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Hard-boiled fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that is characterized by its realistic portrayal of crime and its gritty, cynical tone. The style was popularized by authors such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and it has been used by many other writers, including Dennis Lehane. Lehane's novels are often described as hard-boiled because they feature realistic and violent crime stories, as well as cynical and hard-bitten characters.