If you’re a fan of shadowy crime fiction, local authors, and
well-written literature, then Kansas City Noir is a book you’ll definitely want to add to your reading list.
Just published in October as part of a noir series by
Akashic Books and edited by Steve Paul, senior writer and arts editor for the
Kansas City Star newspaper, Kansas City
Noir is an anthology of 14 new stories by some of this area’s fiction
masters.
Contributors include Daniel Woodrell, the seasoned author of
Winter’s Bone and several other
novels, Mitch Brian, a screenwriting and film studies professor at the
University of Missouri – Kansas City, and Nadia Pflaum, a former reporter for The
Pitch newspaper who now works as an investigator for the Midwest Innocence
Project.
With such an eclectic group of talent, the variety of
stories and writing styles showcased in Kansas
City Noir is exceptional. Even
better, the collection does not have the regurgitated feel of “typical noir.” Instead, each piece, with its specific
setting and distinctly twisted characters, leaves its own unique gritty
impression on the reader.
Some stories, such as Grace Suh’s Mission Hills Confidential, have a very suburban vibe while other
selections, like Nadia Pflaum’s Charlie
Price’s Last Supper, have a more urban feeling. Each selection offers an edgy cast of characters,
ranging from children of serial killers to police officers in turmoil, and as
for subject matter, everything from missing persons to arson is explored.
Picking any standouts from Kansas City Noir would be hard because every tale is so deliciously
disturbing and cynical. Nancy Pickard’s Lightbulb does a great job of examining
remorse and retaliation. Linda Rodriguez
and Catherine Browder add strong character conflict to the mix, and Andrés Rodríguez
blows a smoky cloud of Kansas City history our way in Milton’s Tap Room.
Although Kansas City
Noir barely tops 200 pages and is conveniently organized into three
distinct sections (Heartland, Crazy Little Women and Smoke and Mirrors), it is
not necessarily a fast read. Additionally,
if you are the type of person who prefers light mysteries and tidy endings, don’t
expect that in this compilation.
Kansas City Noir
is more of a book that makes you ponder.
After finishing a selection, you find yourself wondering, “What would I do in that situation,” or “Would I ever take things that far.” In fact, Kansas
City Noir’s hook is that it intriguingly gets you to spend as much time
thinking about stories as you do reading them.
If you’re interested in discovering some talented area
authors, exploring the murky noir genre, and want to enjoy some well-crafted
fiction, Kansas City Noir is an
anthology worth checking out.
