"Occupational Hazards," by Jonathan Segura (2008)

With Occupational Hazards, first-time novelist Jonathan Segura has written an assured, delightfully profane, sometimes hilarious 21st-century noir set in the genre of hard-boiled fiction, giving us a newswriter as the protagonist rather than the customary detective -- and a memorable protagonist he is. Bernard Cockburn is a going-nowhere journalist writing for a go-nowhere newspaper that nobody cares about when he stumbles onto a potential scandal involving real estate. And his maybe-girlfriend Allison gives him the unwanted news that she's pregnant. That's all you need to know going in; the plot is secondary to watching Segura unleash Cockburn's inner monologue, revealing an attitude that is almost refreshing in its retrogradation.

Eventually the story, whose plot is teased out slowly, comes careening to a rather sudden and violent climax, but it doesn't affect the novel adversely since Segura has kept the tone consistent throughout. The language is vulgar and spare, like Chandler pumped up on steroids, and the humor tests the boundaries of good taste in all the best ways. I admire Segura's commitment not to redeem Cockburn in any way, up to and including the very last sentence (which of course makes Cockburn all the more sympathetic). So a few points are docked for the thinness of the supporting cast in relation to Cockburn, but really this book is just a lot of fun. Recommended for anyone who likes hard-boiled fiction and/or self-medicating anti-heroes. B+