No kidding.
According to TartCity.com, tart noir describes "the independent-minded female sleuths who are tough enough to take on thugs and corrupt cops, tender enough to be moved by tough, tender men (or women, as the case may be). These are neofeminist women, half Philip Marlowe, half femme fatale, who make their own rules and think it's entirely possible to save the world while wearing a drop-dead dress and stiletto heels. Our heroines are Modesty Blaise and Emma Peel, our morals are questionable and our attitude always needs adjustment."
Publishers Weekly’s Lucinda Dyer interviewed the site’s co-founder and literary editor, Lauren Henderson, who said, "We joked about calling it slut noir, but Sparkle Hayter made us change it."
Apparently the two novelists hit it off well at a mystery writers’ conference ("We wanted to hate each other, but we were wearing the same nail varnish,") and they soon recognized similarities in their writing. As Henderson put it, "girls behaving badly thing made the establishment somewhat nervous."
Henderson said she began writing because the heroines in mysteries were too manly or too wimpy. "Women are tough and scary in a different way from men."
Indeed.
So when the two discovered that common bond, TartCity.com was born. The site launched in February 2000, and features tart noir writers such as Stella Duffy and Katy Munger.
Give it a quick look before you write this off as yet another feminazi conspiracy. Yeah, you get the typical book release–book tour information, but don't miss the Comet Motel, where you can read short stories by various tart authoresses, or add your twist to the serial story in progress (the goals are simple: Find out who killed the Vegas Elvis and why; answer the mystery of whether Jack and Kiki ever marry; and settle, once and for all, the issue of who's the baddest P.I. cliché in town).
Tart noir isn't just for chicks, by the way. Drop in and check it out, whoever you are.
Don’t miss Lauren Henderson’s latest Sam Jones mystery,The Strawberry Tattoo. Sparkle Hayter’s newest novel, Chelsea Girl Murders is due out in November.
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