"At first blush, the Northwest seems an unlikely setting for hard-boiled crime fiction. It's too beautiful to evoke much in the way of peril, and even though its cities can boast their own mean streets, they don't have the tradition of meanness that one associates with Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Still, on further reflection, the Northwest--taken in its most inclusive sense to encompass not only the coastal region but also the mountain states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming--can muster some no-nonsense hard-boiled atmosphere of its own. Let's start with the rain. You can't beat rain--especially the never-ending, drizzle-till-you-die Northwest version--for turning one's thoughts to mayhem…Then there's the environment with a capital E. When anything--even something so inherently good as the northwestern outdoors--becomes a cause, you can be sure that crime will be floating in the backwash. Several Northwest mystery writers--C. J. Box and Dana Stabenow, for example--routinely construct their plots around environmental issues, and others, like[James Lee Burke], find numerous opportunities for their heroes to draw down on bent rich guys who exploit big trees and little people…Rain, sex, and ideological conflict--there's plenty of material there for any crime writer whose palette of choice tends toward noir, or at least gris. But the Northwest adds something else to the mix: its own brand of rugged individualism. In northwestern literary fiction, the hero is often a never-give-an-inch type (say, Randall Patrick McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) who bucks the system but loses. Loneliness comes easy in small, isolated towns, and lonely guys and gals seem naturally to wind tip on the wrong side of the street in hard-boiled fiction. "("A hard-boiled gazetteer to the Northwest." (Bibliography). Bill Ott. Booklist. 101.17 (May 1, 2005): p1506(4).)
Thank you, once again, to Beebe Reference Librarian Beth Radcliffe for her thorough research on this list.
Whenever possible, if a series, the titles are in order of publication date. Series characters are after the author's name. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and please let us know if you feel that a title should be here. Please read one or more titles, and come prepared to discuss your impressions of them with the group.