A friend of mine started a small imprint called Hard Case Fiction. He recycles forties-fifties lurid crime novellae and mixes them with new writers. Pretty good stuff.
A really good long read is the Berlin Noir trilogy by Phillip Kerr (March Violets, The Pale Criminal & German Requim). They are available in one volume. The series covers a Berlin detective pre-war, war years and post war in a dirty, dangerous Berlin. It's his best work by far. I take it off the shelf every four years or so and am constantly surprised by it still.
>>Berlin Noir trilogy by Phillip Kerr
Haven’t read the first one, IIRC. Will chase it down, but that is a engrossing read.
Alan Furst’s Trilogy of NightSoldiers, A PolishOfficer and DarkStar are really good too; Europa in the twilight between the two big wars, but many small declared and undeclared ones going on.
I recently found Mary Renault and her novels about Ancient Greece, including her Alexander Trilogy, starting with Fire from Heaven.
Gotta go, could spend too much time exchanging good reads.
“The series covers a Berlin detective pre-war, war years and post war in a dirty, dangerous Berlin.”
Have you seen any of the “Foyle’s War” BBC series? Same genre set in England. You might enjoy that. Available at your library or on Netflix. They’re in production again for another season. I just love them. :)