Akashic’s long-running city-based crime series gets back on track with PORTLAND NOIR, thanks to the fantastic picks of editor Kevin Sampsell. He’s the man behind Future Tense Books and has a bit of fun in his introduction, winning me over in the first few sentences by name-dropping Ken Kesey and Gus Van Sant when describing what people must think of his city.
Speaking of Portland, Sampsell doesn’t look at it with rose-colored glasses, and is more than willing to point out its problems, which is what makes this collection such a great read. Like previous anthologies in the series, the book is split into a few themed sections: “Bloodlines,” “Crooks & Cops” and “Desolation City.”
“Bloodlines” opens with Karen Karbo’s “The Clown and The Bard.” From the start, we know there is most likely a dead body. Our narrator tells about his pretentious ex-girlfriend, and how he made up a story of going off to Prague. It’s a humorous tale of jealousy and Eastern European mail-order brides. Luciana Lopez’s “Julia Now” tells of a couple moving into their new home where they discover a photo and strange note which drives the female lead to find out the truth about the old married couple who lived there for so long, and then can’t deal with the fact of the end results. In Ariel Gore’s “Water Under the Bridge,” a woman has to deal with an ex-girlfriend who keeps insisting to help her out because they are family. This plays so well in that we are just given one side of all the events until the reveal.
The self-explanatory “Crooks & Cops” section has some of the best stories in the collection, starting off with Jonathan Selwood’s brutal “The Wrong House,” which deals with a junkie who becomes a burglar and makes a tragic mistake of going to just one more home. Let’s just say drug dealers are none too happy when someone breaks into a stash house. “Baby, I’m Here” by Monica Drake revolves around a group of junkies, with one just getting out of a state rehab, only for old issues to arise when visiting a pal who ended up in the hospital. You see their lives will never improve and just continue in a vicious circle.
“Coffee, Black” by Bill Cameron deals with a retired cop hired to look into who is breaking Starbucks windows. The story comes off like coffee wars between all these shops, until the detective discovers the real reasons, thanks to some showboating. There is a first in this collection — a comic strip — in the lost-dog tale “Gone Doggy Gone,” while Jess Walter’s “Virgo” is about a stalker who tries to explain his side of the story.
Closing out this section is another highlight in “The Red Room” by Chris A. Bolton, which takes place in Powell’s bookstore. For those who have never been to or heard of this place, imagine a giant department store filled with nothing but floors of books. The main character is a not a detective, but someone who tries to help out the less unfortunate by answering ads on Craigslist. But this time, he gets himself way too deep when he discovers his simple payoff is a bigger hassle than expected.
As the title should suggest, the section “Desolation City” deals with the seedier element of Portland, such as at a skate park in Just Hocking’s “Burnside Forever,” where a man who lives out of a van tries to play protector to a young girl. Gigi Little’s “Shanghaied” explains that sometimes the stories you hear about the crazy homeless turn out to be more than true, with disastrous results. This, we find out when the narrator doesn’t take the advice to avoid crazy women who ask for change or pretty jewelry.
Megan Kruse gives us a character piece in “Lila,” which tells the story of a lesbian who falls for a young prostitute, who herself falls into that lifestyle so she can get closer. Finishing up the collection is “People Are Strange,” by Kimberly Warner-Cohen, dealing with a woman searching for her kidnapped sister, who was taken when they were both 4. Well, at least that is what Warner-Cohen wants you to think, until the truth is revealed.
I’m really hoping that with PORTLAND NOIR, Akashic is back into the swing of things, since it sticks to the actual themes of the series: noir and crime. Yes, you can make an argument that some stories don’t fall directly into that category, but at least this group of authors tries, with interesting results that will keep readers glued to their pieces. My suggestion to Akashic is to spend more time mining local talent, rather than trying to cover as many places as possible. There are plenty of gem writers spread across this country. —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
• ROME NOIR edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski
• TRINIDAD NOIR edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini and Jeanne Mason
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