San Diego Noir

by Maryelizabeth Hart

“When it’s done right, noir is a darkly delicious thrill: smart, sharp-tongued, surprising. The knife goes in at the end with a twist. San Diego Noir, a new 15-story collection by some of the region’s best writers, has all that going for it, and the steady supply of hometown references makes it even more fun.”
-- San Diego Union-Tribune

Brand-new stories by: T. Jefferson Parker, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Martha Lawrence, Diane Clark & Astrid Bear, Debra Ginsberg, Morgan Hunt, Ken Kuhlken, Taffy Cannon, Don Winslow, Cameron Pierce Hughes, Lisa Brackmann, Gabriel R. Barillas, Gar Anthony Haywood, and Maria Lima.

Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

San Diego is home to miles of beaches, Balboa Park, a world-famous zoo, and some of the country's most expensive home and resort real estate. Yet the city also houses a few items that aren't actively promoted by the visitor's bureau: a number of the country's most corrupt politicians, border-related crimes, terrorists, and the occasional earthquakes. A noir feast!

In the 50-plus years since Raymond Chandler set Playback in Esmeralda, his name for La Jolla, the population has grown by more than a million, and crime has proliferated as well. San Diego of the past and the present offers the book's contributors a rich selection of settings, from the cross on Mount Soledad to the piers of Ocean Beach, and perpetrators and victims from the residents of its wealthiest enclaves to the inhabitants of its segregated barrios.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Noir, Crime

300 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2011

Reviews

[Thomas George Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having lived in San Diego County for over 47 years, these short, crime stories peaked my interest.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can a collection of short stories provide a glimpse of how a city sees itself?

That’s what I was left pondering after reading the latest anthology of urban crime fiction from Akashic Books: San Diego Noir. Comprising 15 stories of murder and mayhem, the collection takes its readers on a tour of our city’s dark side.

These tales of crime and punishment feature plucky detectives circa WWII, National City vatos and a deranged Iraq war veteran who gets a little too attached to a parking space. In Martha C. Lawrence’s beautifully written “Key Witness,” a psychic investigator helps solve the mystery of a beautiful girl found handcuffed to a chain anchored to the bottom of La Jolla Cove. “For one hopeful moment I thought she might be a mermaid, unencumbered as she was by scuba gear. But mermaids don’t wear bikinis.”

Edited by Maryelizabeth Hart, co-owner of Mysterious Galaxy Books, these stories aren’t shy about cozying up to other genres. The discerning reader will find examples of historical fiction, romance, fantasy and the supernatural. But are they noir?

Not necessarily. Although the plots are packed with double crosses, sleazy crime bosses and hardheaded police detectives, few of the stories exhibit the paranoid hysteria that is the hallmark of a noir landscape, where no one can be trusted and danger lurks around every corner. Lisa Brackmann’s “Don’t Feed the Bums” best captures the feeling of unrelenting dread in her depiction of a woman recovering from an unnamed trauma. As she comes to terms with losing her old life and starting a new one, she discovers that her caretakers may not have her best interest at heart.

Taken as a whole, San Diego Noir seems curiously out of touch with the city’s crime blotter. I live in Paradise Hills, which has provided fodder for noir stories in recent weeks with teenage killers luring a young man to his death via craigslist and a bizarre murder/suicide pact that claimed an entire family of four. To be fair, true crime is not noir. Nor does noir have to be set in a rigidly recognizable world to be successful—Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a perfect example of noir that collides with other genres.

However, too many of the writers endeavor to expose the “underbelly” of places that don’t have one, places like Del Mar, Mount Soledad and Rancho Santa Fe. And only one story is set south of Downtown: Luis Alberto Urrea’s “The National City Reparation Society,” a humorous romp that veers between satire and camp.

What does it say about San Diegans that a book that professes to explore the city’s dark side ignores the powder keg of crime, corruption and gruesome violence on the other side of the border?

Perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect dark stories from a place that gets 300 days of sunshine a year, but San Diego Noir feels like a bad day at the beach: washed out, breezy and gray.

***Review originally appeared in San Diego CityBeat: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/ar...***

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

All these mystery stories take place in San Diego, most contemporary, but some set during WWII. Some gems and some clunkers, but the real pleasure comes from the local setting and familiar landmarks. One story is set during Comic Con and another has a brief scene in the Central Library, but my favorite was "Don't Feed the Bums" by Lisa Brackmann. I learned more about San Diego from this book than from living here for 13 years!

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am attracted to fiction set in areas with which I am familiar, so when I spied San Diego Noir on the shelf, I grabbed it. Of course, I was already familiar with Akashic Books' extensive regional noir series, so I knew they had a tradition of publishing high-quality fiction that incorporated good local color. Every story has a setting, but usually, the setting is just that, a place for the story to happen. But with regional/local writing the setting attains almost the status of another character. In the worst regional writing, local names are tossed off with abandon ("Hey, Joe Writer, give us a story set in this dot on the map, and don't forget to Wikipedia it" or as when a "Criminal Minds" episode was supposed to be in Chula Vista, but was obviously lends in L.A.), but in good regional writing, the writer captures not only the geography of the place but its spirit, its genius loci, something not every writer is capable of doing. Fortunately, the editor of this book, Maryelizabeth Hart, co-owner of the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, engaged very good writers, who obviously cared about the locations chosen. As far as the "noir" portion of the book, not every story was true to my personal concept of the sub-genre, but the definition varies from person to person, and none stray vary from from the darkness of the soul that is central to noir. A drawback for me was that San Diego itself was over-represented, with scant attention paid to the south and the outlying east. The story set farthest to the south only went as far as National City; in reality, the closer you get to the Mexican border, the more noir life gets. Still, it's a great book for fans of the sub-genre, and there is always hope for a second volume.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection of 15 short stories noir of San Diego. I like to read a lot of mystery crime books. Reading these stories in my home town drove chills up my arms. Some stories I didn't really care for. I'm not into the casinos, the bounty hunter, and a few others turned me off more than excited me. On the other hand, the description of the beaches, the weather, the kind of shops along beach towns led to many nostalgic moments.

[Blaine Morrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diverse group of stories with San Diego neighborhoods as their common element. Some of the stories are straight "I killed him" types, while others involve twists of a sexual, extranormal, or historic nature.

[Jim A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good collection of noir mystery stories. Some authors I was familiar with, others were new to me. Always good to discover writers who are new to me.

[Billye · Rating 4 out of 5]

San Diego Noir is one of the strongest collections in the entire series. The stories authentically describe and represent each neighborhood. All of the offerings are true noir with one possible exception. When listening to this audiobook, I realized that by its very nature and history, San Diego lends itself to noir. It has a mix of neighborhoods that range from extreme wealth to abject poverty very close together and it also attracts a lot of people who are transient for a wide variety of reasons. San Diego Noir exceeded my expectations. The quality of the writing is exceptional and the details about each location are great. The overall narration performance by Paul Costanzo is very good. However, in a few of the stories, I did not realize that the speaker was a woman right away which impacted my understanding. I would recommend San Diego Noir to anyone who is interested in the genre - this a great choice for first time noir readers as well as those who are steeped in noir already. I would also recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Southern California culture and San Diego in particular.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this collection of books when one of the authors, Cameron Pierce Hughes, asked me on Facebook why I was commenting on so many of his posts (they were showing up in my newsfeed because we both are friends with author Tyler Dilts). Anyway, short story collections aren't usually my thing. But I liked that all of these were set in San Diego, and that they were all mysteries. I liked some more than others, but enjoyed every one. And Cameron, you fooled me all the way through, even though in hindsight, I can see lots of clues to what was going on.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of disparate stories about the place I now call home, San Diego County. Something for everybody in this collection: lesbians, La Raza, fairies, comic-con, surf and beach danger, navy town theme,and the usual wealthy La Jolla murders. Some wrap up neatly, others end up leaving you hanging. Only one or two in this collection that were just ok. Going to have read more of this Noir series set in various geographic locales. Nice and quick reads, just the right length.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful local San Diego authors including Ken Kuhlken, T. Jefferson Parker, Don Winslow ..... What I really liked was the location of the stores, National City (uberra), Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, Comicon. There's something wonderful about knowing exactly how a character is going to walk to Richard Walkers for pancakes.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these little dark short stories, all set in San Diego.

[Karl K · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories with a San Diego locations theme. I thought many of the stories were very good. Some not so good.

[tiddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth shattering or too clever, but plots in most of the stories are solid. The stories are well-written as well, making it a very breezy, enjoyable read.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some pretty good, a few with darker twists that I liked. Watch out if you are dating some of these people!

[Jeanine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolute delight. Its fun to read stories with such familiar locales.

[Jmolentin]

Always fun to read stories set in SD

[Chanpheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, light read.

[Matt Swanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this book. To be fair, one of our cats barfed all over it the night after I started reading it, and I just haven't had a lot of reading time the past few weeks. There just werent many stories that went beyond 'meh' for me. Martha Lawrence's 'Key Witness' was set in La Jolla Cove, which was cool because I've dived there so I had a more vivid picture of the action. Lisa Brackman,Cameron Pierce Hughes and Gar Heywood's stories were good. Otherwise, no story really stood out, although there were only a couple that I did not like at all. The last story seemed very out of place with the rest of the collection, it was a sci fi fantasy take that didnt fit with the rest of the more realistic noir. Love the idea of this place based noir series, but a bit underwhelmed with this one. I liked Phoenix Noir and Mexico City Noir better.

[Gabriela Galescu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mediocre writing at best

I gave it one star because except from the last short story, I somehow managed to read them all.

None of these stories brought me any pleasure, really, but they were not unbearable. Just mediocre writing and quite flat plot lines.

Could not make it page two of the last story, but to be fair, that was science fiction, so maybe that is what made me unable to maintain interest.

[Lucy Condon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real review would be 2.5 stars if an option. Chose this book to read on a recent trip to San Diego as I like the genre and the idea of the short stories being set around the City. I did enjoy the settings being in places that I was visiting as it made the stories feel more real. On the stories themselves, I found that some captured my imagination more than others; some I could not put down and some were more difficult to get into. So some pluses and some minuses!

[Dan Blackley · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this is any indication of what to expect from this series, I'm done with it. These stories were very drab. Gold Shield Blues was one of the better ones, but I felt that if you're going to call your book San Diego Noir, you better have some Noir.

[Jodi Monroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-1/2 ⭐️

[Squeaky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed most of the stories here. It was a surprise to see a story by Astrid Bear, too!
I'm gonna look for other books in this series. I hope the Copenhagen one is in English!

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved the book. gives an interesting story to the neighbourhoods I grew up in.

[Tuxlie]

Brand-new stories by: T. Jefferson Parker, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Martha Lawrence, Diane Clark & Astrid Bear, Debra Ginsberg, Morgan Hunt, Ken Kuhlken, Taffy Cannon, Don Winslow, Cameron Pierce Hughes, Lisa Brackmann, Gabriel R. Barillas, Gar Anthony Haywood, and Maria Lima.Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best sellerBrooklyn Noir,Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.San Diego is home to miles of beaches, Balboa Park, a world-famous zoo, and some of the country's most expensive home and resort real estate. Yet the city also houses a few items that aren't actively promoted by the visitor's bureau: a number of the country's most corrupt politicians, border-related crimes, terrorists, and the occasional earthquakes. A noir feast!In the 50-plus years since Raymond Chandler setPlaybackin Esmeralda, his name for La Jolla, the population has grown by more than a million, and crime has proliferated as well. San Diego of the past and the present offers the book's contributors a rich selection of settings, from the cross on Mount Soledad to the piers of Ocean Beach, and perpetrators and victims from the residents of its wealthiest enclaves to the inhabitants of its segregated barrios.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luved how this book referenced different places in San Diego. And luved how it described what it was like living in San Diego in different time periods. The reason I give this book 3 stars though is because I agree with the other reviews that some of the short stories are good and some of them are just ok. But if you are from San Diego than this will be an enjoyable book.

[Brian Kerr]

I just got back from book signing at Warwick's Books in La Jolla. T. Jefferson Parker, Don Winslow, Debra Ginsberg, Cameron Pierce Hughes, and Gabriel Barillas were there for a very interesting hour. I'm eager to read familiar authors (Jeff & Don) and others as well.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection is a mixed bag, quite honestly. Perhaps it was my frame of mind but I found myself starting one story, and then just... either skipping ahead to the end or skipping it altogether to turn to another story.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were OK. Some were good. Many neighborhoods and communities are represented.