What is European Noir -- Start here!

To understand a culture, study those who break its rules.

The crime genre isn’t just entertainment; it’s a mirror, reflecting politics, society, technology and human relationships.

If you love Luther, Roberto Saviano’s books and his film and TV series Gomorrah, Jo Nesbø, Ian Rankin, Åsa Larsson and Patricia Highsmith, then you’re in the right place.

Think of this newsletter as your curated travelogue through Europe, told through the lens of crime storytelling.

Each month, together we’ll explore a region of Europe:

• Diving into its history, geography and politics

• Examining how it expresses itself in the crime genre

  
  

We’ll cover corruption in the Netherlands, political assassinations in Italy, Black British crime fiction and much, much more. I guarantee you’ll learn a side of Europe, its people and stories you haven’t encountered anywhere else.

What is European Noir?

It derives its name from cinema. The term “film noir” was coined in the 1940s by Nino Frank, an Italian film critic (born, coincidentally, in the southern Italian region where I now reside). Think of movies like The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Laura, The Big Sleep, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, Body Heat, Blue Velvet, L.A. Confidential, Mulholland Drive, and Drive, to name a few.

Frank argued that the American films of the 1930s and 1940s weren’t just pulp police procedurals, but rather deep psychological narratives that examined characters on the edge of society caught in moral conundrums.

European noir is vastly more diverse geographically and linguistically than its American counterpart, stretching from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean. It examines issues around the drug trade, migration, income inequality, technology and environmentalism.

About me:

I’m Lloyd, your guide. I’ve lived all over the world, but now call a small, baroque town in the heel of Italy home. I’m also finishing a crime trilogy that’s been described as an “excellent, pacy, international thriller” by best-selling UK crime author Graham Bartlett.

Write me in the comments, DMs, or social media to give me recommendations, let me know what you’re reading/watching/listening to or what regions or works to cover next.