The Pacific Northwest is a perfect setting for Akashic’s noir anthology series, especially with the history lesson that SEATTLE NOIR editor Curt Colbert provides readers about his city, which he says has always had one foot in the bad side of things. Even though it’s called the Emerald City, there is still plenty of sludge and muck to dirty things up.
SEATTLE NOIR is separated into four themed sections: “Gone South,” “What Comes Around,” “Love Is a Four-Letter Word” and “To The Limits.” It has a few stumbling blocks, but nothing that will truly derail someone from enjoying it; it’s just that some stories don’t mesh with the noir theme.
“Gone South” deals with people’s lives in which there are desperate changes. The two standouts are “Blood Tide,” the opening piece by Thomas Hopp, and “The Center of the Universe” by Robert Lopresti. The first deals with an investigation that leads Peyton McKean into a mystery that involves the local Indians and their rich past and long-held customs, while the second deals with two homeless men, one of whom only sees people as old movie stars who witnessed a crime and wants to bring them to justice. Lopresti does a fine job of using a delusional vagrant as the central character. Even when the man is totally clear in his thought,people still think he is a crazy loon.
“What Comes Around” features Simon Wood’s “The Taskmaskers,” the story of a vigilante squad; Wood shows he is not someone who needs a full-length novel to give readers a great ride. This story alone is worth checking out the whole collection for. The section actually kicks off with a story of a Iraqi soldier who is home on leave and has the misfortune of running into a cop who takes the law into his own hands, while Patrica Harrington’s “What Price Retribution” deals with a former cop who has hit hard times. He knows no one cares about the people he lives with now, so he must take justice into his own hands, no matter the consequences. This section delivers, with the theme of retribution shining through by all the writers.
“Love Is a Four-Letter Word” is pretty self-explanatory, starting off with Colbert’s own story, “Till Death Do Us,” a detective tale featuring Jake Rossiter. A husband and wife who hire Jake are both under the belief that the other is cheating and planning their demise. It turns out to be, as Rossiter says, his more perfect case. Paul Piper’s “The Best View in Town” is one of those stories that could have easily appeared in either the ELLERY QUEEN or ALFRED HITCHCOCK magazines, but it’s R. Barri Flowers “The Wrong End of a Gun” that will make any writer laugh. Not to ruin any surprises, it tells the story of a man who starts seeing a married woman whose husband is just a tad jealous. Even though I saw a certain element coming, its ending really gave me a great chuckle.
“To The Limits” closes out this collection, with all the stories having something going for them. “Paper Son” by Brian Thornton tells of the old days of Seattle during the turn of the century. It’s a tale of a Treasury agent who is investigating a crime in Chinatown, where he runs into more interference at every turn, until he meets the one man who can deliver him the bad guy. A true surprise is “Sherlock’s Opera” by Lou Kemp, who uses the idea that Professor Moriarty’s brother wants to exact revenge on a certain British detective, using the idea of a Ripper-like criminal as bait to draw him to the Emerald City.
You can easily add this to you “to be read” pile with no regrets, as there is plenty of material to delight readers. It feels as though Akashic is getting back on its feet with this release. I’m just hopeful that the future American cities are as fluid and packed with such great talent. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES:
• BALTIMORE NOIR edited by Laura Lippman
• LAS VEGAS NOIR edited by Jarret Keene and Todd James Pierce
• MANHATTAN NOIR 2: THE CLASSICS edited by Lawrence Block
• PORTLAND NOIR edited by Kevin Sampsell
• ROME NOIR edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski
• TRINIDAD NOIR edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini and Jeanne Mason
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