Hard-boiled and noir crime fiction often focuses on an investigator trying to solve a crime against a backdrop of corruption and organised crime. In hard-boiled fiction, the investigator may have heroic qualities and will try to do the right thing, but in noir crime fiction, all the characters may be morally compromised to different degrees. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler are classic authors of hard-boiled crime, but for a more contemporary take on the genre, look to writers like Steve Cavanagh, David Baldacci and Ian Rankin.
