London Noir

by Cathi Unsworth (Editor, Introduction, Contributo), Desmond Barry (Contributor), Ken Bruen (Contributor)

Brand-new stories by: Desmond Barry, Ken Bruen, Stewart Home, Barry Adamson, Michael Ward, Sylvie Simmons, Daniel Bennett, Cathi Unsworth, Max Décharné, Martyn Waites, Joolz Denby, John Williams, Jerry Sykes, Mark Pilkington, Joe McNally, Patrick McCabe, and Ken Hollings.

Cathi Unsworth moved to Ladbroke Grove in 1987 and has stayed there ever since. She began a career in rock writing with Sounds and Melody Maker, before co-editing the arts journal Purr and then Bizarre magazine. Her first novel, The Not Knowing, was published by Serpent’s Tail in August 2005.


CONTENTS
Backgammon / Desmond Barry --
Loaded / Ken Bruen --
Rigor Mortis / Stewart Home --
Maida Hell / Barry Adamson --
I fought the lawyer / Michael Ward --
I hate his fingers / Sylvie Simmons --
Park rites / Dan Bennett --
Trouble is an lonesome town / Cathi Unsworth --
Chelsea three, Scotland Yard nil / Max Décharné --
Love / Martin Waites --
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi / Joolz Denby --
New rose / John Williams --
Penguin Island / Jerry Sykes --
She'll ride a white horse / Mark Pilkington --
South / Joe McNally --
Who do you know in heaven? / Patrick McCabe --
Betamax / Ken Hollings.

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

280 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

Cathi Unsworth moved to Ladbroke Grove in 1987 and has stayed there ever since. She began a career in rock writing with Sounds and Melody Maker, before co-editing the arts journal Purr and then Bizarre magazine. Her first novel, The Not Knowing, was published by Serpent's Tail in August 2005.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

And here's another installment of Akashic's NOIR city anthology series knocked down. This time out, it's good old London - spent about 2 days there, eons ago but who doesn't know London, eh? I skipped the introduction this time around, after it started getting thick into the symbolic language...

No out and out stinkers this time, but as usual, the definition of "noir" is vague enough to encompass everything here. On the "weak" side we have: "Backgammon" by Desmond Barry to, unfortunately, open the book with a screenwriter accidentally meeting up with an old friend who disappeared into the drug-dealing life 25 years ago. Essentially, as it's all (well-done, mind you) authentic-type character history and city setting, retroactive past and passive memories, the actual lack of anything resembling a plot (believe me, nowhere fast is an understatement), makes it all seem like weak Lit, or a bit of a wasted opportunity. Sylvie Simmons's "I Hate His Fingers" has a bitter, divorced, semi-ventriloquistic (you'd have to read it) psychiatrist treating (and becoming enamored of) a beautiful young woman who thinks her bass-playing husband is up to no good. Which the psychiatrist sets out to prove. This story kind of promised more than it delivered, what with the oddly lurid set-up and quick turn into sub-Tales From The Crypt body horror. Again on the "not really a story" tip we have a detailed character sketch of an unbalanced stalker moving through a public park in "Park Rites". And Dan Bennett certainly succeeds in making you feel *something* is going to happen, but sadly, it will occur after the story ends.

On the "good but a little flawed" docket are roughly half the stories here. Ken Bruen's breezy "Loaded" features a sharp, small-time operator who keeps under the radar until he gets a crush on an unlikely girl. A solid voice moves this crime story along at a fast clip. "Trouble Is A Lonely Town" by the editor has a sneak-thief turned corrupt PI fall under the glamour of a Russian/Somali beauty with whom (to his regret) he plans a smash-and-grab (sorry to say, the noir cliche of the femme fatale is overplayed a bit in this collection). Familiar but solid. London during the punk rock explosion is the setting for Max Décharné's "Chelsea Three, Scotland Yard Nil" and while this provides for some invigorating scene-setting and "historical moment" detail to the story of random murder and film journalism, the plot itself struck me as a bit thin. In a similar vein "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi", set in the 80s, follows a rising young band from the Hinterlands as they hit the big time and the big city, only to discover the eternal truth of the cost behind young dreams and the existence of the tawdry underbelly. Not bad work by Joolz Denby but, again, didn't function as a plotted story so much as the sketch of an idea delivered as a monologue. Jerry Sykes' "Penguin Island", meanwhile, is the sad tale of an aging, mild-mannered pensioner who befriends a teenager, only to find his apartment taken over by a young thugs. More on the "Lit" side of things, as the ending never specifically resolves, but a good read. Meanwhile, the ritualistic, mutilation deaths of children and their connection to Yoruban magical beliefs are investigated by a detective who's highly susceptible to suggestion in "She'll Ride A White Horse" by Mark Pilkington. This was okay but it struck me that it needed to be a little longer, and deeper in character work, to pull off the ending. Joe McNally's "South" is an odd one in execution, following a young author and self-described "psychogeographer" into the London Underground on a mission of inspiration. Not bad, but the story doesn't end so much as stop (again, that Lit conceit) and the tone is weird - overly self-conscious to the point of deprecating, yet not afraid to sling pretension around. "Who Do You Know In Heaven" is a stream-of-consciousness narrative from an IRA man sent to London to kill a politician, but who gets caught up in his troubled memories and drugs (or mental illness) that cloud the whole endeavor.

A short clutch of solidly Good stories are also to be found. A talented pickpocket and part-time magician stumbles into the perfect blackmail opportunity in Michael Ward's "I Fought The Lawyer" - unfortunately, he's over his head in dealing with the powerful. In "New Rose" by John Williams a minicab driver is offered a fat paycheck to track down his dissolute, alcoholic bandmate for a reunion gig, but finding the man forces him to face his own personal failure and success. This is a good example of a perfectly fine story that doesn't really fit in this collection, as it's not really "noir" and even any "crime" is incidental. "Betamax" offers another oddity this anthology series often dabbles in, as it's a hybrid genre story, here a crime/sf piece - a mashup of J.G. Ballard and some gestures towards William S. Burroughs - where an off-world assassin is sent into the cold, mechanical world of high finance London in order to settle an intergalactic debt. Neat work by Ken Hollings.

Three stories here were really top notch. "Rigor Mortis" by Stewart Home is a dark monologue, a textbook example of how corrupt authority figures - here a police coroner - self-justify their way through life, creating a hideous class system where the the death of a junkie prostitute is nothing worth getting bothered over. Similarly, Martyn Waites "Love" is the familiar tale - sadly, coming soon to your neighborhood any moment now - of how under-employed, disaffected youth are turned to Nazi-sympathies and racist hatred by conniving, local politicians out to further their own ends. Self-hatred is only the cherry on the top. I considered possibly picking this up for the PSEUDOPOD fiction podcast but eventually decided that - grim, sad and prescient as it is - I couldn't really justify it as "horror."

Finally, I've long been a fan of musician Barry Adamson, ex-member of Nick Cave's BAD SEEDS, whose noir-tinged jazz and dark rock - think of a black, English Tom Waits - has informed many albums (for example, listen to his poetic character sketch of a schizophrenic gangster "Split" or the brutal narrative anthem of identity "Still I Rise"). So I was very happy to find here a fiction piece by him, "Maida Hell", which offers a panoramic slice of squalor while it tracks a figure making his way through the dregs of the big city, rubbing elbows with the filth. I've long planned a "Noir Showcase" for the PSEUDOPOD podcast, and this tale may just be the final piece...even better if I could get him to record it himself! We shall see (I'll return with a link if things work out).

[Stewart Home · Rating 5 out of 5]

One reason you may be interested in London Noir is because I have a piece entitled "Rigor Mortis" in here, but there's far more to the book than just that. Sylvie Simmons's contribution will instantly appeal to those who like my novels because it features a ventriloquist dummy that seems to come to life (a trope I used in "69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess") and feeders who get off sexually on fattening up women (a kink also addressed in my novel "Come Before Christ & Murder Love"). This Simmon's piece is probably my favourite among the many extremely strong contributions to the anthology, aside from my own of course! There's some punk riffs going off here, try Max Decharne and John Williams (both friends of mine but I'm not biased, I know a good story when I read it regardless of who wrote it). Desmond Barry and Ken Bruen have the drugs angle covered. Michael Ward, Jerry Sykes and editor Cathi Unsworth do the sex industry from various angles. Barry Adamson goes for priests, Dan Bennett sexual abuse.Mark Pilkington and Joe McNally provide the most obviously occult and psychogeographical contributitions. Patrick McCabe and Ken Hollings both do paranoid "terrorists" extremely well. And that covers pretty much all the book, and certainly everything worth mentioning except for the Martyn Wates story "Love". This last features a neo-Nazi homophobe who discovers he's gay (in this instance in the arms of a black drug dealer). Tales featuring this twist have been popular in the UK since at least the time neo-Nazi pin-up boy Nicky Crane came out as gay and renounced fascism. A song from the mid-eighties by The Apostles called "Fucking Queer" is the earliest use of this particular trope I can think of right now. But Wates adds a twist by taking inspiration from current British headlines. All the stories in this book, as well as all others in the Noir series published by Akashic Books, have different writers contribute new and original stories that deal with different parts of a city. And it isn't chance that leads Wates to set his tale in Dagenham, the neighbourhood abutting Barking.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stories in this series are supposed to evoke the spirit of a city while showing its gritty, noir underbelly. Almost without exception the stories in this particular collection make London sound like Hell's Kitchen in NYC in the days when the Westies were running wild and cutting off people's fingers for the fun of it. It's a really violent, sadistic read. If I got paid a quarter for everytime I read the words f**k and c**t, i could take myself out for a nice dinner.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's something to the idea that certain disctinctive genres can only legitimately be created in their own era. Hard-bop Jazz from the 40s/50s, for example, really doesn't sound right when it comes from earnest practitioners in the eighties, or for that matter in 2010. Nothing against playing the standards of other eras, in whatever medium-- otherwise how could we hear Mozart, witness Shakespeare... But writing a new enlightenment-era Concerto di Camera in this millenium, say, is more of a student's excercise than a likely shot at something that will last.

And so to Noir. It's a feel, it's a tension, it's a period-infused vibe. Everyone loves the brilliant grit of the films, the impending-disaster in the tone of the novels and short stories. Hammet, Chandler, Cain--- lesser-knowns like Chester Himes and Derek Raymond-- all had an ear for the desperate-loner-in-a-tight-squeeze, the knack for pacing hard and fast-- that their form required, but they had more. They had instant access to the deep ennui of a morally exhausted postwar generation, and a kind of effortless anti-art-direction, that took minimalism to a deeper level.

Something a bit difficult to translate in the late nineties or early 2ooos, and something certainly impossible to fake. And even that knowing / modernist tone only gets you so far.

I don't want to sound discouraging about London Noir, which is a page-turning noir-ish rave of a collection. Seventeen authors, full of pulpy spirit and tricky plot strategems, this is a fast ride that doesn't flag. And to be fair, odds are that at least half the contributors didn't know they'd be sandbagged with the 'Noir' title in the first place. But many here can't help themselves, layering homage, pastiche and parody into every crack in the landscape. With a spade.

With that particular landscape being the UK urban idiom, it helps to know your Spivs from your Toffs, avoid the Hoodrats and Wideboys, but most of all steer clear of the Hard Men. Come to think of it, all of the London-centric terms actually help to make this collection a lot more enjoyable. I can't help but think these same stories would tie themselves in knots if they were located in Chicago or Los Angeles, where they'd have to distance themselves from the Noirists of the classical era....

Here's a droll moment from one of the more out-front pastiche entries :

"As dumps go," she'll remark, looking around at the room, "this is a dump. Who do you suppose did the decorating ? The Three Stooges ?"
But you're already staring at the body on the bed.
"Is that your contact?" she'll say.
You'll nod.
"What happened?"
"Electrocuted."
"You can tell by just looking?"

All in all, loads of fun, but no more serious a pursuit than, say, Kabbalism as told by Madonna, or maybe Alpine Telemark Skiing, on the majestic indoor slopes of Dubai.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a fanatically dark and grimy collection. So many "have potential" stories just wish that they'd been developed further.

The London here is not a city anyone might want to be in. Or walk through. Drive through nor live in.

The collection read like the "Wild Wild West" where thugs ran the streets, bodies dropped from the sky and the law enforcers left the residents on their own.

A tad dissapointed in the delivery. As much as the Noir series is dark and violent with tragically flawed characters, this collection was too muddy with a lot of red herrings.

I am not giving up on this crime subgenre and am looking forward to the Noir series from Lagos, Addis Ababa, Accra, Nairobi and Marrakesh. I read Joburg Noir a few weeks ago and I was stupendously enthralled by the curation of the stories and the myriad of themes covered.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

London Noir Capital Crime Fiction bejesus
Mon, June 01,2009 07:08:47AM
Edited by Cathi Unsworth.

This collection of short stories is edited by
Cathi Unsworth and features many writers that I
either already read or who I have seen live and
bought records by which made this a pretty sure
bet.
The fact that many of the stories feel more like
opening chapters or in some cases middle
chapters of longer works is to be expected, but
worth getting for Rigor Mortis by Stuart Home
and Maida Hill by Barry Adamson alone, the
latter of which is a good description of an area
not far from here and its debauchery though I
want to read the rest of the story that it seems
to be a small part of.
Sylvie Simmons I hate His Fingers is very much
in the same style as her Too Weird For Ziggy
novel and made me laugh a fare bit at her
description of the Bass Player whose fingers she
hates.
Surprisingly Cathi Unsworths own story Trouble
Is A Lonesome town was one of the weaker parts
of the book and also suffered from using the
same character names as her excellent The Singer
novel, but not being the same characters.
Max Decharne writes as he looks like a proper
50's throwback and I want to read more by him as
well as get more of his records.
Not suprisingly Jooz Denby's Sic Transit Gloria
Mundi is the least London centric but is in true
Joolz style essential reading and very funny and
believeable story that should be part of a novel.
I even managed to read some of Jerry Sykes
Penguin Island while sitting on Penguin Island
itself deep in the heart of Camden.
Ken Hollings contribution Betamax is by far the
most bizarre and off the wall of the stories.
All in this is a good collection of stories
about London that wasn't too hard to read.

[Kim (BritishLass929) · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories contain a side of London that the Olympics don't want you to see. This is the third book I've read in the series, and the joy is discovering the demographics of each neighborhood while still being entertained by the story. Being an American, I had to research many of the terms, because it's British slang. That slowed me down and became a distraction in some of the stories. A few of them actually ventured into sci-fi I'd say, which really isn't my genre. But I did enjoy it, as I'm enjoying the whole series.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really patchy selection – and two or three are not crime stories at all. Two or three I found boring. Quite liked Penguin Island (Jerry Sykes), Park Rites (Daniel Bennett), I Fought the Lawyer (Michael Ward), Barry Adamson's impressionistic Maida Hell, Rigor Mortis (Stewart Home) was believably bleak and Loaded (Ken Bruen).

[Ellen Herbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am hooked on this series by Akashic Press. These stories are edited well and focus alot on the London of Camden Town, the punk movement and the dark, grimy bedsits and clubs where petty crime, drugs, disappointment and the disaffected youth collide. Recognized several of the writers and am exploring some of the others.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are gritty, violent and thoroughly noir. But these stories are completely modern as well. No double crossin' dames who get taken down with a harsh word or a look from Mike Hammer. The characters in these stories are 20th century crooks and punks, taking advantage of every opportunity to get theirs. A good read, but keep the lights on and the doors locked. Whew! Scary.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

there are some great stories in here, and some less great but a really good collection and a chance to sample some writers I meant to get around to.

[Okenwillow · Rating 1 out of 5]

[Vous pouvez lire mon avis sur mon blog, merci :)]

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Άνισο. Το διήγημα δεν είναι εύκολη φόρμα. Αρκετά είναι καλογραμμένα, αρκετά έχουν μια πολύ καλή ιδέα, αλλά τα περισσότερα δεν κλείνουν ικανοποιητικά. Κάποια είναι πάρα πολύ καλά (New Rose, I Fought the Lawer, Penguin Island). To Noir, είναι λίγο τραβηγμένος χαρακτηρισμός γι' αυτή τη συλλογή.

[Gabriela Galescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elgant writing

Most stories are very well written. Throughout the book London is more than just a location, it is a meaningful presence in the story.

I would expect this book to please most readers of short stories as long as they don't dislike a bit of "noir".

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandonné à 75%
J'ai beaucoup de mal avec les nouvelles de base mais alors là... certaines sont vraiment sans queue ni tête. On essaye d'entrer dans l'univers et on y sort direct. Plus aucun plaisir de lire, je laisse tomber.

[Ronn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a few clinkers in this collection; there always are in anthologies like this. But on the whole, I found a greater percentage of the stories to be coherent and well written than in the other books in the Noir series that I have read.

[Sidney אוֹר · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thoughts, early on, are that its the best writing I've encountered in several years from writers in the 1990s... Actually, it very refreshing to encounter native-English-speakers great facility. And, Cathy U's Intro is superb.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 2 out of 5]

nothing special.

[Sonia Caillou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Des nouvelles au style et à l'attrait inégaux.

[Fiorella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Londra è ombra e nebbia. Londra è infestata dai fantasmi.
Londra è il noir per eccellenza

[L'atelier de Litote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pendant le Blitz en février 1942, la vie nocturne de Londres s’organise entre les bombardements, les abris antiaériens, les clubs, les pubs et tout autre lieu qui pourrait divertir et faire penser à autre chose qu’à la guerre. Dans toute cette foule, il y a bien entendu des profiteurs, escrocs, journalistes, médiums etc Une faune bien connue de l’Inspecteur Greenaway qui va enquêter sur un tueur en série qui a pour proie de belles blondes.
J’ai été surprise par la structure de ce thriller noir qui nous offre deux enquêtes pour le prix d’une sur une période de deux semaines. La première intrigue trouve rapidement sa résolution à la moitié du livre et on poursuit avec un autre meurtrier pour la seconde partie. Le tout est accompagné de personnages plus ou moins insignifiants dont je sais déjà qu’aucun ne me restera en mémoire. Nous suivons ainsi une procédure policière pas très compliquée menée par l’inspecteur Greenaway dont on ne connaît pas grand-chose. Le récit reste linéaire jusqu’aux deux dénouements, pas de rebondissements ou de twists simplement une fiction tirée à partir de faits réelles. Celui de « l’Eventreur du couvre feu » reste très léger même si l’auteur tente d’insérer d’autres personnages secondaires pour étoffer l’intrigue avec des histoires de gangsters et de prostituées. Ce qui m’a le plus manqué c’est de ne pas trouver de suspense. Il faut souligner un travail de recherche important donnant une crédibilité à cette période spéciale du Blitz. Il semblerait qu’il y est eu une augmentation considérable des crimes dans la capitale à ce moment là. Superbes descriptions de la vie nocturne de la capitale britannique pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. J’ai retrouvé l’ambiance des ruelles sombres telles que je me les imaginais dans un Londres sous les bombardements. L’auteur nous dit qu’elle a repris des mots d’argot mais avec la traduction, je n’ai rien trouvé de notable allant dans ce sens et comme je ne m’y connais pas en accent londonien, cockney etc. Je n’ai pas apprécié cette finesse. Les titres des chapitres sont tous tirés de chansons des années trente ce qui donne une note légèrement surannée et délicieuse. Bonne lecture.
http://latelierdelitote.canalblog.com...

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cathi Unsworthin "Lontoo Noir" (Like, 2015) sisältää seitsemäntoista novellia, jotka kaikki kuvaavat Lontoota ja ennen kaikkea sen varjoisempaa ja rosoisempaa puolta. Vaikka kirja on sijoitettu meidän putiikissamme dekkarihyllyyn, eivät kaikki kertomukset ole kuitenkaan rikostarinoita.

Lopputulos jää suutariksi. Novellit olivat suurimmaksi osaksi melko mitäänsanomattomia, kliseisiä ja yllätyksettömiä, enkä paria poikkeusta lukuunottamatta jaksanut pahemmin innostua niistä. Pidin eniten Martyn Waitesin skininuoren traagisesta kohtalosta kertovasta "Rakkaudesta", Mark Pilkingtonin noituutta sivuavasta novellista "Hän ratsastaa valkoisella hevosella" ja John Williamsin "New Rosesta", jossa kuvataan ikääntymään päässeiden punkrokkareiden kohtaamista.

Suosikkikaupunkini olisi ehdottomasti ansainnut paremman noir-kokoelman!

[Tuxlie]

Brand-new stories by: Desmond Barry, Ken Bruen, Stewart Home, Barry Adamson, Michael Ward, Sylvie Simmons, Daniel Bennett, Cathi Unsworth, Max Decharne, Martyn Waites, Joolz Denby, John Williams, Jerry Sykes, Mark Pilkington, Joe McNally, Patrick McCabe, and Ken Hollings.

[Susanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of the best in the series of Noir books.

[John Oakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are mildly interesting but I couldn't shake the feeling that these are new authors trying to find their voice and not succeeding. Just felt that each story was was unpolished and rough.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The noir kick continues. I liked this collection least out of the ones I've read. Some of the stories made no sense at all, with a handful of good ones that saved the book