"Urban Noir" by Gordon Harries -- Check it out!

Gordon Harries (Crime Factory, The Rap Sheet, 3AM), one of Pulp Serenade's favorite critics, has been keeping his blog Needle Scratch Static quiet for some time. Now and then, he's dropped hints that something bigger was in the works. This morning, he finally unveiled his new project:

Urban Noir.

So far, he's only posted an introduction and a sampling of things to come, but already I'm looking forward to reading his new critical essays. Here's the rundown of the site, in his own words:

The site with focus on post-vietnam crime fiction and the modern crime fiction that operates in it’s slip stream, featuring reviews of both prose and film (when addressing the fiction of some of today’s best writers, seventies cinema becomes inescapable. Hell, one of the major character beats of Wallace Stroby’s terrific ‘Cold Shot To The Heart’ was inspired by Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Getaway’) and feature interviews. The odds are you already have a good idea of what I’m talking about, but already written for the site is a critique of Martyn Waites’ ‘Mary’s Prayer’, Sebastian Rotella’s ‘Triple Crossing’ a piece on Christa Faust’s relationship with Hardboiled… you get the idea.

The site will start to dribble out content now and launch properly in conjunction with another site I'm going to be involved in. More on that soon.

Be sure to add the blog to your Bookmarks or Blog Feed and check back often for updates. In the meantime, you can still catch up on some of Gordon's great essays for other publications around the net. His essay on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest is a must-read for all hardboiled fans, and you can find it in the first issue of Crime Factory. His interview with author Jeremy Duns (Free Agent) over at The Rap Sheet.