Nordic Noir discussion

It's ironic that we're having this discussion about what is noir. I was just asked to serve as editor for a noir collection set in Helsinki, so somebody thinks I know something about it. I won't go into more details until the deal is nailed down, but other editors from books in the same series include Joyce Carol Oates, Kathleen George, and Denis Lehane.

This sounds pretty darn exciting!

Yes, it does! Congrats!

Oh, wow..Congrats!

Thanks folks!

That sounds great.

do we have a common defintion or understanding of what constitutes 'noir' ?

Yes we do, Gyl. :)
#000000 in French. There, #000000 on #FFFFFF.
Or as my dictionary app would put it,

noir |ˈnwɑː|
noun [ mass noun ]
a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity: his film proved that a Brit could do noir as darkly as any American.
• [ count noun ] a film or novel in the noir genre.

Which as itself would cover more procedurals and crime than I would count as purely noir, so let's expand it a bit.
Noir... from

film noir |ˌfilm ˈnwär|
noun
a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, and Billy Wilder.
• a film of this genre.
ORIGIN mid 20th cent.: French, literally ‘black film.’