I've been planing my 2008 NaNo novel and when I described it to my friend she said it sounded like a reinvented take on noir.
Basically, the MC is a female PI who was in a car accident with her parents at the age of 10. She survived, they didn't. While in her teen years she lived with her God Mother at an antique shop. She studied anything related to writing and investigating in college after discovering the accident was deliberate and joined the Police at the age of 24. At 26, she became a PI and ran a successful business and wrote short mysteries under a pen name.
She is now 27 and her 15 year old cousin, 26 year old friend\, and a 26 year old chef who owes her his life are living with her. As the story progresses we find out she has very little emotion. Most of the time she sees a dead body her first reaction is "I hope I don't get blood on me..." and isn't very sensitive with how she investigates murders, but is about the feelings of the victim's families. She also has a witty comment for almost every occasion, usually when tension builds or when things get choppy.
So, what do you think? I'm new to this and if it is noir, I'd be pretty surprised. If not, what is it?
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AIM- writersbane
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5,564 / 50,000
janv. 1, 2008 - 22 45
I wouldn't call this noir at all. Where's the violence, the loner, the underworld and low-lifes, the bitter acceptance of the injustice of the system?
This could be a lot of things, but isn't spelled out enough here to say. It could be a standard detective novel, a hard boiled detective novel, a police procedural (if she's working closely with police), suspense, etc.
I wouldn't be so worried about the category and just write it like you like it.
50,104 / 50,000
janv. 14, 2008 - 19 26
If you're worried that it's too noir, don't. You've got enough other elements here to offset it. If you want to try for noir, I'd suggest reading the novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. They are the most well-known and some of the first writers in the genre. The movie the Maltese Falcon is very noir, even though it's not based on one murder, perse. In any case, I would love to read that novel, whatever style it's written in.