Thursday’s guest: Megan Abbott

My introduction to Megan Abbott was probably about as pure as one could get. Until her debut novel DIE A LITTLE showed up in my mailbox, I didn’t know who she was. It wasn’t till I started digging around that I discovered she’d written a scholarly take on American masculinity in noir and hardboiled fiction, and it wasn’t till I finished the book that I realized what a great handle she has on noir fiction in her own right. DIE A LITTLE takes the 1950s world we know in all the great movies and books and puts a decidedly feminine twist on it — as I said in my review for the Sun (to paraphrase somewhat) the book would appeal to those who dig Dorothy B. Hughes’ fabulous  novels.

I freely admit that I’m hoping she’ll offer up her take on where noir fiction is going, and where women — especially younger women — fit into the bill, but I’ve no doubt that whatever she’ll say will be as thoughtful as what goes into her books.