London Noir (A Mask Noir Title) [Paperback]

Maxim Jakubowski (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995 | Series: A Mask Noir Title

The image of the "city" is at the heart of all good crime writing. This collection of short crime stories explores the dark shadows of London. Writers such as Derek Raymond and Liza Cody reveal London to be a place of mayhem and depravity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Only a collection of British noir fiction would give us a PI who offers his clients tea or an enforcer who, when his tibia is crunched, ``dropped to one knee like a suitor in a Jacobean play.'' Still, the London of these 15 effective, workmanlike stories is sleazy and brutal, not cozy or literary. Several ``serial authors'' are represented, such as Mark Timlin in a flat, cliched PI story, ``Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)''--his Nick Sharman does better in the novels. John Harvey's ``Now's the Time'' seems only a slice of the life of his police procedurals' protagonist, Charlie Resnick. Also fragmentary is Derek Raymond's ``Brand New Dead,'' laden with atrocious violence and the loopy metaphors of his ``Factory'' novels but without their lyricism or social criticism. A tense read is Chaz Brenchley's ``Scouting for Boys,'' a nasty tale that keeps one guessing as to whether the heartless narrator is killing off ``rent boys.'' Most of the stories, such as Molly Brown's ``Angel's Day,'' in which the last bit of humanity is wrung from an addicted hooker, are unrepentantly bleak and can become wearying; to avoid overload, the stories are best read a few at a time. But most are grimly entertaining, and together they make up a good sampler of current British crime writing. Readers attracted to the dark side of life may find it just their cup of tea.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Maxim Jakubowski owns London's Murder One mystery bookshop. He was the editor of the Black Box and Blue Murder imprints.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852423080
• ISBN-13: 978-1852423087
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,693,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unsettling, August 12, 2001

By 

J. Cim (Pinehurst, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: London Noir (A Mask Noir Title) (Paperback)

I looked forward to this collection and was disappointed with it. The stories had a nasty, bizzare bent. There were three stories I liked, but the rest were strange. That said, if stories that end darkly and leave you with a feeling of despair are what you're looking for--you've found it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Sampler of UK Noir, May 10, 2000

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: London Noir (A Mask Noir Title) (Paperback)

This collection of fifteen crime stories was commissioned with the notion of capturing the dark side of the city in some manner. This attempt is largely successful, but the book also works as a sampler of modern British crime writers. Among the better stories are: "Perfect Casting" by Christopher Fowler, "Brand New Dead" by Derek Raymond, "A Deep Hole" by Ian Rankin (cf. Knots and Crosses), and "Angel's Day" by Molly Brown. For some reason, other than the Molly Brown story, I found the other female contributions (by Liza Cody, Denise Danks, Jessica Palmer and Liz Holliday) to be rather sub-par. Actually one of the stories that does the best job of showing the underbelly of London is by John Harvey, who has his Nottingham policeman Charlie Resnick (cf. Lonely Hearts and subsequent novels) down in London for a funeral.