I have had a copy of USA Noir for nearly 10 years, and this is the first time I have read any stories from the book. It contains stories selected from 37 USA-based original noir anthologies published by Akashic. The series started in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. I do recognize a large percentage of the authors with stories in this book, but there are some that I don't recognize. Today I stuck with authors I have read before.
There are Six Sections. Some of them sound pretty dark and unwelcoming, others are ambiguous.
- True Grit
- American Values
- Road Rage
- Homeland Security
- Under the Influence
- Street Justice
I liked all three of the stories that I read and they are all different. They illustrate the variety of stories found in the Akashic Noir anthologies.
From the Road Rage section:
"Our Eyes Couldn’t Stop Opening" by Megan Abbott is a suspense-filled story about high school girls wanting to escape their boundaries. It is told in first person by a member of a clique; the setting is Grosse Pointe in Detroit, where the author grew up. The narrator follows around a former friend who is getting wilder and wilder in her behavior. It is beautifully written and very dark.
First published in Detroit Noir, in 2007. Megan Abbott has written twelve crime fiction novels, all of them standalone thrillers.
From the Under the Influence section:
"Lighthouse" by S.J. Rozan is about a thief who is troubled by voices in his head. The voices urge him to rob various locations to get money to buy drugs. He thinks of the voices as aliens who have taken residence in his brain. I have read lots of stories by Rozan and most of them are lighter than this one. Very sad, although the ending is not a total downer.
First published in Staten Island Noir in 2012. S.J. Rozan writes the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith mystery series, mostly set in New York City's Chinatown.
From the Homeland Security section:
"Loot" by Julie Smith is set in the Garden District of New Orleans. It is a very convoluted story about the devastation in New Orleans after Katrina and the looting that resulted. Smith packed a lot of story into 11 pages. It did not seem very noir to me; for such a serious subject, it was surprisingly light and in some ways uplifting.
First published in New Orleans Noir in 2007. Julie Smith was also the editor of that anthology. She has written two mystery series, the Skip Langdon series set in New Orleans and the Rebecca Schwartz series set in San Francisco.
6 comments:
The Noir series was always a mixed bag because they had the habit of inviting local writers-not necessarily noir or even mysteries to contribute.
I agree with Patti Abbott. I've read several of the Noir series and the stories vary from excellent (mostly by Name Writers) to poor (mostly by Local Writers).
This sounds like an interesting collection. Based on your other two commenters, maybe it a "best of the best"?
Have the ones you've read felt relevant to today's world?
Patti, I have not read a lot of the Noir series (only a few stories from New Orleans Noir, Mississippi Noir, and Manhattan Noir 2 Classics) and my experiences were pretty good with those. Megan had a very good story in the Mississippi book. But I have noticed that many of the Noir series have very few recognizable names, which I guess makes sense if you want to keep the stories local. I will have to read more from all three of those.
George, you and Patti have convinced me to try some more of my Akashic Noir books and sample more of the stories, both authors I know and newer ones. I have the Alabama Noir anthology that came out in 2020. I also have San Francisco Noir, Twin Cities Noir, and London Noir. All of those were fairly early in the series, 2005 or 2006.
Kelly, this is an interesting collection because it covers many sections of the country, but only briefly.
Your question is also interesting, and I had to think about it awhile. That is not something I think much about while reading a story or a novel. But in general, yes, the themes are relevant. Two of the stories involved race relations and issues, although I did not note that in my description, and the one about the man hearing voices was an unusual approach to the issue of mental illness and crime. It was not my favorite story by S.J. Rozan, and I have read a good number of them, but still a compelling read.
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