Janine Armin

As a fan of the noir genre, I am thrilled that Akashic Books’ first entry in the “noir project” (Brooklyn Noir) became sufficiently successful that it now has over 30 anthologies in the series, and counting. Starting with my home town, Toronto, I will be working my way through these collections of themed short stories as time and finance permits.

For those not familiar with this series, all the stories in a given anthology are noir in style and set in the particular city named in the title. For example, in this anthology the stories are set in the various neighbourhoods of Toronto: The Beaches, East York, Yorkville, Distillery District, etc. Writers known for setting their novels in Toronto were approached to contribute. Thus we have noted authors such as Gail Bowen, Peter Robinson, Pasha Malla, and George Elliott Clarke giving us gritty peaks into the strangeness and the malevolence lurking in Toronto the Good.

I found this to be an uneven collection of stories. Some work better than others. But the first criteria, the framework, I used to judge the worthiness of the story in this collection is if it is truly noir. The definition I use is:
- a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak/sleazy settings.
- spare, tight writing; hard-boiled
- evoking the style of film noir

Most of these stories, some dark, some excellent in their own right, are not noir. That said, reading these short stories is still an excellent way to sample rising and established Canadian authors. Their styles are as diverse as their origins and subject matter. I encourage you to seek out their longer works if you find their offering here to be of interest.

The first story is by Arthur Ellis Award winner Gail Bowen. The King of Charles Street West is ordinary woman who gathers the courage to face her 40-year-old demons. It is also a loving reminiscence of the Toronto that was. Those of us of a certain age will recognize references to Winston’s restaurant and the Toronto Nut House (the food not the people), and quotes from former mayors used as section breaks.

Walking the Dog by Peter Robinson (of the Inspector Banks series) is an excellent story about how lives can intersect in unexpected ways and, sometime, justice is done as well. A bored wife, a dog-walking actor, and a jealous, “connected” husband provide Detective Bobby Aiken with a puzzle with several missing pieces.

George Elliott Clarke, noted novelist, has written Numbskulls, a story about “three lads [who] could still drink to the acme of absurdity”. In lurid language he tells the tale of requiting love even though the object of his desire is dead. Things do not end well.

Set in Little India, Pasha Malla’s Filmsong is a powerful, moving story of filial loyalty and the far-reaching hand of local corruption.

Written by poet Michael Redhill, A Bout of Regret is the only truly noir story in this collection. It starts with a simple tale of a cheating wife, her cop husband, and the bar owner lover. Clean, strong writing builds the suspense sentence by sentence, layer by layer as we being to see where this might lead.

The story Brianna South by RM Vaughn takes a fresh approach. Told as diary excerpts from a teen Hollywood starlet, it is a humorous satire of the self-involved celebrity and their publicity machine. The diary is published in a local paper after her disappearance. As we read it, we see her develop a relationship with and become infatuated with a secret admirer. Eventually he tells her his name: Azrael. Very funny stuff.

As good as some of these stories are, they are not noir style. For this reason alone, I don’t think they should have been included in this collection. I would still encourage you to read them to discover writers new to you.

Midnight Shift by Raywat Deonandan is a well-written ghost story told by a dying man from Guyana where he was a pandit of Kali. A pair of doctors find him in an unoccupied room. He is driven to tell them his story before Yama (Death) comes to claim him that night.

Can’t Buy Me Love by Christine Murray. An ad exec takes pity on a stranded young woman at Union Station. Tables turn and soon it is the executive who may need rescuing.

Sic Transit Gloria at the Transit Loop by Sean Dixon tells the rambling tale of a struggling bass-playing musician dealing with a complication from having an affair with an (un)married woman.

Lab Rats by Ibi Kaslik is a disturbing story of a former ad man who quit his job to go to grad school. He now finds himself impoverished and signs up for an experiment at CAMH, for the money. The effects are unexpected, both for him and his girlfriend.

In The Emancipation of Christine Alpert by Nathan Sellyn, a wife plans revenge Socratic-style for her husband’s infidelity. The way into the story, first through a neighbour’s grief and then through the wife’s anxiety attacks is over long and is not balanced by the final paragraph’s conclusion.

The grief of a miscarriage drives Beth and Paul to take a trip to Ecuador with unexpected consequences in Wanted Children by Heather Birrell.

Tom by Andrew Pyper is a mediation on the relationship between a peeper and the one on whom he peeps.

A Taste of Honey by Kim Moritsugu. This is an excellent, tightly written story with strong thread of dry humour. Struggling actress meets successful ingénue whom she used to mentor in an acting class. Macabre fun. Imagine it read by Sandra Oh’s character, Christine Yang.



About the Authors
In the back of the book are summary descriptions of the authors, noting the awards for which they were nominated (and won), and the title of their most popular works. Of course, you could just look them up in Wikipedia.org or FantasticFiction.co.uk.
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For the uninitiated, Akashic Books is a small publisher who has found a niche in producing a series of short story collections, each set in a different city or location and featuring writers who live or have some connection to that area. The stories are all noirish in tone, although that depends largely on what each guest editor interprets as noir. The quality of these collections is generally uneven, depending largely on the available writer population. Despite all that, or maybe because of it, I like the series. I usually finish a book with new authors to look into and a few to now avoid.

This book, which was edited by Janine Armin, was a good addition to the Akashic Noir collection. There were solid stories from well known authors Peter Robinson and Andrew Pyper as well as from less prominent writers like Gail Bowen and Michael Redhill. There were a few lackluster entries, including one I could not finish (hint: don't write in dialect unless you are very, very good at it. And maybe not even then). Some of the stories used the Toronto setting as integral to the plot, others just referenced place names.… (more)