Introduction: The Mysterious Romance of Murder Part I: Killer Style 1. Cracking Wise 2. Paradise of the Damned: Eighteen Notes on Noir 3. Poetry Noir 4. Five Noir Poems "Perfidia" "Laura" "Witness to a Murder" "The Formula" "Just a Couple of Mugs" Part II: The Elements of Crime 5. Here's to Crime! 6. The Last Cigarette 7. Among My Souvenirs Part III: Auteurs 8.

The Great British Spymasters 9. The Limits of Logic: Trent's Last Case (E. C. Bentley) 10. Dashiell Hammett's Priceless Patter 11. Paperclip (Raymond Chandler) 12. "Grim Grin" (Graham Greene) 13. Rex Stout: The Emperor of Couronne de Canard 14.

Ida Lupino: The First Lady of Noir 15. Black Friday (David Goodis) 16. Orange Noir (Charles Willeford) 17. Ed McBain: The Man from Isola 18. Hitchcock's America Part IV: Dreams That Money Can Buy 19. Straight Down the Line: Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944) 20. Strangers and Mirrors: Orson Welles's The Stranger (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947) 21. An Exchange of Bullets in Belfast: Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947) 22.

Blind Accidents: John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950) 23. Epitaph for a Genre: Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956) 24. Shadow of Evil: Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear (1962) 25. A Reluctant Spy's Conversion: William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) 26. Gangsters in Love: Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984) 27. Rogues' Gallery 28. Why Not New York? Part V: The Imp of the Perverse 29. Three Astrological Profiles Barbara Stanwyck (July 16) Graham Greene (October 2) Marlene Dietrich (December 27).