Seattle Noir

April 13, 2009
If the 14 entries in Akashic's rainy city noir volume were school compositions, a teacher would likely assign mostly As and Bs and nothing below a C. Colbert has assembled stories that reflect Seattle's ethnic diversity (Native American, East Indian, Chinese, Latino, etc.) as well as tales from its rough past to its glory days of Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft. Notable selections include Colbert's “Till Death Do Us...,” featuring 1940s PI Jake Rossiter, and G.M. Ford's wry “Food for Thought,” but two of the best come from nonmystery writers, Bharti Kirchner's disturbing “Promised Tulips” and Kathleen Alcalá's stark “Blue Sunday.” Brian Thornton's “Paper Son” provides a seamy look at corruption and vice in Seattle's Chinatown in the late 1800s. Patricia Harrington's “What Price Retribution?” demonstrates that people may be homeless, but they aren't necessarily helpless. Other contributors include Robert Lopresti, Skye Moody, Simon Wood and R. Barri Flowers.

May 1, 2009
Is Seattle too nice for noir? It is home to the original Skid Road, the Green River Killer, and the second most popular suicide bridge in the nation and yet perhaps too laid-back and politically correct to embrace the genres viciousness and depravity. Of the many varied shades of local color on display in this mixed but worthwhile collection, only a few have the inky chiaroscuro found in Akashic noir entries from Brooklyn or Detroit, among them Stephan Magcostas nightmarish tale of a bad encounter between an Iraqi war widow and a cabdriver and Lou Kemps twisted, gothic Sherlockian pastiche. Other standouts include Simon Woods taut tale of a bar brawler recruited into a life-changing club, Robert Loprestis demented dialogue between homeless murder witnesses, Curt Colberts clipped Jake Rossiter detective yarn (crossing O. Henry with Hammett), and Skye Moodys memorable funhouse tale of embittered showbiz dwarfs and hothouse flowers that could be Nathaniel Wests Day of the Locust as told by Tom Robbins. Fourteen original stories that may well be of interest beyond the Northwest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)