BOSTON NOIR edited by Dennis Lehane
Book Quote:
“One of the recurrent themes of noir has always been the search for home. Not home in the physical sense – though that does happen – but in the irrational, emotional sense. The heroes and heroines of noir are usually chasing something they couldn’t hold even if they caught up to it. Some part of them understands the futility of the chase even as another part clings to the need for it. This is probably why, if only to alleviate the pain of waiting, they chase something else in the meantime – a lover, a bank job, the murder of an inconvenient spouse. Yet the home being searched for in these pages might be Boston, and the journey to find it – however fruitless that goal may turn out to be – is as rich and varied, as hilarious and sad, and ultimately as engaging as the city itself.â€
From Dennis Lehane’s Introduction
Book Review:
Review by Chris C.T. Terry (NOV 5, 2009)
Boston Noir is one of the latest releases in Akashic Books’ mighty Noir Series. Each collection offers around a dozen new short stories from a city’s literary luminaries. The stories are all tough, bleak and crime-related and they have specific neighborhood settings in the featured city.
Boston Noir is edited by Dennis Lehane, a masterful crime writer whose work transcends the shackles of genre fiction to become plain ol’ great literature. Two of his novels, Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, have been made into movies and he has written for the HBO television series The Wire. He also contributes a piece to this collection, “Animal Rescue,” a story about a Dorchester tough guy who finds an abused dog.
Other highlights of the collection include Russ Aborn’s George V. Higgins-esque 1970s robber caper “Turn Speed,” the kidnapping in Jim Fusilli’s “The Place Where He Belongs,” the feuding writers in Don Lee’s “The Oriental Hair Poets,” and the camaraderie between convict and citizen in “Dark Water” by Patricia Powell.
The stories are set across Boston and even in some suburbs. Beacon Hill, Roxbury, Brookline and the North End all appear on the page. The characters range from bourgeois black artists, to Catholic priests, to knucklehead gangsters, to classic private eyes.
Boston is one of the oldest cities in the country, and its rich history is mined for material, too. The gumshoe in” The Dark Island” by Brendan Dubois is a recent veteran of World War II, and the innkeeper in Dana Cameron’s “Femme Sole” probably remembers the American Revolution.
I had my own favorite stories in Boston Noir, but those are stories that stuck with me because of my own tastes and interests, not because the other stories were lacking in any way. Boston Noir is a worthy read for any fan of crime writing, especially someone with an attachment to Boston. This book is a perfect gift for that hard-to-shop-for friend from New England who still drops their R’s even though they’ve lived in Seattle for fifteen years. And hey, if you’ve got a friend from another city, have a look at the list of Akashic’s other Noir titles. Their hometown is probably represented.
| AMAZON READER RATING: |  from 15 readers |
| PUBLISHER: | Akashic Books (November 1, 2009) |
| REVIEWER: | Chris “C.T.” Terry |
| AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? | YES! Start Reading Now! |
| AUTHOR WEBSITE: | Official website for Dennis Lehane |
| EXTRAS: | Akashic Books website |
| MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: | Visit our Dennis Lehane page
Read our review of: |
Bibliography:
Books in the Akashic Noir Series (Alphabetical Order):
- Baltimore Noir edited by Laura Lippman (May 2006)
- Boston Noir edited by Dennis Lehane (Nivember 2009)
- Boston Noir 2: The Classics (November 2012)
- Bronx Noir edited by by S.J. Rozan (August 2007)
- Brooklyn Noir edited by Tim McLoughlin (June 2004)
- Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics edited by Tim McLoughlin (June 2005)
- Chicago Noir edited by Neal Pollack (2005)
- D.C. Noir edited by George Pelecanos (February 2006)
- D.C. Noir 2: The Classics edited by George Pelecanos (February 2006)
- Delhi Noir by Hirsh Sawhney (August 2009)
- Detroit Noir edited by E.J. Olsen and John C. Hocking (November 2007)
- Dublin Noir : The Celtic Tiger vs. The Ugly American edited by Ken Bruen (March 2006)
- Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat (January 2011)
- Havana Noir edited by Achy Obejas (October 2007)
- Indian Country Noir edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez (June 2010)
- Istanbul Noir edted by Mustafa Ziyalan and Amy Spangler (November 2008)
- Las Vegas Noir edited by Jarret Keene and Todd James Pierce (May 2008)
- London Noir edited by Cathi Unsworth (August 2006)
- Lone Star Noir edited by Bobby Byrd and Johnny Byrd (October 2010)
- Los Angeles Noir edited by Jarret Keene and Todd James Pierce (May 2008)
- Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics edited by Denise Hamilton (April 2010)
- Manhattan Noir edited by Lawrence Block (April 2006)
- Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics edited by Lawrence Block (September 2008)
- Mexico City Noir edited by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (February 2010)
- Miami Noir edited by Les Standiford (November 2006)
- Moscow Noir edited by Natalia Smirnova & Julia Goumen (June 2010)
- New Orleans Noir edited by Julie Smith (April 2007)
- Orange County Noir edited by Gary Phillips (April 2010)
- Paris Noir edited by Aurélien Masson (November 2008)
- Philadelphia edited by Carlin Romano (November 2010)
- Phoenix Noir edited by Patrick Milikin (November 2009)
- Portland Noir edited by Kevin Sampsell (June 2009)
- Richmond Noir edited by Andrew Blossom, Briand Castleberry & Tom De Haven (March 2010)
- Rome Noir edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski (February 2009)
- Queens Noir edited by Robert Knightly (January 2008)
- San Francisco Noir (October 2005)
- San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics (February 2009)
- Seattle Noir edited by Curt Colbert (June 2009)
- Toronto Noir edited by Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore (May 2008)
- Trinidad Noir edited by by Lisa Allen-Agostini and Jeanne Mason (August 2008)
- Twin Cities Noir edited by Julie Schaper and Steven Horwitz (June 2006)
- Wall Street Noir edited by Peter Spiegelman (June 2007)
November 5, 2009
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Judi Clark · 
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Tags: Akashic, Boston, Dennis Lehane · Posted in: NE & New York, Noir, Short Stories
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