Unreliable Narrator
In my college days, I had a weekend course on "noir" literature. We spent two days watching excerpts of "The Big Sleep," "Strangers on a train," and "Sunset Boulevard."
It was a style of film that became popular after WWII, when there was a bit of despair and hope mixed into the dreams of the returning soldiers after the war. It was a style of film making that showed the dark underbelly of the underworld.
"The Maltese Falcon" and especially the Raymond Chandler stories came from this period. There was a detective or in some cases a young man who is lead around by a femme fatale. Sometimes a young woman, but many times she was an older more experienced woman.
These are the types of stories that I find the most interesting.
I haven't tried to write in this genre except for a short story or two. I've mainly written fantasy and some space opera. But it is one of my goals that one day I will have a character who is a detective with a few bad habits, who is experienced and naive. That this detective will walk right into a situation that will kick him (or maybe her in the ass.)
It will be hard and sad, but just enough hope that I can breathe after the story, knowing that the detective will live to tell another one.
You can't always believe that detective, of course.
He is looking out for himself, for the money, and maybe for the opportunity to get his jewels waxed.