Customer Reviews

Manhattan Noir

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

 

 

Fortunately, I did not read Manhattan Noir until shortly after returning from my first visit to Manhattan, a five day stay in a brownstone on Broadway in Harlem not too far south of Washington Heights. I had been told that crime had dramatically decreased in recent years, but nonetheless I had some early misgivings. The stories compiled by Lawrence Block in this anthology would have been anything but reassuring.

For the record Wikipedia statistics show that the actual homicide rate in New York City for 2007 ranks it 50 in American cities with a population over 250,000. New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, and Washington D.C. are one, two, three, and four.

The settings - Midtown, Lower East Side, Upper West Side, Battery Park, and so on - would have been recognizable place names, but ones without any emotional content. That changed entirely after just five days in Manhattan. My heart beat faster whenever I encountered a familiar place, street, or subway line in Manhattan Noir.

These stories were written specifically for this collection at the urging of Lawrence Block. They are all quite good, some clearly exceptional. Most are crime stories; most involve violence, but violence is not necessarily the central theme of each story.

Two early stories were among my favorites; The Good Samaritan (Midtown), and If You Can't Stand the Heat (Clinton, or Hell's Kitchen). The last sentence in the latter story is, "Wherever she went, she was pretty sure she'd feel safe". Nonetheless, murder is front and center.

I was disoriented in Rain (moving from Battery Park to 112th and Broadway) as the downpour shifted from place to place, from character to character, from subplot to subplot. It all came together in a second reading, thereby becoming a new favorite. "The rain falls on intrigue and conspiracy, trap doors, underground escape routes, the crude implements of quick getaways."

The longest story, A Nice Place to Visit (Hell's Kitchen again), twists and turns with double-dealings, betrayals, murder, and retribution. The Upper West Side reveals its own gruesome secret in The Laundry Room, not one of my favorites, but one decidedly difficult to forget. The Most Beautiful Apartment in New York (Chelsea) offers a mix of greed, jealousy, murder, humor, and irony while Freddie Prinze is My Guardian Angel (Washington Heights) blends fantasy and noir. (In my limited experience I encountered immigrants from the Dominican Republic rather than Puerto Rico in Washington Heights, possibly indicative of recent demographic changes.)

Manhattan Noir is a good collection. Thankfully, it is classified as fiction.

Let's face it: most short-story anthologies contain a few winners, a larger number of passable stories, and at least a few clinkers. The most remarkable attribute of "Manhattan Noir" is its sustained high quality; there are no duds at all. Sure, some of these stories are stronger than others, but every one is worth reading.

The collection is also notable for its variety of tone. Stories such as Charles Ardai's "The Good Samaritan" and Thomas H. Cook's "Rain" capture the classical noir spirit. Jeffery Deaver's "A Nice Place to Visit" is an elaborate con game with a particularly satisfying conclusion. On the more Hitchcockian side, we have fine entries by Carol Lea Benjamin ("The Last Supper") and John Lutz ("The Laundry Room"). There are also some genuinely touching stories, especially Xu Xi's "Crying with Audrey Hepburn," featuring a modern-day Susan Alexander Kane.

Highly recommended for fans of noir and urban fiction. I will be seeking out the other books in Akashic's Noir series.

Manhattan Noir is absolutely brilliant. I loved every story in this clever collection of noir tales. It's just a clever premise, each story set in a certain clearly-defined neighborhood in Manhattan, peopled with the kinds of unsavory characters you would find in these neighborhoods. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys noir fiction, or gritty tales set in urban settings -- or just anyone who enjoys short stories in general -- read Manhattan Noir. This collection was so well-done, I want to read the rest of Akashic's "Noir" series, I hope they are as fabulous as this one was for me.

The editor has done a fine job of putting together fifteen short stories. I am usually a bit trepidatious with collections. However, this is fine. I enjoyed all the stories. It was a quick fun read. I'm looking forward to volume two.

Be thankful that the characters in these delightfully dark stories are fictional -- at least, you'll hope they are after reading even a few of these noir charmers. For example, there's the beautiful young thing whom you would NOT want to bring home for a one-night stand...as that would be your last night -- ever. Or the very scary Upper West Side mom who indulges her son's cut-up (literally) habits. Or the collection of double-dealing no-goodniks who frequent a very atmospheric Hell's Kitchen saloon.
Editor Lawrence Block has put together a wonderful smorgasbrod of stories set all around this 'Island of Manahatta,' to use its Lenape Indian name, and together they make this icon of glamor and urban sophistication seem far more scary than glittery. But that's what makes these stories so readable! And, at times, wryly humorous...especially this reviewer's personal fave, "The Most Beautiful Apartment in New York."
If you love Manhattan, or if you love good short fiction, you'll definitely enjoy this book.

I'm not fond of noir, but these are all competent stories, except for the Maan Meyers story "The Organ Grinder." That reads more like the 'teaser' chapter in the back of a book that advertises the author's next book. In fact, it appears to be some pages from the novel The Organ Grinder: A Dutchman Historical Mystery (Five Star Mystery Series), so I wouldn't bother reading both.

I am really just sneaking this in under the guise of a review to give everyone the contents.

CONTENTS: Introduction by Lawrence Block
The Good Samaritan by Charles Ardai
The Last Supper by Carol Lea Benjamin
If you can't stand the heat by Lawrence Block
Rain by Thomas H. Cook
A Nice place to visit by Jeffrey Deaver
The Next best thing by Jim Fusilli
Take the Man's pay by Robert Knightly
The Laundry room by John Lutz
Freddie Prinz is my guardian angel by Liz Martínez
The Organ grinder by Maan Meyers
Why do they have to hit? by Martin Meyers
Building by S. J. Rozan
The Most beautiful apartment in New York by Justin Scott
The Last round by C. J. Sullivan
Crying with Audrey Hepburn by Xu Xi.

Great idea, but I have a feeling most of the included authors dug through their old manuscripts and submitted previously rejected stories.

I have read many of the Noir series (around 12 or 13) and I would rank this book 4th in the series.

It was good but I will only recomend it to someone who is a fan of this series or genre or a resident of Manhattan.

After a slightly shaky start (they should have done better by Greenwich Village), this collection actually gets stronger and stronger as it goes along. The authors are excellent story tellers. They have distinct styles and themes. Collectively, they have a great feel for the unique flavors of Manhattan. Bravo.