Editing Detective fiction (section)

===Hardboiled===
{{Main|Hardboiled fiction}}

Martin Hewitt, created by British author [[Arthur Morrison]] in 1894, is one of the first examples of the modern style of fictional [[private detective]]. This character is described as an "'[[Everyman]]' detective meant to challenge the detective-as-superman that Holmes represented."<ref name="google2005">Rzepka, Charles J. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=iYq7D2VCmc0C ''Detective Fiction'']. Polity. {{ISBN|978-0745629421}}.</ref>

By the late 1920s, [[Al Capone]] and the [[American Mafia|American mafia]] inspired not only fear, but piqued mainstream curiosity about the American [[Organized crime|criminal underworld]]. Popular [[pulp fiction magazine]]s like ''[[Black Mask (magazine)|Black Mask]]'' capitalized on this, as authors such as [[Carroll John Daly|Carrol John Daly]] published violent stories that focused on the mayhem and injustice surrounding the criminals, not the circumstances behind the crime. Very often, no actual mystery even existed: the books simply revolved around justice being served to those who deserved harsh treatment, which was described in explicit detail."<ref name="NDHB" /> The overall theme these writers portrayed reflected "the changing face of America itself."<ref name="google2005" />

In the 1930s, the private eye genre was adopted wholeheartedly by American writers. One of the primary contributors to this style was [[Dashiell Hammett]] with his famous private investigator character, [[Sam Spade]].<ref name="autogenerated2006">Messent, P. (2006). ''Introduction: From private eye to police procedural – the logic of contemporary crime fiction''</ref> His style of crime fiction came to be known as "[[hardboiled]]", a genre that "usually deals with criminal activity in a modern urban environment, a world of disconnected signs and anonymous strangers."<ref name="autogenerated2006" /> "Told in stark and sometimes elegant language through the unemotional eyes of new hero-detectives, these stories were an American phenomenon."<ref name="NDHB" />

In the late 1930s, [[Raymond Chandler]] updated the form with his private detective [[Philip Marlowe]], who brought a more intimate voice to the detective than the more distanced "operative's report" style of Hammett's [[The Continental Op|Continental Op]] stories.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beal |first1=Wesley |title=Philip Marlowe, Family Man |journal=College Literature |date=2014 |volume=2014 |issue=2 |pages=11–28 |doi=10.1353/lit.2014.0021 }}</ref> Chandler's stories were noted for their evokations of the American criminal underworld, including dark alleys and tough thugs, rich women and powerful men. Several feature and television movies have been made about the Philip Marlowe character. [[James Hadley Chase]] wrote a few novels with private eyes as the main heroes, including ''Blonde's Requiem'' (1945), ''Lay Her Among the Lilies'' (1950), and ''Figure It Out for Yourself'' (1950). The heroes of these novels are typical private eyes, very similar to or [[Plagiarism|plagiarizing]] Raymond Chandler's work.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pristed |first1=Birgitte Beck |title=Glasnost Noire: The Soviet and Post-Soviet Publication and Reception of James Hadley Chase |journal=Book History |date=2013 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=329–363 |doi=10.1353/bh.2013.0000 |s2cid=162401996 }}</ref>

[[Ross Macdonald]], pseudonym of [[Kenneth Millar]], updated the form again with his detective [[Lew Archer]]. Archer, like Hammett's fictional heroes, was a camera eye, with hardly any known past. "Turn Archer sideways, and he disappears," one reviewer wrote. Critics praised Macdonald's use of psychology and his prose, which was full of [[imagery]]. Like other 'hardboiled' writers, Macdonald aimed to give an impression of [[Literary realism|realism]] in his work through violence, sex and confrontation. The 1966 movie ''[[Harper (film)|Harper]]'' starring [[Paul Newman]] was based on the first Lew Archer story ''[[The Moving Target]]'' (1949). Newman reprised the role in ''[[The Drowning Pool]]'' in 1976.

[[Michael Collins (American author)|Michael Collins]], pseudonym of Dennis Lynds, is generally considered the author who led the form into the Modern Age. Like Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald, Collins' protagonist was a private investigator,  Dan Fortune. However, Collins stories also involved an element of [[Sociology|sociological]] reflection, exploring the meaning of his characters' places in society and the impact society had on people. Full of commentary and clipped prose, his books were more intimate than those of his predecessors, dramatizing that crime can happen in one's own living room.

The "hardboiled" novel was a male-dominated field in which female authors seldom found publication until [[Marcia Muller]], [[Sara Paretsky]], and [[Sue Grafton]] were finally published in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Each author's detective, also female, was brainy and physical and could hold her own.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Nora|first=Martin|title="In the business of believing women's stories": Feminism through detective fiction (Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton)|date=1996|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University|url=http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/3/|language=en|access-date=2011-10-04|archive-date=2012-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425045619/http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/3/|url-status=live}}</ref> Their acceptance, and success, caused publishers to seek out other female authors.