Writing in the Hardboiled Style
My book Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery is written in the style of the Hardboiled Detective stories of the 1930's and 40's, made famous by writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. I have attempted to write their style, and I would like to provide insight into how I've mimicked the style. The first thing that everyone thinks of when you say 'hardboiled detective" or in more modern times, "Film Noir", is the brooding detective and the slang used. He always calls women "dames" or "doll" and has an internal monologue (assuming the story is written in first person). One of the most important things to me was to get the slang right. So I read every hardboiled detective story that I could get my hands on with my meagre book budget. This was a great way to experience how the slang is used, but I need a glossary. That is when I came across Mr. Ian Tregillis' glossary, A Hard-Boiled Slang Glossary for hi