Hardboiled

Hardboiled fiction is a genre of crime fiction and detective fiction, similar in tone or mood to noir fiction, whose typical protagonist is a justice-seeking detective battling the violence of organized crime, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself. Hardboiled works are largely set during Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933) or its aftermath, during a historical uptick in American organized crime. Rendered cynical by the cycle of violence, the detectives of hardboiled fiction are often antiheroes. Notable hardboiled detectives include Dick Tracy, Philip Marlowe, Nick Charles, Mike Hammer, Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Slam Bradley, Dan Turner, and the Continental Op.