Hardboiled Detectives: a timeline

The hard boiled detective story came along with the 20th century. They were made for each other. World War One had put a dent in the notion of heroes. Lindbergh had helped revive it but even he needed some help. That help arrived in the form of the hard boiled detective. A hero who really didnt like it, the hard boiled genre showcased people who tended to be cynical but if you scratched the surface, they still had some ideas about right and wrong.
Basically created by Dashiell Hammett and polished by Raymond Chandler, the hardboiled genre would reach its peak in the 1920's as hundreds of tough loners faced down a corrupt society. By the 1960's the genre was on the wane but still saw flashes of brilliance from writers like Ross Macdonald. This type of story remains alive today and is often revisited in the form of period pieces. There are few other types of stories that so dominate our popular culture.
If you are interested in further understanding of this topic, please see these articles: Garrison, K. (2010). Hard-boiled Rhetoric: The "Fearless Speech" of Philip Marlowe. South Central Review, 27(1/2), 105-122. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/stable/40645932
Davis, J. (2004). Tough Guys with Long Legs: The Global Popularity of the Hard-Boiled Style. World Literature Today, 78(1), 36-40. doi:10.2307/40158359

The one that started it all, the Maltese Falcon remains one of the most adapted stories of all time and invented a genre. Dashiell Hammett created the archetype of the hardboiled detective who faces the world alone except for his code. Sam Spade must help a beautiful femme fatale and discover who murdered his partner, all the while trying to discover the nature and location of the titular bird. The foundation of the genre, it is on the timeline because there is no hard boiled detective genre without it.
Hammett, D. (1930). The Maltese Falcon: Pages: 166. Alfred A. Knopf.

The Big Sleep is of course a classic but it is on this list because it represents the refining of Hammett's rough ore into a shiny distilled novel of pure power that gives birth to the ideal hardboiled hero: Phillip Marlowe. A confusing mess of theft, gambling, and murder, no one has any idea what is going on in this mystery but that's besides the point. The tired knight errant that is Phillip Marlowe is the attraction here. An examination of seedy Southern California before the war, this novel is what most people have in mind when they think private detective, hence why its on the list
Chandler, R. (1939). The Big Sleep. Alfred A. Knopf.

It's a tough job so it's a good thing they don't come tougher than Mike Hammer. The first entry in a long running series, Spillane's work always had more publishing then critical success. So why is it on the list? Because that publishing success was immense. His novels became a staple in American households for decades.
In this novel, Mike Hammer must track down his friend's murderer in a haze of violence and sex that would become the character's defining traits.
Spillane, M. (1947). I, the Jury. Signet Books.

A late addition to a genre that was most popular in the first half of the twentieth century, the work of Ross Macdonald may well have saved it as an ongoing concern. He reinvented the hardboiled detective from knight-errant to therapist. His Lew Archer was a lot more sympathetic to human weakness then most hardboiled detectives.
This novel traces three murders that stretch across decades and revisits MacDonald's favorite theme of parents and the damage they do to kids, even unwittingly. It is on this list because it saved the genre from becoming a parody and gave it a fresh direction
Macdonald, R. (1964). The Chill. Alfred A. Knopf.

Perhaps the finest neo-noir ever done, this novel is a confusing mess of murder and corruption in Southern California and three not so shiny LAPD officers must make heads or tails of it all. Sound familiar? It should. Writer James Ellroy consciously wrote this as a throwback to the golden age of the hard boiled detective. It is on this list because it along with (oddly enough) Who Framed Roger Rabbit? revived hardboiled detective works as period pieces which they largely remain today
Ellroy, J. (1990). L.A. Confidential. Grand Central Publishing.