What do you think?
Rate this book
King Noir: The Crime Fiction of Stephen King
Over the past thirty years, Stephen King has received enormous attention from both the popular press as well as academics seeking to explain the unique phenomenon of his success. Books on King explore his canon in religious contexts, in political and historical contexts, in mythic—specifically Jungian—contexts, in Gothic/horror (especially American literary) contexts, and in a wide variety of other contexts appropriate to a writer who, over the past half century, has become “America’s Storyteller.” Beginning with a never-published chapter authored by Stephen King himself on the influence of the genre on his own writing, King Noir makes an invaluable contribution to King scholarship by placing King’s works in conversation with American crime fiction.
This is the third book that Tony Magistrale and Michael J. Blouin have coauthored on the work of Stephen King, and the first to consider King’s canon through the lens of crime fiction. King Noir examines not only King’s own efforts at writing in the detective genre, but also how the detective genre finds its way into work typically regarded as horror fiction.
In interviews, King has acknowledged his debt to earlier writers in the genre, such as Ed McBain and Raymond Chandler, and he much more often references hard-boiled writers than he does horror writers. One could speculate that King became a writer because of his love of pulpy crime fiction, which he continues to hold in high esteem. From The Dead Zone to Mr. Mercedes, from the crime fiction of his pseudonym Richard Bachman to his most recent novel Holly, King returns obsessively to patterns established by American sleuths of every stripe, paying homage to them at the same time as he innovates on the formulas he has inherited. To focus upon a hard-boiled Stephen King is to discover exciting new avenues for inquiry into one of America’s most enduring, and adaptable, storytellers.
This is the third book that Tony Magistrale and Michael J. Blouin have coauthored on the work of Stephen King, and the first to consider King’s canon through the lens of crime fiction. King Noir examines not only King’s own efforts at writing in the detective genre, but also how the detective genre finds its way into work typically regarded as horror fiction.
In interviews, King has acknowledged his debt to earlier writers in the genre, such as Ed McBain and Raymond Chandler, and he much more often references hard-boiled writers than he does horror writers. One could speculate that King became a writer because of his love of pulpy crime fiction, which he continues to hold in high esteem. From The Dead Zone to Mr. Mercedes, from the crime fiction of his pseudonym Richard Bachman to his most recent novel Holly, King returns obsessively to patterns established by American sleuths of every stripe, paying homage to them at the same time as he innovates on the formulas he has inherited. To focus upon a hard-boiled Stephen King is to discover exciting new avenues for inquiry into one of America’s most enduring, and adaptable, storytellers.
- GenresNonfiction
258 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2025
6 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Tony Magistrale
43 books10 followersTony Magistrale is the author of three books of poetry: What She Says About Love, winner of the 2007 Bordighera Poetry Prize, which was published as a bilingual edition in 2008; The Last Soldiers of Love (Literary Laundry Press, 2012); and Entanglements (Fomite Press, 2013). His poems have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He is professor of English at the University of Vermont.
Over the past two decades, Magistrale's twenty-plus books and many articles have covered a broad area of interests. He has published on the writing process, international study abroad, and his own poetry. But the majority of his books and articles have centered on defining and tracing Anglo-American Gothicism, from its origins in eighteenth-century romanticism to its contemporary manifestations in popular culture, particularly in the work of Stephen King. He has published three separate interviews with Stephen King, and from 2005-09 Magistrale served as a research assistant to Mr. King. Accordingly, a dozen of his scholarly books and many published journal articles have illuminated the genre's narrative themes, psychological and social contexts, and historical development.
Over the past two decades, Magistrale's twenty-plus books and many articles have covered a broad area of interests. He has published on the writing process, international study abroad, and his own poetry. But the majority of his books and articles have centered on defining and tracing Anglo-American Gothicism, from its origins in eighteenth-century romanticism to its contemporary manifestations in popular culture, particularly in the work of Stephen King. He has published three separate interviews with Stephen King, and from 2005-09 Magistrale served as a research assistant to Mr. King. Accordingly, a dozen of his scholarly books and many published journal articles have illuminated the genre's narrative themes, psychological and social contexts, and historical development.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 11, 2025
I have been wanting to delve into the world of academic writings on King's works for a while now, so when I was kindly given an ARC of this new collection of work critiquing the master of horror through the lens of noir and hardboiled crime fiction, I jumped at the chance.
Now, it's been a while - a long while - since I read any academic stuff and, won't lie, it took me a while to get into this, having only read fiction for the last decade or so. But I came out of this book having enjoyed being challenged to think differently about King and much more knowledgeable about King's own dabblings in noir.
Throughout this books, Magistrale and Blouin show how the work of seminal noir authors like Chandler and Poe have influenced King's own writing, but also how he takes the tropes they largely drove and does different things with them. Magistrale and Blouin also make the case for a number of King characters from throughout his oeuvre to be detectives of sorts...or at the very least, show how they use detective skills to help get through whatever situation they are in. Some of these I'd never considered before but now agree with - Edgar Freemantle from Duma Key, Jake Epping from 11/22, Dolores Claiborne, Paul Sheldon in Misery, even Lisey Landon from Lisey's Story - when you have the classic traits of noir detectives laid out for you, as you get here, it's definitely easy to see the link. There were others though - particularly Vera's toilet games in Dolores Claiborne - that I felt were a stretch.
Of course, we also get plenty of analysis of King's actual detectives. Bill Hodges shows he is a true noir detective thanks to his preference to go by his own rules - and his choice of headwear - whereas Holly is only seen to be linked to hardboiled and noir thanks to her smoking habit. The three Hard Case Crime books - The Colorado Kid, Joyland, and Later - all get fair hearings too, likewise Billy Summers and the noir classic tale of 'one last job'. These books all feel undervalued and relatively unmentioned in general conversation about King, so it was interesting to read such deep dives here.
The analysis of the Bachman era of King I found to be especially enlightening. The authors explain how the Bachman tales are a 'bridge between twin impulses of fatalism and blind optimism' and that Bachman 'constructed a world torn from the pages of crime fiction that allowed King to indulge his darkest impulses towards violence and despair.' More importantly, though, I really enjoyed their conclusion of the Bachman books being an exercise in genre writing, and that all of the crime writing we later got from King owes a debt to the Bachman stuff.
One thread that runs throughout this book is how influential the pulpy crime and noir paperbacks of the 40s and 50s were on King's own writing, and the authors are adept at showing us classic noir tropes that have permeated King's works...even when he's writing the scary stuff. As with anything, when you know what to look out for, you can see it everywhere. And King wasn't afraid to give crime writing a go early on either - Johnny Smith in the Dead Zone, at least for part of that book, is King's first proper detective.
There was also a lot of interesting stuff digging into the significance of character names and place names, and how one could interpret them as being particular nods to important crime works, or having a deeper meaning than just a name. Like I said, interesting, but I'm not convinced King himself dives so deeply when picking names!
Anyway, it feels a little odd saying this on a review of a book that is largely academic pieces of writing (or maybe it doesn't, because my relationship with academia is far behind me) but my favourite parts are right at the start of this book, in the form of contributions from Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime, and from King himself.
Ardai sheds light on something I had always wondered about; the sexy woman on the original cover of The Colorado Kid who isn't in the story at all. Turns out HCC covers are nearly *all* about sexy women who aren't in the story! I also loved his honesty when asked if King's contributions to his imprint were difficult to difficult. Spoiler; they're not! According to Ardai, the only thing easier is breathing!
And some notes from King himself. Mostly, it's him musing on his love of hardboiled stuff for a couple of pages, but it did give me, at least, some insight into why he seems to favour the 'howdunnit' rather than 'whodunnit' style of story for the Hodges/Holly books...King talks about falling for the Ripley books by Patricia Highsmith, which do exactly that. They let the reader who the bad person is, but encourage us to watch our detective work out how it all went down.
Overall, this isn't exactly easy reading for your average King fan. I actively wanted to tackle something academic and still found it heavy going at times. But the pedigree of the two authors here speaks for itself - and they worked as research assistants to King from 2005-2009 - and I credit them for opening up a fresh angle of analysis into King's works, and a genre of writing that has clearly played a huge role in the develop of King's writing right from when he was still at school. This won't be for everyone, but Constant Readers after a deep dive will be satisfied.
Oh, and the art deco 30s font used throughout is both a) on brand for a book about noir fiction, and b) a damned fine bit of typography.
This one comes out on 15 April 2025 - huge thanks to University Press of Mississippi for the review copy!
Now, it's been a while - a long while - since I read any academic stuff and, won't lie, it took me a while to get into this, having only read fiction for the last decade or so. But I came out of this book having enjoyed being challenged to think differently about King and much more knowledgeable about King's own dabblings in noir.
Throughout this books, Magistrale and Blouin show how the work of seminal noir authors like Chandler and Poe have influenced King's own writing, but also how he takes the tropes they largely drove and does different things with them. Magistrale and Blouin also make the case for a number of King characters from throughout his oeuvre to be detectives of sorts...or at the very least, show how they use detective skills to help get through whatever situation they are in. Some of these I'd never considered before but now agree with - Edgar Freemantle from Duma Key, Jake Epping from 11/22, Dolores Claiborne, Paul Sheldon in Misery, even Lisey Landon from Lisey's Story - when you have the classic traits of noir detectives laid out for you, as you get here, it's definitely easy to see the link. There were others though - particularly Vera's toilet games in Dolores Claiborne - that I felt were a stretch.
Of course, we also get plenty of analysis of King's actual detectives. Bill Hodges shows he is a true noir detective thanks to his preference to go by his own rules - and his choice of headwear - whereas Holly is only seen to be linked to hardboiled and noir thanks to her smoking habit. The three Hard Case Crime books - The Colorado Kid, Joyland, and Later - all get fair hearings too, likewise Billy Summers and the noir classic tale of 'one last job'. These books all feel undervalued and relatively unmentioned in general conversation about King, so it was interesting to read such deep dives here.
The analysis of the Bachman era of King I found to be especially enlightening. The authors explain how the Bachman tales are a 'bridge between twin impulses of fatalism and blind optimism' and that Bachman 'constructed a world torn from the pages of crime fiction that allowed King to indulge his darkest impulses towards violence and despair.' More importantly, though, I really enjoyed their conclusion of the Bachman books being an exercise in genre writing, and that all of the crime writing we later got from King owes a debt to the Bachman stuff.
One thread that runs throughout this book is how influential the pulpy crime and noir paperbacks of the 40s and 50s were on King's own writing, and the authors are adept at showing us classic noir tropes that have permeated King's works...even when he's writing the scary stuff. As with anything, when you know what to look out for, you can see it everywhere. And King wasn't afraid to give crime writing a go early on either - Johnny Smith in the Dead Zone, at least for part of that book, is King's first proper detective.
There was also a lot of interesting stuff digging into the significance of character names and place names, and how one could interpret them as being particular nods to important crime works, or having a deeper meaning than just a name. Like I said, interesting, but I'm not convinced King himself dives so deeply when picking names!
Anyway, it feels a little odd saying this on a review of a book that is largely academic pieces of writing (or maybe it doesn't, because my relationship with academia is far behind me) but my favourite parts are right at the start of this book, in the form of contributions from Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime, and from King himself.
Ardai sheds light on something I had always wondered about; the sexy woman on the original cover of The Colorado Kid who isn't in the story at all. Turns out HCC covers are nearly *all* about sexy women who aren't in the story! I also loved his honesty when asked if King's contributions to his imprint were difficult to difficult. Spoiler; they're not! According to Ardai, the only thing easier is breathing!
And some notes from King himself. Mostly, it's him musing on his love of hardboiled stuff for a couple of pages, but it did give me, at least, some insight into why he seems to favour the 'howdunnit' rather than 'whodunnit' style of story for the Hodges/Holly books...King talks about falling for the Ripley books by Patricia Highsmith, which do exactly that. They let the reader who the bad person is, but encourage us to watch our detective work out how it all went down.
Overall, this isn't exactly easy reading for your average King fan. I actively wanted to tackle something academic and still found it heavy going at times. But the pedigree of the two authors here speaks for itself - and they worked as research assistants to King from 2005-2009 - and I credit them for opening up a fresh angle of analysis into King's works, and a genre of writing that has clearly played a huge role in the develop of King's writing right from when he was still at school. This won't be for everyone, but Constant Readers after a deep dive will be satisfied.
Oh, and the art deco 30s font used throughout is both a) on brand for a book about noir fiction, and b) a damned fine bit of typography.
This one comes out on 15 April 2025 - huge thanks to University Press of Mississippi for the review copy!
March 8, 2025
Huge thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for a electronic ARC copy of this book.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to delve deeply into analyzing Stephen King's work. It is extraordinarily well researched and provides extensive evidence and analysis. It served as a refresher of sorts for me, as there were many parts of books that I had read years ago that I had forgotten, and being reminded of it here was enjoyable. This book dives very deeply into the Stephen King multiverse and made me realize just how much of his work can be considered crime fiction. I don't usually read books more focused on analysis so it was somewhat new to me and not something I would usually read, but the subject matter still made it very interesting to me. I am sure there are many things that went over my head (for example I had no idea who Raymond Chandler was before reading this book) but I did appreciate the references to Thomas Harris' Lector books as I had just read them very recently.
My favorite parts of the book were probably the letter from Stephen King himself and the chapter about his Bachman identity. I think this book has given me a newfound appreciation for Stephen King's work in crime fiction and also the genre as a whole. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to delve deeply into the works of Stephen King in general, as a wide range of his works are covered.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to delve deeply into analyzing Stephen King's work. It is extraordinarily well researched and provides extensive evidence and analysis. It served as a refresher of sorts for me, as there were many parts of books that I had read years ago that I had forgotten, and being reminded of it here was enjoyable. This book dives very deeply into the Stephen King multiverse and made me realize just how much of his work can be considered crime fiction. I don't usually read books more focused on analysis so it was somewhat new to me and not something I would usually read, but the subject matter still made it very interesting to me. I am sure there are many things that went over my head (for example I had no idea who Raymond Chandler was before reading this book) but I did appreciate the references to Thomas Harris' Lector books as I had just read them very recently.
My favorite parts of the book were probably the letter from Stephen King himself and the chapter about his Bachman identity. I think this book has given me a newfound appreciation for Stephen King's work in crime fiction and also the genre as a whole. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to delve deeply into the works of Stephen King in general, as a wide range of his works are covered.
April 13, 2025
King Noir, Tony Magistrale and Michael J. Blouin [University Press of Mississippi, 2025].
A substantive critical appraisal of various works by Stephen King and their crime fiction or noir precursors. As defined by the authors, crime fiction is a literary genre, while noir is a sensibility or atmosphere not bound by genre or medium (an Edward Hopper painting or song such as “Riders on the Storm” byThe Doors could be considered noir.) King Noir is divided into chapters which could serve as individual essays, with prefatory material from Charles Ardai (Hard Case Crime publisher) and Stephen King.
A substantive critical appraisal of various works by Stephen King and their crime fiction or noir precursors. As defined by the authors, crime fiction is a literary genre, while noir is a sensibility or atmosphere not bound by genre or medium (an Edward Hopper painting or song such as “Riders on the Storm” byThe Doors could be considered noir.) King Noir is divided into chapters which could serve as individual essays, with prefatory material from Charles Ardai (Hard Case Crime publisher) and Stephen King.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews