Baltimore Noir [Paperback]

I read a fair amount of crime novels, and lately I've been reading a bit about Baltimore, so I finally got around to picking this anthology of Baltimore-based crime fiction up. Editor (and popular crime novelist) Laura Lippman provides a quick and dirty rundown on Baltimore's literary claims to fame and why it makes for a good noir setting. (Although she errs in naming St. Louis and Baltimore as the only "major" U.S. cities not to lie in a county, Washington D.C. is a third.) In any event, she divides the sixteen stories into three roughly equal parts:

The first section is "The Way Things Used to Be," and its five stories are united by their illustration of the tension between contemporary Baltimore and its history. Lippman's own contribution, "Easy as A-B-C," kicks things off with a bittersweet look at gentrification. After reading it, you may never look at your contractor the same way. Screenwriter Robert Ward's story "Fat Chance" is about a Hollywood screenwriter who revisits his childhood neighborhood, and sure enough, runs into demons from his past. Jack Bludis's "Pigtown Will Shine Tonight" is set immediately after WWII and features Lithuanian displaced persons trying to assimilate and facing new dangers. In Rob Hiassen's "Over My Dead Body," a smalltime newspaper reporter meets the evil face of gentrification as his favorite Fell's Point bar is threatened with a buyout. Finally, the retired cop in Rafael Alvarez' s"The Invisible Man" recollects a murder among the Greeks of Highlandtown in the early '60s.

Section II is "The Way Things Are," and who better to kick off this contemporary set of stories than Lippman's husband, David Simon, who is best known as the creator of The Wire. His contribution about a scrap-metal hustler and stressed cops is solid, but also exactly the same as Bubs' story arc from season 4 of The Wire. Marcia Talley's "Home Movies" is a nice take on the touristy Inner Harbor, as a woman waits to meet up with a sailboat, with unexpected consequences. In Joseph Wallace's "Liminal," a nice Jewish girl runs afoul of a predatory pornographer, again, with unexpected results. Lisa France's "Almost Missed it By a Hair" is a kind of blah cozy murder case, set at a hairdressing expo. Charlie Stella's "Ode to the O's" is a colorful tribute to Baltimore's wiseguys (and the hometown baseball team). Sarah Weinman's "Don't Walk In Front of Me" introduces an ex-con bookstore clerk to Baltimore's Jewish elite and their dirty secrets.

The final section is "The Way Things Never Were," and as the title suggests, the stories in it lean a little more heavily on artifice. For example, Dan Fesperman (who's novels I've quite enjoyed), contributes "As Seen On TV," a limply predictable story about a Balkan hitman who's psyched to do a job in Baltimore because "Homicide" is his favorite TV show. Much better is Tim Cockey's "The Haunting of Slink Ridgely," about a milkman's ghost and the girl who mourns him. Jim Fusilli's "The Homecoming," about a single father and his daughter visiting Baltimore, is also quite good, although it depends on a major coincidence. Ben Neihart's "Frog Cycle" is a weird little tale of genetically engineered frogs amidst the city's new biotech firms. Finally, Sujata Massey's "Goodwood Gardens," outlines the perils of becoming nouveau riche and what one housewife does to fight back.

Like pretty much every anthology, it's a very mixed bag and most readers will have their own favorites. However, there are only four of the bunch I could really recommend reading (Lippman's, Simon's, Stella's, and Cockey's), while the rest are fairly forgettable to downright weak. Does the book impart a good sense of Baltimore? On the whole I guess I'd say yes, simply because it does range across the city and give the reader a taste of its diversity. That said, the city is roughly 2/3 African-American, but only two of the protagonists in the sixteen stories are identifiably black, so clearly we're not getting the full picture here.

I enjoy crime fiction and especially enjoy various types of the noir genre. While most of the stories in this anthology do involve crime, none strike me as really noir and few are even of the mystery/whodunnit type. The collection of stories varies widely in style and probably many people would find something to like in it. But I think the title is a misnomer - and would not recommend it for someone looking for a more traditional (or even contemporary spin on) noir.

A lot of very good reads. Her own about a relationship in Locust Point is quite good. Followers of "The Wire" will recognize Simon's Short Story. The two best stories are one about a Female Hitperson set around the Aquarium, and the "Ghost of ...". Both stories are great but the latter story seems very real, and made me ache for the Main Female Character.

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