Genres
Hardboiled fiction
Crime and detective fiction with a cynical, justice-seeking detective fighting organized crime amid a corrupt legal system.
Hardboiled fiction is a genre of crime fiction and detective fiction, similar in tone or mood to noir: a justice-seeking detective, often an antihero, fighting organized crime amid a corrupt legal system. The genre grew out of Prohibition-era America and the pulp magazines, especially Black Mask; Carroll John Daly is credited as its pioneer, and Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe are the canon.
The useful line against noir: hardboiled depicts institutionalized social corruption, while noir turns inward to psychic turmoil. Hardboiled builds a recurring detective with a stable supporting cast, which suits series fiction and web serials, and its corrupt city is itself a continuity to track.