Buffalo Noir

September 7, 2015
Park’s introduction, in effect a true-crime case study, is as gripping as any of the 13 stories set in or around Buffalo, N.Y., in this strong Akashic noir volume, whose contributors include several mystery heavyweights. Lawrence Block’s arresting “The Ehrengraf Settlement” brings his dapper, devious lawyer, the Perry Mason–like Martin Ehrengraf, into a case reminiscent of George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin. Joyce Carol Oates’s “Valentine” is a remarkably tense and atmospheric study in emotion and relationships. S.J. Rozan’s “Parkside” is a throat-clutching modern version of the conte cruel. But the greatest surprise is “Falling on Ice” by Lissa Marie Redmond, a Buffalo police detective who specializes in cold-case investigations. Redmond mixes character, emotion, and formal detection into
an irresistible amalgam. Among the lesser-
known authors, Dmitri Anastasopoulos’s police procedural, “The Bubble Man of Allentown,” stands out. Those curious about the criminal side of the second-biggest city in New York will be rewarded.

September 15, 2015
Twelve new short stories show the darker side of the City of Light. In "Dr. Kirkbride's Moral Treatment Plan," Christina Milletti follows a patient in a crumbling old psychiatric hospital who insists her husband went into his study to write a book and never came out. Tom Fontana's "It's Only for Forever" describes a barroom bargain written and signed on a paper napkin. A rich man trying to beat a murder rap underestimates Lawrence Block's dapper lawyer in "The Ehrengraf Settlement." Dimitri Anastasopoulos presents a suspended crime-scene investigator and his layabout housemate living near the perpetually drifting bubbles of "The Bubble Man of Allentown." A former vet who can't live up to his father's reputation finds rough redemption in Lissa Marie Redmond's "Falling on Ice," and a stuffed teddy bear is an unwitting decoy in S.J. Rozan's "Parkside." The hero of John Wray and Brooke Costello's "Chicken Noodle's Night Out" joins the entourage of a hometown music legend. In "Peace Bridge," Connie Porter's failed artist doesn't foresee the consequences of buying a gun for protection. When Joyce Carol Oates' lonely 15-year-old girl gives her algebra teacher a homemade valentine, it leads to a surreal journey amid a nighttime snowstorm in "Valentine." A mother anxious for morning reassures her son with stories about a Buffalo landmark in editor Park's "The Odd." Lust for a vintage car motivates Gary Earl Ross' "Good Neighbors," and a chance discovery takes an unexpected turn in Kim Chinquee's "Hand." From the Irish enclave of South Buffalo and a Niagara Street bar to a costly house in Nottingham Terrace and a once-grand Gothic structure in Elmwood Village, Buffalo's past and present come to life in the offbeat, disturbing, and sometimes darkly comical tales by authors who really know their city.

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