Ep11 Chris Chambers Noir: This month, we shine a light on a Master of Noir, Pulp and Hardboiled Todd Robinson — with special guest Rob Hart
July 2026: On this month’s episode of Chris Chambers Noir, prepare to be impressed by our Q&A with host and bestselling mystery writer Christopher Chambers, president of the Mystery Writers of America’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter.
This month’s topic: The Rebirth of Hardboiled— an interview with the Midwife, Big Daddy Thug aka Todd Robinson, with special guest Rob Hart, author of “Three Hitman and a Baby”
Meet our guests!
About Todd Robinson: Todd Robinson is the creator and editor of the pivotal hard-boiled noir magazine Thuglit. His short fiction is renowned both here in the United States and overseas, having won or been nominated for Derringer and Anthony Awards, and recognition in top mystery anthologies. His breakthrough novels, The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade, set the standard for hard-boiled literature for a generation, adeptly combining elements of neo-noir and pulp. His novels, published in France through Gallmeister, including A Killing in Riverford and Cassandra, opened new audiences to this American tradition.
“Hard Bounce,” by Todd Robinson
About Todd’s debut novel, The Hard Bounce: Boo Malone lost everything when he was sent to St. Gabriel’s Home for Boys. There, he picked up a few key survival skills, a wee bit of an anger management problem, and his best friend for life, Junior. Now adults, Boo and Junior have a combined weight of 470 pounds (mostly Boo’s), about ten grand in tattoos (mostly Junior’s), and a talent for wisecracking banter. Together, they provide security for The Cellar, a Boston nightclub where the bartender Audrey doles out hugs and scoldings for her favorite misfits, and the night porter, Luke, expects them to watch their language. At last Boo has found a family.
But when Boo and Junior are hired to find Cassandra, a well-to-do runaway slumming among the authority-shy street kids, Boo sees in the girl his own long-lost younger sister. And as the case deepens with evidence that Cassie is being sexually exploited, Boo’s blind desire for justice begins to push his surrogate family’s loyalty to the breaking point. Cassie’s life depends on Boo’s determination to see the case through, but that same determination just might finally drive him and Junior apart. What’s looking like an easy payday is turning into a hard bounce–for everyone. Buy the book!
Author Rob Hart
Rob Hart is The USA TODAY bestselling author of the Assassins Anonymous series, as well as The Paradox Hotel, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award that was named one of the best books of 2022 by NPR, and The Warehouse, which sold in more than 20 languages around the world.
He is also the author of the Ash McKenna crime series, the short story collection Take-Out, the novella Scott Free with James Patterson, the novel Dark Space with Alex Segura, and the comic book Blood Oath, also with Segura. He also co-wrote Detour with Jeff Rake, creator and showrunner of Netflix’s Manifest.
Rob is the former publisher for MysteriousPress.com and was the class director at LitReactor. He has also worked as a political reporter and the communications director for a politician, and was a commissioner for the city of New York. He is currently a writing mentor in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA program at Seton Hill University.
“Assassins Anonymous,” by Rob Hart
He has published more than 30 short stories. He received a Derringer Award nomination for best flash fiction story, and his short story “Take-Out” appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2018. He received honorable mention in Best American Mystery Stories 2015, 2017, and 2022. He also wrote “Due on Batuu”, a short story set in the Star Wars universe, as part of From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. Non-fiction articles have been featured at sites like LitReactor, Salon, The Daily Beast, Criminal Element, LitHub, CrimeReads, Writer’s Digest, and Electric Literature. He lives in Jersey City. Learn more: robwhart.com
About Christopher Chambers: A Washington, D.C. native, Chris is a lecturer at Georgetown University, Chair of the International Conflict Resolution Center and is General Counsel to a not-for-profit benefitting HBCUs: Student Housing of America. He is the author of the Angela Bivens thriller series for Random House, The Rocket Crockett pulp noir series, and Black Pulp for Prose-Press, and editor, along with Gary Phillips, of The Darker Mask graphic short story collection, the Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again: Honoring Harlem’s Herb Jeffries. He was a finalist in 2008 for the PEN/Malamud Short Story Award for “Leviathan.”
He’s contributed short stories to The Obama Inheritance: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir (Three Rooms Press) and is the winner of the Anthony Award. The Black Panther: Tales Of Wakanda, The Faking of the President, and Midnight Hour, Witnesses for the Dead with Gar Anthony Haywood–all major award-winning collections and bestsellers. His noir hardboiled mystery Scavenger (2020) won a starred review and profile in Publishers Weekly; the sequel Standalone sees the return of the indestructible homeless addict turned PI Dickie Cornish, patrolling the unforgiving city streets ravaged by COVID, with the third in the trilogy Streetwhys in 2025. His next Marvel contribution is in Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson. Learn more: ChrisChambersNoir.com
About Chris’s latest book, “Street Whys:” We again meet Washington, DC’s notorious detective, former street denizen Dickie Cornish, who faces off with bloodthirsty cops and the justice department. Underground detective Dickie Cornish faces a vindictive murder rap from his past if he doesn’t agree to help prove that the fentanyl ravaging the streets of DC is bankrolled by shadowy donors of a certain former president. Broke and desperate, Cornish soon finds himself on a collision course with shady public defenders and corrupt police officers, forcing him to use his street connections to flip their plan. Or die.
The Dickie Cornish series has met with widespread critical acclaim: Publishers Weekly dubbed the series debut, Scavenger, “[A] no-holds-barred crime novel…a 21st-century twist on traditional hardboiled noir.” The Strand Magazine selected Standalone, the second book in the series, as one of the “Top 25 Mystery Novels of the Year,” adding, “It’s apparent that the modern heir to Chandler, Woolrich, and Cain is Christopher Chambers, enough said.” And renowned crime author George Pelecanos raves that the series “really nails Washington, DC in the current environment.” Click here to buy Chris’s books.
And there’s more: Chris has contributed short stories to “The Obama Inheritance: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir” (Three Rooms Press), which won the Anthony Award; “The Black Panther: Tales Of Wakanda,” “The Faking of the President and Midnight Hour,” and “Witnesses for the Dead with Gar Anthony Haywood.” Each book includes stories by award-winning and bestselling authors.
