Whenever I read a wide-ranging (in years) collection like this, I have my favorites and - well - not so favorites. This book was no different.

I will say that mystery,crime and noir genres tend to overlap. So expect some violent and immoral behavior. And no happy endings.

Some Favs:

Gun Crazy
Mackinlay Kantor
I am a fan of the film adaptation first, but the short story puts a different spin on things. Two childhood friends meet in a scene involving a toy gun. One grows up to be an outlaw, and bank robber (the love interest from the movie is in here too). But, even in his love of guns, he harbnors a secret that is his undoing.

A Ticket Out
Brendan Dubois
I discovered Dubois in this collection, and what a find! Two friends dream of a way to break loose from a small town in rural New England. They choose burglary as their means of escape ( a porr choice). Things naturally go awry, and choices must be made.

Iris
Stephen Greenleaf
Reads like Mickey Spillane novel, but not a knock-off.

(A story by Spillane is in here as well. Also includes stories by heavyweights Dorothy B Hughes (a noir pioneer and icon!), Patricia Highsmith, James Cain, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke and Jim Thompson.)

Midnight Emissions
F.X. Toole
A grim look into the world of boxing and grooming championship contenders.

Out There in the Darkness
Ed Gorman
This story has been made into a movie, The Poker Club. Poker friends make one ill-advised choice after another, and the consequences threaten their very lives.

( )

"Spurs," by Tod Robbins (1923): 4
- its outdated and contemporaneously offensive language about dwarves would be tolerable--in a product of its time type of way--if it wasn't for the fact that the story itself believes these things to be true, at least to the extent that the dwarf is largely carnivorous, wanton, and lechery incarnate. Moreover, this is a fable poorly done and one whose 'whoa' line (he's using spurs on her) goes nowhere because we have no credible or believable characters or narrative developments to attach them to.

"Pastorale," by James Cain (1928): 9.5
- It's just good.

"Controlled Burn," by Scott Wolven (2002): 8.75
- These 'noir' stories are difficult to grasp. If anything, they resemble 'horror,' in that the genre name describes a mood, although, an important difference, is that that mood belongs to the reader and not the characters. They could be 'in' any number of situations: although, from what I've gathered, it's most likely to be some sort of 'crime' or 'mystery' scenario, although I also sense that the ones deemed especially good, or 'literary' in the genre, depict some context much more akin to what I could call disturbed reflection. That's surely the case here, in which a clearly troubled, if coherent and seemingly functional, young man works rough under the table with some very well drawn white working-class characters [esp. the alcoholic handyman and the bitter old man growing pot in his yard ~ these are all real people, with ticks sketched out nicely, including the mix of taciturnity and spontaneous compassion/revelation *giving the kid money at the end was good*, and the close, corrupt relationship between the cop and the old man], trying to wait out some crime, until he decides to run out in the midst of a large crop burn]. Apart from the muddy ending (what are we saying about identity there?), it does something hard: simultaneously a concise psychological and characterological study. And, hit some of the noir beats you'd want/expect, z.B. the terse, world-weary dialogue (as in pointing at the run-down shack and saying 'well, people who live in that don't often stay married long').

This giant compilation of noir stories was put together by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler. At 752 pages and thirty-nine stories this book is a veritable who’s who in noir fiction. Authors from Jim Thompson, James M Cain, Patricia Highsmith and Joyce Carol Oates are all included as are many authors that I knew nothing or very little about. I love noir so I enjoyed pretty much every story but it was a fairly dark and at times depressing read. Of course everyone’s taste varies but there were a few stories that really stood out for me.

The chilling Iris (1984) by Stephen Greenleaf about baby stealing and selling, the dark Nothing to Worry About (1945) by Day Keene in which a man plots to murder his wife, and the clever and convoluted Man in the Dark (1952) by Howard Browne all grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. These authors aren’t very well known but they all had a history of writing pulp fiction and then becoming successful television and film script writers. Another story that I wouldn’t want to read when I was home alone was Out There In the Dark by Ed Gorman. These stories are not just by authors from the past, some of today’s leading mystery writers such as James Lee Burke and Tom Franklin are also included in this book.

This is a wonderful collection of stories by various authors that all used a dark plot, tone and theme to illustrate seriously flawed people who are put in morally questionable situations through greed, lust, jealousy and alienation. Noir is a hard genre to define but this collection leans toward the dark and oppressive, twisting both it’s characters and it’s reader into knots but giving us plenty to relish. This is a great collection for both established fans of noir and for those looking for an introduction to this genre. ( )

It is hard to review a collection of short stories (do you rate based on the average ratings of all the stories or how you felt of the book as a whole?). This collection of Noir short stories, is well worth reading for all Noir and Hard-Boiled fans. Full of grittiness, vengeance, murder and macabre; I loved every minute of this book.

Individual Breakdown of the Short Stories
Spurs by Tod Robbins (1923) -- 3/5
Pastorale by James M. Cain (1928) -- 4/5
You'll Always Remember Me by Steve Fisher (1938) -- 5/5
Gun Crazy by Mackinlay Kantor (1940) -- 4/5
Nothing to Worry About by Day Keene (1945) -- 5/5
The Homecoming by Dorothy B. Hughes (1946) -- 3/5
Man in the Dark by Howard Browne (1952) -- 5/5
The Lady Says Die! by Mickey Spillane (1953) -- 4/5
Professional Man by David Goodis (1953) -- 5/5
The Gesture by Gil Brewer (1956) -- 3/5
The Last Spin by Evan Hunter (1956) -- 4/5
Forever After by Jim Thompson (1960) -- 3/5
For the Rest of Her Life by Cornell Woulrich (1968) -- 4/5
The Dripping by David Morrell (1972) -- 4/5
Slowly, Slowly in the Wind by Patricia Highsmith (1979) -- 5/5
Iris by Stephen Greenleaf (1984) -- 4/5
A Ticket Out by Brendan Dubois (1987) -- 4/5
Since I Don't Have You by James Ellroy (1988) -- 4/5
Texas City, 1947 by James Lee Burke (1991) -- 3/5
Mefisto in Onyx by Harlan Ellison (1993) -- 4/5
Out There in the Darkness by Ed Gorman (1995) -- 4/5
Hot Springs by James Crumley (1996) -- 4/5
The Weekend by Jeffery Deaver (1996) -- 4/5
Like a Bone in the Throat by Lawrence Block (1998) -- 5/5
Crack by James W. Hall (1999) -- 4/5
Running Out of Dog by Dennis Lehane (1999) -- 3/5
The Paperhanger by William Gay (2000) -- 3/5
Midnight Emissions by F. X. Toole (2001) -- 4/5
When the Women come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard (2002) -- 4/5
Controlled Burn by Scott Wolven (2002) -- 3/5
What She Offered by Thomas H. Cook (2005) -- 4/5
Her Lord and Master by Andrew Klavan (2005) -- 4/5
Stab by Chris Adrian (2006) -- 3/5
The Hoarder by Bradford Morrow (2006) -- 3/5
Missing the Morning Bus by Lorenzo Carcaterra (2007) --3/5 ( )

Noir mysteries from the early 1900s through 2009. Some were good. Some were OK. Some weren't even noir. ( )