Customer Reviews

Rome Noir (Akashic Noir)

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I've read a lot of crime anthologies over the last ten years, and a common failing is a lack of thematic unity. Even when arranged around a particular notion, such as revenge or hitmen, they often include a number of stories that feel shoehorned in. By compiling stories based on location, Akashic's noir series totally avoids this problem, and it's a concept I really really like. I love reading crime fiction set in unfamiliar places, as I find it often evokes the social fabric of a city or country much better than a travelogue will.

That said, this particular entry in the series is a total flop. Of the sixteen stories, only two offered what felt like a glimpse of the real Rome. The reason for this is slightly buried in a few lines in the book's brief introduction, where the editors note that "few major [Italian] writers in the [crime] genre have actually been Roman or written about the place" and that "several writers were puzzled when we approached them for new stories set in [Rome]." Indeed, the biographies of the writers who contributed stories are shot through with other Italian cities such as Turin, Milan, Palermo, Bologna, Naples, Palermo, Bari, etc. -- but not Rome. When the editors write, "We gave [the writers] carte blanche, and we think the results speak for themselves," my reaction is "Yes, the results do speak for themselves, and they say 'we are uncomfortable representing Rome.'"

The lone exceptions to this are Antonio Pascale's "For a Few More Golden Tokens" and Evelino Santangelo's "Eaten Alive." They both use a handful of nicely sketched characters to spin dark little stories of gentrification and good old-fashioned greed. To be sure, the book includes some talented authors whose work I've enjoyed, such as Reasonable Doubtsand Carte Blanche, but their contributions here are awfully perfunctory (their two stories are only 4-5 pages each). There are a few stories featuring American characters that feel quite awkward, as if the authors felt that because the stories were commissioned for an American publisher, that they should feature American characters.

It's really questionable whether readers interested in Rome are really going to find much of value here. And readers more generally interested in what's going on in Italian crime fiction will be much better served by the recent anthology Crimini, whose stories are of a much higher overall quality. I'm still a big fan of Akashic's city-centric anthology, but would suggest striking this particular stop from your itinerary of world crime.