Customer Reviews

L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After a intro to explain about the L.A. Noire game, and the era of 1947, the stories start up. Each story has a stunning cover picture right before the short story/novella.

The Girl, by Megan Abbott (Queenpin, Die a Little)

See The Woman, by Lawrence Block (Sins of the Father, 8 Million Ways to Die)

Naked Angel, by Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-tep)

Black Dahlia & White Rose, by Joyce Carol Oates (Give Me Your Heart, A Widow's Story)

School For Murder, by Francine Prose (Blue Angel, My New American Life)

What's In A Name?, by Jonathan Santlofer (Death Artist, Anatomy of Fear)

Hell Of An Affair, by Duane Swierczynski (Expiration Date, Fun & Games)

Postwar Boom, by Andrew Vachss (The Weight, A Bomb Built in Hell)

A whole slew of great authors.

My favorite stories are

School For Murder -- A bit actor is having trouble playing a role as a strangler. The director sends him to a special school.

Postwar Boom -- Two out-of-town hitmen are sent to take out a gang leader.

L.A. Noire is a great collection of stories by some of my favorite authors. What a fun read! Jonathan Santlofer put together this collection and it turns out that my favorite story is his. "What's in a Name?" is riveting, scary, and funny (just like all of Santlofer's terrific books.) I couldn't help but think that this would be a terrific movie! In fact, I always feel this way when I read Santlofer's books.

Two excellent stories, respectively by Joe Lansdale and Andrew Vachss, anchor a solid collection of short tales set in 1947 Los Angeles. Although the anthology is timed to support the release of the eponymous Rockstar videogame, both gamers and noir-lovers will find a completely independent pleasure in reading it.

Lansdale's NAKED ANGEL starts with the discovery of a murdered ice princess and quickly pulls the reader along to the frozen finale.

POSTWAR BOOM, by Andrew Vachss, takes the opposite tack. Two hard guys make preparations for a killing, until Vachss shocks the reader with a denouement that blasts away all genre expectations.

Read this book now!

I really enjoyed this collection, by some of my favorite authors, example: Andrew Vachss. Gritty, smoky, like a waking dream from the 1950s. Hard to put it down for food or work.

The ads for the game, LA Noire, look fun. It's not available on PC though so I guess it'll be a while before my guys start playing it. Still, the idea of a fictional LA, noir and as filled with stories as the movies I remember, is certainly intriguing. Even more intriguing was finding a book of tales built to go with the game; getting hold of a free ecopy to review was the icing on the cake.

Reading these tales is like a retreat into old noir movies. The Black Dahlia tells her side of the story, from her side of the grave; an LA cop recounts the pain of secrets that cannot be told; the sound of a neck breaking lifts your head from the page; the trickle of ice down your back... There's anger, betrayal, cruelty, temptation and vice in this collection, and the whole is encased in bite-sized, noir-flavored pieces, quickly read but slowly remembered, like the taste of a world that's not quite real.

Each different, each scary in a different way, each intriguing, each filled with character at least as much as events, each powerfully told, LA Noire contains a great collection of tales to read and enjoy in the darkening evening, and to leave your mind filled with thoughts of darkness that lies just beyond the glow of Sunset.

Disclosure: I was lucky enough to get a free ecopy of this book for review.

a great collection of short stories and a great price (i got it when it was free, but 99 cents also a great price)

This is a very good collection of noir stories, by some well-known authors. I am not familiar with the video game it is based on -- I bought this book when it was free because I had already spent my Kindle "allowance" for the month. I did not expect more than just a time-filler from it. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the stories were, especially Joe Lansdale's and Joyce Carol Oates. Oates's story has haunted me since I read it. This is a worthwhile book that stands alone on its own merits.

I just recently got into the hard crime noir novels and this is a fantastic collection for the low price of ......0.99! These short stories make yuo want to throw on a duster and buy a cool fedora! Best stories in it so far are the ones from Lansdale and Block.

It seems I'm one of the rare few that pretty much hated most of this book. In truth I think my actual rating is 2.5 not a 3. Thankfully each story was short so I knew I could finish it but I wish I could have finished it faster so it would have been over. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the video game, but these stories were just difficult to follow at times. A few of them were good and I enjoyed them but most had me wondering what the heck the narrator was yapping about. Just glad it's over so I can move on to something else.

... this may ease you into it. I got this book in a free ebook deal and thought it was going to be a brainless knockoff of the video game. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was a collection of different crime/noir stories, many of them were unrelated to the game. It's a short read, and not all of the stories impressed me, but most did. Even more interesting: the accomplished team of writers behind it (including Joyce Carol Oates).