between crime fiction and films. Most of the great names of crime fiction, from the early greats like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, W.R. Burnett and James M. Cain to Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy have spent time in Hollywood. Haut recounts their experiences and interviews contemporary crime novelists like Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos about their Hollywood experiences. A must read for anyone interested in either American crime fiction or film noir.

The Fate of Hardboiled Writers in Hollywood

Heartbreak and Vine

Neon Noir, the follow-up to Woody Haut's highly regarded Pulp Culture, brings the story of American crime fiction and film uptodate. From the Kennedy assassination to the Vietnam War and Watergate, through Reaganomics to Irangate and Whitewater, Neon Noir is a roller-coaster ride through the American nightmare. Haut investigates the dark side of America through the work of crime writers such as James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block, James Sallis, George Pelecanos, Charles Willeford, Jerome Charyn, Sara Paretsky, Vicki Hendricks, KC Constantine, George V Higgins and James Crumley. Mapping the fissures and scars of America's psychogeography, its morally ambiguous shadowlands, Neon Noir also considers the difference between past and present hardboilers, the impact of war and journalism on noirists, the portrayal of cities, the aesthetics of crime fiction, and the changing relationship between the books and the films. Like Pulp Culture, Neon Noir is set to become the reference book on its subject.

Contemporary American Crime Fiction

Neon Noir

The Cartographers

Hardboiled in Hollywood tells the story of the tangled relations between the great crime novelists, from Dashiell Hammett to Elmore Leonard, and the Hollywood machine. Haut begins by showing the huge debt Hollywood owed to writers like Hammett, Chandler and James M. Cain, as the film versions of novels like The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity came to define film noir. Almost every significant American crime novelist since has served their time in Hollywood, some, like W.R. Burnett or Donald Westlake, with great success, more often, as with the likes of Jim Thompson and David Goodis, with great disillusion. Haut weaves in anecdote and analysis along with original interviews to provide an invaluable companion for moviegoers and crime fiction fans alike. Born in Detroit in 1945, Woody Haut has been a cinema programmer and, as journalist, was the Labour Editor for Rolling Stock magazine. He is the author of Neon Noir and Pulp Culture, published by Serpent's Tail and now lives in London. Also available by Woody Haut Pulp Culture TP $15.99, 1-85242-319-6 • CUSA Neon Noir TP $16.99, 1-85242-547-4 • CUSA

Woody Haut

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