THIS Icelandic journey into the dark side sparked something of a defining moment. Or, more precisely, a desire to have something defined. Better than that, a search for the definition of a definition; one that  entailed going beyond the resources of the OED or Mr Google. The puzzle centres on the proliferation of genres, sub-genres and even sub-sub-genres used to categorise published works of  fiction and non-fiction. Among them is one that has reached cliche status due to its excessive use by publishers, promoters, advertisers, reviewers and even writers themselves. Noir has become the suffix of choice for almost every … Continue reading