Tart Noir is a branch of crime fiction that is characterized by strong, independent female detectives with an amount of sexuality often involved. The books in the genre also occasionally feature a murderer protagonist and are sometimes presented in a first person point of view. [1] Tart Noir was labeled and effectively created as a genre by four writers during the 1990s, Sparkle Hayter, Lauren Henderson, Katy Munger, and Stella Duffy. Some of these writers have since collaborated on book signings and other events in order to promote the genre, along with creating a website called Tartcity.com. [2]
The storylines and characters described in a Tart Noir novel includes the necessity of a heroine who is "tough enough to take on criminals and cops" and yet still have the personality of being able to be "tender enough to love a man with rough edges". [3] The requirements were described by Stella Duffy as the novel needing to be "maybe comedic, maybe violent, maybe sexual, definitely new-woman, neo-feminist, strong, smart and sharp." [4]
The four writers first met at one of the many writers conferences that they attended. It was during one of these times in 1999 that they "realized they were writing the same sort of thing" and discussed doing events together under the banner Slut Noir. Sparkle Hayter changed the named to Tart Noir and decided to create a website in lieu of doing events. When asked why they had decided on the name of Tart Noir for the genre, Hayter explained that slut was a "powerless word" and that "'tart' sounded like a lot more fun". [2] After bringing other women into the webzine, including Jennifer Blue, Tony Fennelly, Max Adams and J.J. Buch, Hayter edited the launch issue, then moved on to other projects. Munger took over editing, maintenance and expansion of the website.
Since its beginnings, the genre has grown to include more than twenty other writers who have self-styled themselves as writers of Tart Noir. [5] This is shown by the fact that exactly twenty Tart Noir writers have come together to write an anthology of original stories in the genre, itself titled Tart Noir. The anthology was commissioned in 2002 by Stella Duffy and Lauren Henderson. [4] [6] One of those writers, Vicki Hendricks, describes herself as the first Tart Noir writer in the United States. [7]
Tart Noir was featured prominently in 2001 by Lauren Henderson at the "SheKilda" convention, which was the "first-ever women's crime convention". [8]
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.
Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.
Hardboiled fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction. The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition (1920–1933) and its aftermath, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself. Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence, the detectives of hardboiled fiction are often antiheroes. Notable hardboiled detectives include Dick Tracy, Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Slam Bradley, and The Continental Op.
Noir fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction. In this subgenre, right and wrong are not clearly defined, while the protagonists are seriously and often tragically flawed.
Laura Lippman is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels.
Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He is known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker.
Otto Penzler is a German-born American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.
Stella Frances Silas Duffy is a writer and theatremaker. Born in London, she spent her childhood in New Zealand before returning to the UK.
Kenneth Martin Edwards is a British crime novelist, whose work has won awards in the UK and the United States. As a crime fiction critic and historian, and also in his career as a solicitor, he has written non-fiction books and many articles. He is the current President of the Detection Club and in 2020 was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association's Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing, in recognition of the ‘sustained excellence’ of his work in the genre.
Sparkle Hayter is a Canadian journalist and author. In 1995 she received the Arthur Ellis Award of the Crime Writers of Canada for her novel What's A Girl Gotta Do? (1995). In 1998, she became the first winner of the UK's Sherlock award for "Best Comic Detective." Hayter has also performed as a stand-up comedian.
Katy Munger, who has also written under the names Gallagher Gray and Chaz McGee, is an American writer known for writing the Casey Jones and Hubbert & Lil series. She is a former reviewer for the Washington Post.
Kelli Stanley is an American author of mystery-thrillers. The majority of her published fiction is written in the genres of historical crime fiction and noir. Her best known work, the Miranda Corbie series, is set in San Francisco, her adoptive hometown.
S. J. Rozan is an American architect and writer of detective fiction and thrillers, based in New York City. She also co-writes a paranormal thriller series under the pseudonym Sam Cabot with Carlos Dews.
Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir or Scandi noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or Nordic countries. Plain language avoiding metaphor and set in bleak landscapes results in a dark and morally complex mood, depicting a tension between the apparently still and bland social surface and the murder, misogyny, misandry, rape, and racism it depicts as lying underneath. It contrasts with the whodunit style such as the English country house murder mystery.
Bouchercon is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher; also the inspiration for the Anthony Awards, which have been issued at the convention since 1986. This page details Bouchercon XXXIII and the 17th Anthony Awards ceremony.
Lauren Milne Henderson is an English freelance journalist and novelist who also writes as Rebecca Chance. Her books include thrillers/bonkbusters/chick lit, mysteries, Tart Noir, romantic comedies, and young adult. Between 1996 and 2011 Henderson published 17 books under her own name. She began writing as Rebecca Chance in 2009, and now writes novels exclusively as Rebecca Chance.
Vicki (Due) Hendricks is an American author of crime fiction, erotica, and a variety of short stories.
Craig McDonald is a novelist/journalist and the author of the Hector Lassiter series, the Chris Lyon Series, the novel El Gavilan, and two collections of interviews with fiction writers, Art in the Blood (2006) and Rogue Males (2009). He also edited the anthology, Borderland Noir (2015).
