How To Write Hardboiled Fiction

In this post, we explore what hardboiled fiction is, who the hardboiled detectives are, and how to write hardboiled fiction – with examples.

What Is Hardboiled Fiction?

Hardboiled fiction is a tough and unsentimental style of crime writing that started in the 1920s. The genre introduces realism into detective fiction with graphic violence, harsh urban settings, and fast-paced dialogue. It emphasises street smarts, moral ambiguity, and the real state of the world. This sub-genre of crime fiction is characterised by its gritty realism and terse writing style. (The word ‘gritty’ is used a lot.)

Hardboiled detectives are a distinctive archetype, originating in the post-World War I era as a response to traditional English cozy mysteries. They are loners who will use violence, or go outside the bounds of the law, to get their man (or woman).

The first hardboiled series character came from the prolific pulp fiction writer, Carroll John Daly. His PI (Private Investigator), Race Williams feature in his stories The False Burton Combs and Three Gun Terry.

Race Williams became the prototype of the hardboiled private eye, with these features:

1. First person narration, with attitude.
2. Lots of action.
3. Cynicism.
4. Dangerous dames (the femme fatale).
5. No sentimentality.
6. Violence to end things, usually from a gat (a revolver or a pistol).

Dashiell Hammett popularised the genre in the 1920s. His characters, such as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man, and narrator The Continental Op in Red Harvest and The Dain Curse are still regarded as some of the best detectives in fiction. Hammett is known as one of the best mystery writers of all time.

Hardboiled fiction was refined by James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler in the 1930s.

The hardboiled tradition has been adapted and reinterpreted by many writers such as Walter Mosley, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Stieg Larsson, Ricardo Piglia, and Jo Nesbø.

Examples Of Hardboiled Detectives

1. Bernie Gunther from Philip Kerr’s Gunther series, starting with March Violets, is a jaded ex-cop, a victim of the purge of the Berlin police service in the Nazi takeover. He is a gumshoe in the tradition of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, an outsider and a cynic, set against the world.
2. Dave Robicheaux, a recovering alcoholic, works as a detective for the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office in James Lee Burke’s The Neon Rain, which started the Robicheaux series.
3. Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, in James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, are patrol officers promoted to plainclothes jobs in the Warrants Division and partnered together.
4. Easy Rawlins is the most iconic African American detective in Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress.
5. Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson star in Chester Himes’s Harlem Detective series of novels, starting with A Rage in Harlem. Their names suggest the nature of their police methods and reputation.
6. Harry Bosch, in Michael Connelly’s Bosch series, starting with The Black Echo, often bends rules and works outside official channels .
7. Harry Hole, in Jo Nesbø’s books, is a genuine anti-hero who struggles with authority. He is a hard worker and a loner. He is also a full-blown alcoholic. The first book in the series is The Bat.
8. Jake Lassiter in Paul Levine’s Lassiter series, beginning with To Speak for the Dead, follows a linebacker turned hardboiled Miami lawyer.
9. Jack Taylor in Ken Bruen’s The Guards, is sacked from the Gardaí (the Irish police force) for assaulting a politician. He begins to work as a PI, taking on cases the police will not investigate.
10. Jack Reacher in Lee Child’s Reacher series, is a lone-wolf, ex-military policeman drifter who solves violent crimes with brutal efficiency. Reacher is willing to get ‘dirty’ to achieve justice. The series began with Killing Floor.
11. Joe Pickett, in CJ Box’s series starting with Open Season, is a game warden who won’t take bribes or look the other way.
12. Joe Pitt in Charlie Huston Joe Pitt’s Casebooks is a vampire and a private detective.
13. John Rebus, in Ian Rankin’s Rebus series, starting with Knots and Crosses, is a rough-edged, authority-flouting, former military man serving in Scotland’s territorial police force.
14. Kinsey Millhone, from Sue Grafton’s A Is For Alibi, is a tough-talking former cop, now a private investigator operating in the fictional California town of Santa Teresa. Kinsey writes reports during the course of her investigations in the first-person narrative.
15. Lew Archer, from Ross Macdonald’s The Moving Target, redefined the role of the American private eye and gave the crime novel a moral and psychological depth.
16. Martin Welborn and Al Mackey, in Joseph Wambaugh’s The Glitter Dome, star in a grim look at the ugly underbelly of life as a Hollywood cop.
17. Matthew Scudder, in Lawrence Block’s series starting with The Sins Of The Fathers, is an alcoholic, ex-cop, unlicensed private investigator who has recently quit the NYPD.
18. Mike Hammer from Mickey Spillane’s I, The Jury is a no-holds-barred PI whose love for his secretary Velda is outweighed only by his willingness to kill a killer.
19. Milo Dragovich & CW Shugru are Private investigators from James Crumley’s The Mexican Tree Duck. They embody a gritty, hard-drinking, world-weary spirit.
20. Nick and Nora Charles, in Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man, star in one of the formative texts of the hardboiled sub-genre. They are a dashing, cocktail-loving husband-and-wife team who solve murder mysteries.
21. Nick Stefanos in George Pelecanos’ A Firing Offense, is a bartender and private eye in Washington, DC.
22. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are PI’s from Dennis Lehane’s gritty Kenzie & Gennaro series, starting with A Drink Before The War.
23. Philip Marlowe, from Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely, is a wisecracking, hard-drinking, morally upright, tough private eye.
24. Race Williams, from Carroll John Daly’s The False Burton Combs, answers to no law but his own. He is quick to kill, brutal, violent, hard-talking, yet loyal to a fault.
25. Sam Spade, in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, ‘wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with, whether criminal, innocent by-stander or client’. (via Dashiell Hammett)
26. Slam Bradley in DC Comics‘ Detective comic books is a hard-bitten, tough private eye who loves working for dames.
27. Spenser, in Robert B. Parker’s The Godwulf Manuscript, is a smart-mouthed tough guy with a heart of gold. He lives by a code of honour.
28. Travis McGee, in John D. MacDonald’s series starting with The Deep Blue Good-by, will help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
29. V.I. Warshawski, in Sara Paretsky’s series starting with  Indemnity Only, is an abrasive private investigator from Chicago. Hot-tempered, sarcastic, and fiercely self-reliant, she has the tough, cynical, yet morally driven spirit of classic hardboiled PI’s, but with a feminist perspective.

Why Was Mike Hammer So Popular?

Mickey Spillane sold 225 million books, many of which featured his PI, Mike Hammer. According to Prof. David Schmid in The Secrets of Great Mystery and Suspense Fiction, the factors are:

1. Hammer’s absolute conviction about matters of good and evil.
2. The way Hammer keeps his promises.
3. Hammer’s brutally effective approach to problems and challenges.
4. Hammer’s impatience with the system.
5. Hammer’s fondness for vigilante justice.

Examples Of Authors Who Write In A Hardboiled Style

Today, you can find interpretations of hardboiled fiction in the works of renowned crime writers. The original hardboiled style has also been emulated by many writers.

1. Carl Hiaasen writes satirical, hardboiled fiction that focuses on the environmental destruction and political corruption in Florida.
2. Carroll John Daly wrote about hardboiled, tough-talking detectives, full of of single-minded fury and quick thinking action, armed with twin forty-fives.
3. Charlie Huston revitalised the hardboiled genre by blending it with gritty noir, urban fantasy, and horror elements.
4. Chester Himes applied his tough, gritty style and violent hardboiled plots to explore Black life in Harlem.
5. Dashiell Hammett moved away from traditional detectives to hardboiled fiction to focus on violence, corruption, and complex morality.
6. Dennis Lehane, master of gritty Boston crime, explores classic hardboiled elements like tough protagonists and moral ambiguity with deep character studies.
7. Don Winslow‘s work is characterised by intense, fast-paced stories with a focus on corruption, betrayal, and violence. He wrote City On Fire.
8. George Pelecanos‘s books are set in Washington, D.C and feature flawed protagonists. He focuses on street-level crime, and delves into complex social issues.
9. George V. Higgins tells down-and-dirty stories of thieves, mobsters, and cops on the mean streets of Boston. He wrote The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
10. Ian Rankin, Scottish author of the popular Inspector Rebus series, focuses on Edinburgh’s criminal underbelly.
11. James Crumley is the author of violent, hardboiled crime novels set in Montana. He mixes tough dialogue with deep melancholy.
12. James Ellroy is known for his gritty, complex hardboiled novels set in corrupt mid-20th century Los Angeles.
13. James Lee Burke blends gritty crime, exploring the struggle between good and evil, with historical themes, and spiritual undertones. His stories are set in Louisiana.
14. James M Cain wrote stark, fast-paced novels like The Postman Always Rings Twice, featuring ordinary people driven to crime by passion, lust, and desperation. His prose is direct, economical, and gritty, reflecting the harsh lives he depicted. He set his stories in Southern California during the Depression.
15. Jo Nesbø shows how his obsessive, rogue detective struggles with alcoholism and depression as a result of his morally questionable actions and the brutal nature of the crimes he investigate. His novels are set in Oslo.
16. John D. MacDonald‘s novels were set in Florida. He wrote about corruption and crime in a tough and unsentimental style.
17. Ken Bruen is an Irish author whose poetic, gritty, and distinctly hardboiled crime fiction is set in Galway and London. He includes complex, self-destructive characters.
18. Lawrence Block‘s novels delve into the dark underbelly of New York, using flawed characters dealing with complex moral dilemmas.
19. Lee Child‘s writing embodies classic hardboiled tropes within modern action thrillers. He uses the gritty, tough-guy trope for his protagonist.
20. Michael Connelly is famous for the Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller, and Renee Ballard series, which are modern procedural hardboiled. He blends police procedurals with traditional hardboiled tropes. He creates a universe with flawed heroes where justice is hard-won.
21. Mickey Spillane creates brutal heroes, dangerous femmes fatales, and includes themes of corruption, Cold War paranoia, and revenge in his fiction.
22. Paul Cain‘s novel, Fast One, was called the ‘high point in the ultra hardboiled manner’ by Raymond Chandler. The novel stars a relentless protagonist who strikes to survive and kills without conscience in the Los Angeles underworld.
23. Paul Levine mixes hard-boiled grit with humour, drawing from his legal past. He uses snappy dialogue and twisty plots.
24. Philip Kerr navigates the moral complexities of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Cold War in Berlin in his acclaimed hardboiled historical thrillers, creating a unique form of ‘Totalitarian Noir‘.
25. Raymond Chandler writes in gritty Los Angeles settings, using sharp dialogue with streetwise slang, and cynical prose. He explores the morality of the corrupt modern world.
26. Robert B. Parker was famous for his witty, dialogue and his iconic, tough-but-honourable Boston-based P.I. His writing was intentionally spare and direct in the classic hardboiled tradition.
27. Ross Macdonald is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California. He elevated the genre by adding psychological depth, focusing on complex family secrets.
28. Sara Paretsky embraces the genre’s gritty realism, tough dialogue, and focus on uncovering corruption. She takes the archetype of hardboiled fiction, the lone detective fighting corruption in a gritty city, and wrote it through a feminist viewpoint.
29. Stieg Larsson wrote books in a similar way to classic hardboiled novels that expose crooked city halls, and the iniquity in business, government, and intelligence agencies. His first book was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
30. Sue Grafton was best known for her ‘alphabet series’ of hardboiled mystery novels. With her female protagonist, Grafton (like Sara Paretsky) moved the genre away from an all-male club to a more modern, and often feminist, perspective.
31. Walter Mosley revives the classic hardboiled style in his stories, adding social commentary on race and injustice in Los Angeles.

What Is The Difference Between Noir Fiction & Hardboiled Crime Fiction?

They are not the same. Jay Gertzman writes: “In noir, the primary focus is interior: psychic imbalance leading to self-hatred, aggression, sociopathy, or a compulsion to control those with whom one shares experiences. By contrast, hardboiled ‘paints a backdrop of institutionalised social corruption’.”

How To Write Hardboiled Fiction

You need to create a PI or a character who can fit into this tough, unsentimental style of traditionally American crime writing. The books should have a feeling of gritty realism. A crime needs to take place – usually committed by a corrupt organisation. The PI will solve the crime in their own time in their own way. They will deal with corruption, organised crime, city living, and violence. They also have a distinctive way of talking. The novel does not normally end with all the loose ends tied up. It is far more realistic than cozy crimes, for example.

1. The Detective

The classic protagonist found in hardboiled fiction is a private detective (PI) who encounters violence, clashes with corrupt politicians and policemen, and face organised crime in their quest to solve the case at hand.

1. They narrate the story in first person.
2. They work alone to track down the suspects.
3. They are between 35 and 45 years or so.
4. They are usually deeply flawed characters.
5. They frequent shady all-night bars. They drink heavily, but are always aware and able to fight if they are attacked.
6. They always ‘wear’ a gun.
7. They are involved with a femme fatale (also known as a dame). Femmes fatales are seductive, beautiful women who bring disaster to anyone with whom they become romantically involved.
8. They are outsiders who mostly work outside the law. They will, for example, shoot criminals or take a beating if it helps them solve a case.
9. They are not ‘normal’ investigators. They are tough guys working on their own agenda with their own code of honour, and following their instincts in a way that a classic detective wouldn’t.
10. Hardboiled detectives share some traits with sympathetic villains and anti-heroes.

2. The Dialogue

They are filled with fast-paced dialogue. They use slang (especially in the older novels) and their conversation is witty and hard-edged.

3. The Era

When this genre was first written, it mirrored life when crime and corruption were everywhere because of Prohibition, and in its aftermath. The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933. There are also modern day hardboiled stories, featuring maverick detectives.

4. The Themes

Popular themes include moral ambiguity, individual vs system, crime, alienation, betrayal, violence, cynicism, racism, and classism. It reflects the dark side of the American Dream. The bleak state of the world largely inspires these writers, revealing greed, lust, and violence beneath the surface.

5. The Setting

Hardboiled stories are often created in sordid urban environments, where the harsh realities of the milieu creep into the story as the plot unfolds. They are usually set in big cities like Chicago, New Iberia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Edinburgh, or Galway. Corruption, and where it is set, grounds the writing of the genre. Even when, or if, the case is solved, the characters still have to live in a corrupt world. The setting mirrors the dark, uneasy, and relentless plot.

6. Corruption

Corruption is essential to this genre. The hardboiled detective has become this way because of the corrupt world in which they live. They have to deal with organised crime as well.

7. The Plot

The hardboiled detective is the protagonist and they work alone. A crime is committed and they are brought in to get justice or revenge for the victim. Their cases turn out to be much more complicated than anticipated and they have to traverse an unforgiving city landscape to track down the antagonist/s. They are forced to deal with corrupt characters, including organised crime and other lowlifes, on the ‘mean streets’ of a city, preferably Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, or Chicago. Their main goal is to save the American way of life and get rid of the corruption by themselves. They normally meet a femme fatale along the way.

8. The Ending

Hardboiled fiction does not end neatly. It is not predictable. All the twists and turns move the story in many directions. There are always loose ends and unresolved conflicts that frustrate readers, but make them think. This means that the story lives on in their thoughts and they can’t wait to read their next hardboiled novel.

The Last Word

I hope you enjoyed this post on hardboiled crime fiction. Why don’t you try and write a detective story using the essence of this genre?

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

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