Five great noir novels from the post-Chandler era

A decade ago David Bowman picked a list of five great noir novels from the post-Chandler generations.

One title on the list:

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Ellroy indulges in every cliché of the genre (the two-fisted loner, the femme fatale, the twisted gunsel), but triumphantly reinvents each because he is convinced he is rebuilding noir from scratch. Hooray for delusion. In his best book, Ellroy fictionalizes the notorious true story of the murder of a Los Angeles whore (literally sliced in two), using the poor girl as a psychic stand-in for the novelist's own murdered mother.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue