Colette BancroftReviews

This is the fifth book I've read in the Akashic Books Noir series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. While a couple of the stories aren't strictly "noir," whatever that means, I still enjoyed every story in the book. Your just can't go wrong with new stories by [a:Michael Connelly|12470|Michael Connelly|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1539114448p2/12470.jpg] and [a:Tim Dorsey|27017|Tim Dorsey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1274614239p2/27017.jpg].

[Note: A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer.]

It was hit or miss with the stories included here. Sadly, most were a miss with characters and storylines I didn’t want to spend any time with, and consequently, most were started and not finished. I did like the Mike Connelly story, though, so that made it somewhat worthwhile.

I have been reading the Akashic Noir series for a while, and some of the cities are much better than others. I started reading this ARC that received and realized I had tried to read it before and quit. There seems to be some confusion what Noir means. It doesn't mean stories about meth heads that live in mobile homes. That's not an interesting perspective on the world, it's just depressing.

Tampa Bay Noir is an excellent addition to the Akashic Noir series of anthologies. Each edition of this series is edited by a local, usually an author, a bookseller, or book critic. In this edition, the editor is Colette Bancroft, the book editor at the Tampa Bay Times. She was an excellent choice. She selected fifteen stories in four sections, one focuses on suburbia, another on grifters, one with crimes on the water, and the last are family stories.

I loved the sort of Florida Man aesthetic of “Triggerfish Lane.” I have always liked Lisa Unger and her story “Only You” is very compelling with the fantasy of coming back to your home town as a huge success coming true, but in a nightmarish way. “Local Waters” gives us the story of the hapless substitute teacher with the vicious high school bully, a truly relatable antihero.

Tampa Bay Noir is an excellent anthology. Bancroft did not try to expand the definition of noir but let it reside in the mystery and suspense genres that welcome the noir sensibility. I generally like every book in this series, but vastly prefer the ones that stay true to noir’s roots.

I liked every story and they all fit the theme. I was irritated by “Jackknife” by Danny López, enough that I had to put the book down for a couple of days before coming back to finish the story. I am sick to death of the whine that police are unfairly punished for killing unarmed suspects and when the former cop explains he was found to have followed procedure but was fired because someone had to be punished, I just stopped reading for a few days. It has always been a lie and it is still a lie. Even with video, John Crawford’s murderer was not even charged. That story is redeemed by its ending, so I guess it was effective in making the character feel real.

Again, the Akashic Noir series is a reliable series of noir stories. I think they are great gifts. If you know someone is going to visit Tampa Bay, give them this book rather than Lonely Planet. If you know someone from Tampa, then this would be a great gift, too. If you know someone who is into mystery and suspense, likewise a great gift. If people are unable to concentrate thanks to the COVID brain fog or generalized anxiety, short stories are something they can read. Really, you can hardly go wrong.

I received an e-galley of Tampa Bay Noir from the publisher through Edelweiss

Tampa Bay Noir at Akashic Books
Akashic Noir series
Colette Bancroft at Tampa Bay Times.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/11/02/tampa-bay-noir-edited-by-...

From Downtown St. Pete, to Indian Rocks Beach, to Gibsonton, full of wonderful beaches and very interesting people. You get it all in this book, Florida man in all his glory.

Another Akashic Noir book and as always, a great collection. But this one maybe was one of the weaker of the dozen+ I've read from the Akashic Noir offerings.

It started off on the wrong foot with the author I was most excited to read - Michael Connelly. I hadn't read any of his books before, but it's hard to be a reader and not at least recognize the name. I don't know if it's his usual style or that he just jotted something quick for the collection, but the characters were so shallow and the interactions were so cliche that it was hard to get through it. I actually wondered if he was lampooning noir, but I don't think that was the case.

Getting past that first story, the rest were good to great and overall, a recommended read for fans of noir or just fans of well-written fiction.½

I have been reading the Akashic “Noir Series” books since 2010 and, at this point, I’ve lost track of exactly how many of the short story collections I’ve read and reviewed, but it’s definitely well over a dozen of them, all told. As their titles indicate, each of the books is a collection of crime stories focused on one city or geographical area (the one exception I’ve read is titled Prison Noir). I’ve enjoyed each of the books, but I’m still not sure which type I enjoy most, the ones set in places I’m well-familiar with, or those set in locations I know I will never be able to visit for myself. Houston Noir, Lone Star Noir, and Mississippi Noir are collections set in neighborhoods and cities I know well. Providence Noir, Chicago Noir, Santa Cruz Noir, Baghdad Noir, Manila Noir, Long Island Noir, Buffalo Noir, and Belfast Noir, not so much. And I enjoyed all of them.

That brings me to Tampa Bay Noir, a 2020 collection edited by Colette Bancroft, who also contributed one of my favorites of the fifteen stories in the book. This collection includes stories by several well-known authors such as Michael Connelly, Lisa Unger, and Ace Atkins, among others. Connelly’s story even revolves around his much beloved LA police detective character Harry Bosch, something sure to please Bosch fans everywhere. All of the books in the collection (and there are something like 107 of them now with another six already announced) divide the stories into four distinct sections. The four sections of Tampa Bay Noir are: “Suburb Sinister,” “Blood in the Water,” “Grifter’s Paradise,” and “Family Secrets,” with the stories within each section falling into those specific themes.

My personal favorites include Lori Roy’s “Chum in the Water,” a story about a rather naïve man who borrows money from the wrong old man while, at the same time, placing his complete trust in a young woman who is not at all the innocent young thing he sees when she smiles at him. Another favorite is Ace Atkins’s “Tall, Dark, and Handsome,” which is a role reversal of what happens in the Lori Roy’s story. This time, it’s a younger woman who misplaces her trust in an older man – right up until she’s had enough.

But it’s the stories in the “Family Secrets” section of Tampa Bay Noir that appeal to me most, particularly the ones by Yuly Restrepo Garcés, Eliot Schrefer, and Colette Bancroft. For the most part, each of these stories takes place behind closed doors and doesn’t involve the kind of spectacular crime featured in some of the other stories in the book, but they are every bit as dark, maybe even darker, than those others. There are criminals, and there are victims, in each of these families, and some of them are even punished for what they are doing.

Bottom Line: Tampa Bay Noir is a strong addition to the Akashic Books noir short story collections. Its fifteen stories are largely atmospheric and dark, exactly what fans hope for when they pick up a new book in the series. Too, this one would be a great introduction to the books for those who are yet to discover them.

This is the third of the "urban noir" books from Akashic that I've read, but the first of them set somewhere I actually know; I've lived in Tampa for three years now. Perhaps the reason I got more out of it than the others, that little frisson of knowing what "Swann Avenue" is, or of realizing that a character in one story must be a professor at the same school (and in the same department) that I am!

But I actually don't think that's just it, though I'm sure it helps. A sense of character emanates from Tampa Bay here; unlike in Columbus Noir, it's not just an endless sequence of stories about gentrification. There are stories about the heat, about the cruelty, about the promises and failures, about the wanna-bes and never-bes. It's not a positive character, but it's not like a book of noir stories would be. The stories assembled by editor Colette Bancroft do a good job of capturing the vibe of the city.

Particular favorites of mine included Tim Dorsey's "Triggerfish Lane" (two losers come to the defense of their meek middle-class neighbor with hilarious consequences), Sterling Watson's "Extraordinary Things" (a creepy story of a man finally figuring out what was behind a weird confrontation from decades ago), Luis Castillo's "Local Waters" (a substitute teacher gets desperate as he can neither control his classes nor give his family what they want), Ace Atkins's "Tall, Dark, and Handsome" (a woman falls for an older rich man who is not all he seems), Sarah Gerard's "The Midnight Preachers" (a freelance reporter tries to track down an incendiary preacher in the wake of Trump's victory), Danny López's "Jackknife" (an ex-cop tries to track down his ex-lover's new lover in a carnie town in the middle of a hurricane), Eliot Schrefer's "Wings Beating" (a man with anger management issues tries to bond with his recently-out son on a trip to a mediocre spa), and Colette Bancroft's "The Bite" (a little girl is sexually harassed by colonel from MacDill AFB). They all have a sense of desperation, of a sunny facade covering up dark grime.

There were really only two I flat-out didn't like. Unfortunately one is the opener, "The Guardian" by Michael Connelly, a mediocre mystery with a boring linear plot and no theme or character work of interest. The other was "It's Not Locked Because It Don't Lock" (what a good title, though!) by Ladee Hubbard, where too many characters are discussed in dialogue and I got lost really fast. That's probably the best hit rate I've seen in one of these.

There's also "Pablo Escobar" by my friend Yuly. I might be biased because I read and gave feedback on an early draft, but I really enjoyed this, a dark story of isolation and desperation, as a Colombian immigrant in high school finally meets a friendly face. (It was thanks to this story that I learned of the Clearwater Virgin Mary, surely the most Tampa Bay miracle that could ever exist. Manifested in an office building!)

This is the first of the Akashic Noir that I have read. Having moved recently to the FL Gulf Coast it caught by attention. Some authors I'd read before, others were new. It contains 15 short stories, perfect for picking it up and putting it down. I think all but the last, by Colette Bancroft ended with a murder but the circumstances and stories were all so different it made for really delightful (if sometimes disturbing) reading. FL is a different animal and almost everyone is from somewhere else so lots of subjects to draw from the dark side. I recommend, especially if you are a fan of Tim Dorsey, Lisa Unger, and Michael Connelly to name a few.

What I liked best about this collection was that it seemed to capture the mix of people and attitudes that would be the dark side of a Florida gulf coast city. Aging mobsters, vulnerable transplants and disgruntled former cops find themselves in the downward spirals and lover’s quarrels that ultimately drag the to their demise. Sometimes it’s out of conniving and sometimes out of bad luck. A few of these stories will stick with me, but overall this one didn’t click for me as much as the previous editions I’ve read within the noir series.

I received this book as an Early Reviewer giveaway program.

What an awesome collection of stories centered around the Tampa Bay area.

As a thirty year resident of the Tampa Bay area, I was pretty excited about the possibility of getting this book through the program. After having completed it, mine excitement was not misplaced.

Bancroft put together a brilliant collection of stories illustrating the dark underside of this Sunshine State city. Ranging from Clearwater Beach to Gibsonton and Pass-a-Grille to Davis Islands, she got the entire area covered.

All the stories in this collection were worthy of inclusion. Some of my favorites were The Guardian by Connelly, Chum in the Water by Roy, Extraordinary Things by Watson and Jackknife by Lopez. Although, having said that, they were all exceptional stories.

An extra bonus was the excerpt from Tim Dorsey's Triggerfish Twist from his Serge Storms series. Anyone interested in Florida, the Tampa Bay area or madcap crime novels should jump into Dorsey's works. An outstanding body of work from Florida Roadkill through No Sunscreen for the Dead!

I can't recommend this collection enough. If you are from this area, live in this area, or are planning to visit, read this book for an immersive reality experience!½

I am a fan of the Akashic Noir series. They are consistently well-written, surprising, and definitely noir, not noirish. I don't know much about Tampa Bay, but I have visited the area and so some of the stories offered me that extra thrill of knowing this or that location. Even better, the Michael Connelly story is a Harry Bosch one, and reprises a relationship he had in one of the novels; not that one need have read the novel to enjoy the story. All of these stories entertain, many have surprise twists, and many open up some of the social issues of our time. More fun than Rays baseball!

This is the fifth book I've read in the Akashic Books Noir series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. While a couple of the stories aren't strictly "noir," whatever that means, I still enjoyed every story in the book. Your just can't go wrong with new stories by Michael Connelly and Tim Dorsey.

[Note: A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer.]

Nice collection of noir/detective stories set in and around Tampa FL. A few big names (Connelly, Dorsey, Atkins) and some I wasn't familiar with. No real lemons in the bunch which is unusual. Great beach read.

The publishing business can’t be easy. The temptation must be, when you latch onto a sure thing, to milk it for all it’s worth. That may lead to some degradation in quality. Akashic Books now has, if I counted correctly, 107 books in its Noir Series, with another 6 on the way. These are anthologies of short stories in the mystery/crime/noir genre set in specific geographical locations. Brooklyn was the first, in 2004. We are now up to Brooklyn Noir 3. D.C. and Los Angeles have 2 each. There are also outliers such as Montana Noir and Richmond Noir.

Along comes Tampa Bay Noir. I’m from Tampa. I like Tampa. The city and the surrounding areas have certainly contributed much to the true crime genre. The local crime news is the source of much wonder, angst, confusion and what-the-hell responses on a daily basis. Many Florida Man incidents have originated in the area.

Then why are these stories so bland?

There are some big name writers here. Michael Connelly writes about art theft and an old flame. Tim Dorsey’s 2002 novel Triggerfish Twist appears to have been condensed into a short story with most of the zip edited out. That’s the true crime.

A man who borrowed money and can’t pay it back gets fed to sharks. In “Pablo Escobar” a young immigrant fleeing violence in Colombia learns that it’s not that easy. A sexual predator who happens to be an Air Force officer goes lightly punished. “Marked,” by Gale Massey may be the most tragic and compelling of the collection. It’s about a girl who loses her parents and develops an affinity for weapons.

Some of these stories are written truly, faithfully and were obviously born in the region. In others there’s a bit of geographical name dropping, just so you know for sure it’s set in the area, and no it wasn’t a previously written story shoehorned into Tampa. Maybe. Only one or two of them are really on fire, or even interesting.

This is the only book in this series of original noir stories set in cities around the world, that I have read. I know the Tampa Bay Area so the locales of the stories in this book are familiar, in some of the stories very familiar.
In that respect I enjoyed the book. Some of the featured authors are well known to me and some were new. I realize that noir genre is dark but these, with a few exceptions, seemed dark and depressing. Editor, Colette Bancroft’s story, was good and demonstrated that she should expand her literary output beyond her book reviews.
Read as an ARC from LibraryThing .