Kiss Me Deadly, Bonnie & Clyde, Get Carter, Little Caesar, Goodfellas - behind each of these classic films there's a little-known story waiting to be told, and pulp novels, real-life bank robbers and twisted serial killers have all played a part in shaping the high-points of crime cinema. After Hollywood had cheerfully thrown these elements into the mincer the finished film sometimes owed little except a title to its source material.

Real life crimes were often considered by film-makers to be too brutal - and their perpetrators too ugly - for the delicate sensibilites of cinema audiences. Thanks to Hollywood, runty little failed bank-robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are forever fixed in the popular imagination as a handsome young couple with toothpaste grins and an upbeat bluegrass soundtrack, and hell, those bullets don't really hurt so much in slow motion.

The films themselves may be well known, but their origins are often far less familiar. This book provides a chance to compare the sources with the finished films, placing them in the context of the times in which they were made and the studio system that produced them. From The Big Sleep to Point Blank, and from The Godfather to LA Confidential, Hardboiled Hollywood takes you behind the scenes at the scene of the crime. It's an offer you can't refuse.

Full of 'unauthorised cash withdrawals' and people dying of 'lead poisoning', this tome thankfully eschews the pompous subtext and strained metaphors of most film books, leaving what any good detective wants: just the facts, ma'am -- Phelim O'Neill * The Guardian *
A lively exploration of the origins of some of Hollywood's most vivid plots - not only the reworked novels and screenplays, but real events. Police reports, Mafiosi and serial killers are never far away. Decharne renders an intriguing picture of the powerful place this art form has come to occupy in society, and why * The Financial Times *
Like a good anthology, Hardboiled Hollywood probably offers a fair bit of anecdotal novelty for even hardboiled fans -- Ninian Dunnett * The Scotsman *
Anyone with an interest in hardboiled fiction needs this book on his shelf * Time Out *
Hardboiled Hollywood is, truly, a treasure trove -- Kevin Sampson * Word Magazine *

Max Decharne was born in England, and can still speak English when his business demands it. During the past fourteen years he has flung various books and records at the public, and travelled to a variety of countries, firstly as a member of Gallon Drunk, and since 1995 with his band The Flaming Stars, in an effort to spread peace, goodwill and partial deafness among the youth of the world. He still divides his drinking time between London and Berlin.