David Lehman is a poet and writer whose many books include The Morning Line, Sinatra's Century, and One Hundred Autobiographies. He is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry and The Best American Poetry series. He divides his time between Ithaca and New York City.

Introduction: The Mysterious Romance of Murder
Part I: Killer Style1. 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 Crime5. Here's to Crime!

6. The Last Cigarette

7. Among My Souvenirs
Part III: Auteurs8. 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 Buy19. 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 Perverse29. Three Astrological Profiles

Barbara Stanwyck (July 16)

Graham Greene (October 2)

Marlene Dietrich (December 27)