St. Louis Noir

by Scott Phillips, Calvin Wilson (Contributor), LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn (Contributor)

"Featuring a baker's dozen of original stories, plus one 'poetic interlude,' this new entry in Akashic's globetrotting anthology series explores, as editor Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest , tells us in his introduction, the 'collision of high and low' that makes St. Louis so interesting to crime writers...The stories here are uniformly strong. Regular readers of the Noir series (since its inception in 2004, there have been about 75 installments) know what to tightly written, tightly plotted, mostly character-driven stories of murder and mayhem, death and despair, shadow and shock."
-- Booklist

'Phillips lends his own talents as well, bringing the total body count to 13 works of fatalist fiction as well as a poetic interlude featuring Poet Laureate Michael Castro. Joining him as accessories are St. Louis Post-Dispatch film critic Calvin Wilson; LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn, a fiction writer whom Phillips himself taught; and writers John Lutz, Paul D. Marks, Colleen J. McElroy, Jason Makansi, S.L. Coney, Laua Benedict, Umar Lee, Chris Barsanti, Linda Smith and Jedidiah Ayres."
-- St. Louis Newspaper

"Phillips has shrewdly captured the fundamental elements of noir, transforming St. Louis into a gruesome world that is neither black or white, but quintessentially gray."
— Alive Magazine

"Joining Seattle, Memphis, Phoenix, and other noir outposts, St. Louis gets a turn to show its dark side in Phillips' collection of 13 dark tales and a poetic interlude...[A] spirited, black-hearted collection."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"Editor Scott Phillips has compiled 13 tales of grim homicidal happenings (plus one poetic interlude) set in the streets of the St. Louis area."
— St. Louis Post- Dispatch

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir . Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Brand-new stories Calvin Wilson, LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn, John Lutz, Paul D. Marks, Colleen J. McElroy, Jason Makansi, S.L. Coney, Michael Castro, Laura Benedict, Jedidiah Ayres, Umar Lee, Chris Barsanti, L.J. Smith, and Scott Phillips.

From the introduction by Scott Phillips :

"The St. Louis region has had a rough time over the past few years. A number of our school districts are unaccredited. A large section of a North St. Louis County landfill is burning uncontrolled--yes, it's on fire--and said fire is only yards away from a World War II–era radioactive waste dump. There's the matter of the region's de facto segregation, a persistent pox on the city and county decades after the explicit, institutional variety became illegal. A number of our suburban municipalities have lately been exposed in the act of strong-arming their poorest citizens, running what amount to debtors' prisons. In recent years one of those cities, Ferguson, has become a national synonym for police misconduct and institutional racism...

Amid all this is a rich, multicultural history of art and literature both high and low, stemming from conflict and passions running hot...This collection strives for some of that same energy that the collision of high and low can produce...All these writers come at their work with different perspectives and styles but all with a connection to and a passion for our troubled city and its surroundings."

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Mystery, Noir, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2016

Reviews

[Lori]

St. Louis Noir – Unabridged Audiobook

That's noir as in dark and criminal, good reading.

Rebecca Gibel (Narrator), Adenrele Ojo (Narrator), Kevin Kenerly (Narrator), Lloyd James (Narrator), Mirron Willis (Narrator), P. J. Ochlan (Narrator), Ray Chase (Narrator), Donald Corren (Narrator), Traber Burns (Narrator), Scott Phillips - editor (Author), Inc. Blackstone Audio (Publisher)

Phillips' collection eschews the professional: readers will search in vain for flatfeet, gumshoes, or other traditional noir heroes. Just plain old folks being plain old ornery in this spirited, black-hearted collection.

from Kirkus Reviews
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

[Glen]

I've seen these noir books all over the place lately. It seems like every hamlet in the world is getting its own title in the series.

St. Louis Noir, was a bit of a disappointment to me. After an eye rolling introduction about what a tough town St. Louie really is, we get some stories that aren't really stories at all, but soliloquies, and some old fashioned O. Henry type stories. The O. Henry stories were the best, but nothing special.

The only St. Louis writer I can recall at this second is Charles Colyott, but he isn't included. Might have made things more memorable.

[Carla]

I've read one other Noir from this publisher and LOVED it. I made it a mission to seek out others and to read them. Having lived in St. Louis, I was excited to delve into this one. Picking up a book where you've lived, and having authors bring to life places you've known can be quite exhilarating, but this fell flat. Enjoyed a few stories, but most were forgettable. It will not deter me from trying more!

[Jay]

Having lived in South City, North county, and St. Charles, I feel like I have a good feel for what St. Louis is like. I have lived only about 6 years of my life away from this area. The stories in this book offer pictures of different parts of St. Louis, some with more detail than others. I notice that I tend to be a sunny-eyed optimist, seeing only the happy good parts of the city, regardless of where I visit. A noir story is going to slog through the locations and cultures of the city that I tend to overlook, so even though many of the locations are familiar to me, the activities going on are not.

I find it really difficult to review a short story collection without saying “some of the stories were better than others.” That’s going to be true for any set of stories. My favorite stories were set in North county and Illinois, but that’s because of the stories themselves.

One motive for reading this book: to see if the stories did give a good feel for the area. If they did, I figured, then I could read books from other cities and feel like I learned something about the area. This book was the measure I could use to determine the veracity of the other stories. I’d say that it does feel like St. Louis. I’d say that I learned about how some areas where I used to live have really changed since I’ve lived there. The “it used to be like this” images felt true to me, so I expect that the parts less familiar to me were also accurate.

Conclusion: yeah, I can read other collections in this series and feel like I have a picture of the darker elements of those cites. I plan to do so.

[Nikki in Niagara]

This is the second book I've read in the Akashic Noir series . I enjoyed it far less than "New Orleans Noir 2". I think having some knowledge of the city these books feature (even if is only from reading or a keen interest) will have an affect on the reader's experience with the book. I knew nothing of St. Louis at all. As a Canadian, I didn't even know what state it was in. A lot of the stories here are about drugs, race relations, vigilantism and politics unique to the city. I'm not interested in these topics, nor am I familiar with them much but a great deal of the stories I wouldn't even call noir. The endings of most didn't use a twist or redemption; if the ending isn't dark I've lost the noir feeling. However, there were a couple of stellar stories combined with the okay stories that the major duds didn't drag down my rating. The book averaged out to a solid 3/5 altogether.

1. Abandoned Places by S.L. Coney - Ian's father takes off. Most assume he's dead. The locals think the professionals offed him. But Ian sometimes wonders if his sep-mother of two years killed him. So Ian follows Vickie one night and learns it all. The ending could have been better. (3/5)

2. Deserted Cities of the Heart by Paul D. Marks - This is the tragedy and destruction of a man who meets his femme fatale. An IT guy meets a mousy haired hipster ad his happy but mundane life takes a nose-dive into obsession. Nicely depressing. (4/5)

3. Blues for the River City Colleen J. Mcelroy - There are three black teens and they narrowly escape trouble when sneaking into a whites-only movie theatre. It's the 1950s and mostly just talks about racism; not really a plot to be found anywhere. (0/5)

4. Fool's Luck by Lavelle Wilkins-Chinn - This is the first really good story. It starts off giving background on this African-American family and its quirky members. Then settles on Unk, mentally disabled in the war. Now in '68 the government has sent him a letter saying he'll receive a large settlement since his war work had been the cause of his illness. Now he hooks up with Carla, 20 years his junior, a money-grubbing skank. Nobody in the family likes her, but Unk loves her. She sleeps around etc. and in the end gets hers but not after causing unforgivable harm. (5/5)

5. Attrition by Calvin Wilson - Very short. An A&E reporter is a slacker but good at his job. When a business person is hired as the new editor to get people in line he finds he hates her in a way he's never disliked anyone before. He feels she's bad for the A&E section and we end up learning just what it is that makes him tick. A wicked character study more than plot oriented. (3/5)

6. Tracks by Jason Makansi - This one challenges our perceptions. It's not often we meet a violent female sexual predator in literature. Starting off from the predator's pov we see inside her head, the sick fantasies and then the attack. The end is seen from the victim's pov. Can't say I cared for the story too much but it was unique. (3/5)

7. Four St. Louis Poems by Michael Castro - I hardly ever like poetry even if it's maudlin. (0/5)

8. A Paler Shade of Death by Laura Benedict - This is the first author in this collection I've heard of though had not read her before. Also, this story is twice the length of any others so far. It's a pretty creepy story which never lets you know what has really happened. A woman is moving into a duplex, apparently, she's just gotten divorced, has a retraining order against her going near her old house once she gets her last things moved out today. Oh, her son died some time ago, That's when the marriage started to fail. Now there is a boy across the street who is the age her son would have been now. Is this boy real, a ghost, her imagination? Her son drowned; some people think she killed him. Her ex-husband turns up at her door. What follows is either real, imagined, or a nightmare. (4/5)

9. Have You Seen Me? by Jedidiah Ayres - A man who works clearing out buildings set for demolishment finds a wall of missing posters in a homeless tenement. He starts to recognise some of the kids and has urges to call the numbers on the posters to tell the parents, their kid is ok even if they are dead. When his boss calls him to help him out when he drunkenly kills his girlfriend in a car accident. The boss finds he picked the wrong person. This is pure noir, well-written and keeps you on your toes as it surprised me with where it went. The main character is left being ambiguous so we end up not knowing what he actually is/or may be. (5/5)

10. A St. Louis Christmas by Umar Lee - This is about drug dealers. A vigilante Muslim group whose objective is too rid the streets of drugs hear about a money exchange going down, We learn about Bubba the head of the meth operation and we learn about the backgrounds of the two vigilantes, one Muslim, one Jew. Things happen and the vigilantes, win, I think. I'm not up on all the drug talk or vigilante group names so this was pretty boring for me. Not very exciting, and an ending that made no sense to me. It read well though because of good writing. (2/5)

11. The Pillbox by Chris Barsanti - A naive teenager becomes a skinhead for the uniform and music. Moves to the city, makes a couple of friends, Then he gets involved in drug selling working for "Chicago". Everything is ok until he finds out these skinheads he works for are of the neo-nazi/white pride variety and expect him to join them. He tries to get out of the situation and has to resort to violence. This was ok but again, hard for me to relate to the drug and skinhead culture, having never experienced it. (3/5)

12. The Brick Wall by John Lutz - Now this is more like it. My favourite story at this point. This is the second author I've heard of but again hadn't read before. A good little thriller with a twist ending. The owner of a racetrack enters the current race which includes his friend's son. Someone is killed on the track and the owner is blamed, is sorry, but feels no guilt. A plot is set up to get him making for a tense story, but the twist ending is very good. (5/5)

13. Tell Them Your Name is Barbara by L.J. Smith - This one is about the drug world too but much more enjoyable for me as it involves a murder and the solving of the case. All the characters, good and bad, did drugs so their really isn't a hero here, but the case gets solved and at least one person has the possibility of changing their life for the better. Not a very thrilling ending. (3/5)

14. One Little God-Damn Thing by Scott Phillips - The final story is the editor's contribution and my favourite of the collection. A convict has served his full sentence of thirty years for murder during an armed robbery. He's out now and goes to visit his hometown (where he robbed the bank) not to let anyone see him but to check-up and make sure his sister is ok. He starts by following her husband, the man who was his accomplice and who actually did the murders. Our jailbird had taken full responsibility for the crime in exchange his b-i-l would take care of his sister. Looks like he didn't follow through. This is perfect noir and has a good ending. (5/5)

[Tom]

I had higher hopes for this. I admit to being completely drawn in by the premise: a collection of noir stories set in my own home town -- intriguing. Now the expectations were tempered, of course. It's a short story collection so some will be better than others. Fair enough. And they are noir stories at that, so not likely to cast the St. Louis area in any particularly favorable light. Yeah, that's OK, too. But you no sooner get into the introduction than the editor of the collection tells you that while these might not be definitively noir stories, pretty much any story built upon darkness, danger, and death is essentially "noir". Hmm, can't say I really agree with that. But OK, let's keep an open mind. Off we go into the stories. And they are collectively...well, OK...mostly. Yes, some are better than others. But none are really head-and-shoulders above the rest. And they are noir-ish...I guess. But here is what they are not -- as in, not a single one of them: distinctively St. Louis. Sure they all make reference to St. Louis neighborhoods, landmarks, suburbs, etc. (most trying waaay too hard to force a few more city street names into passages where they are otherwise unnecessary) to remind you that we are indeed in St. Louis. But you could take any one of them and substitute the street and neighborhood names from Atlanta or Pittsburgh or any other city and have exactly the same story. OK, I'm not a writer so I'm not really sure how you'd give a story a specific city feel, but yeah, that's what I expected...or hoped for, anyway. And it is my understanding that at least some of the contributors to this project are St. Louis writers, or have St. Louis roots or a connection or something. And yet, most of these tales feel like they've been written by someone none too familiar with the area. Disappointing. I understand this is one of series of [insert name of city] Noir stories. Haven't read any of the others, but doubt that I will. If they are like this one, I don't expect to get much of a feel for the city where they are set. And if they are just collections of OK dark short stories...well I think I'll likely look for something else.

[Woody Chandler]

Hmm, unlike Nicola Phillips, I feel like drugs, racism & other various and sundry topics have their place in Noir fiction. I thought that her review(s) was/were well thought out & articulated, but I simply disagree with her final assessment. Sure, not every story was a winner, but they all managed to convey a sense of unease in this city & its suburbs. I first visited, via train, coming south from CHI & our nighttime arrival left me feeling disconcerted, the same way that I felt in many of these stories. I have been back a couple of times since, but always with that initial wariness. This collection evoked those same feelings. I was glad that the StL Arch was an integral part of the first story since it so dominates the city. I also liked the deviation from the norm in Part II with "A Poetic Interlude". I have been to a number of poetry readings & I could definitely hear "St. Louis Blues Revisited" being read aloud in my mind. I wish that more of the anthologies would so deviate. "Wall Street Noir" & "Seattle Noir" (unsure of the latter) both had comic book-style stories & I would welcome more of the same and more poetry. I wish that fractional ratings were possible as I think of this as 4.25. YMMV. BTW, the length of reading time was due to some horrific assignments, which is usually when I do some of my best reading.

[David Watson]

There are many ways to find out about a city - visiting, searching online, reading a hard-copy guidebook or travelogue - and then there's reading crime fiction set there. The latter is a very effective and enjoyable way to do so; after all, scene-setting is part of the craft of crime writing, almost as much as plot and characters. So it was for me with St Louis Noir - before I read it my knowledge of St Louis could be summed up in four words: "It has an arch". Now I know a lot more about this hardbitten city thanks to the authors in this collection and editor (and author) Scott Phillips' introduction. It's hard to pick a favourite story because they're all pretty good plot and action-wise, and in terms of scene-setting, but if I had to I'd pick one it'd be Jedidiah Ayres' Have You Seen Me? about someone who becomes sick of being a cog in America's very unequal capitalism. Some further Googling about St Louis was sparked by reading this collection - and I have to say, toasted ravioli sounds delicious. But I'll have to toast it myself, as I live a long way from St Louis.

[Brian Rothbart]

Another solid book in Akashic's noir series. I have read a number of these books and I have not found a dud. Of course some stories are better than others, but on the whole these are great stories. I highly recommend them to anyone who has visited, is visiting or want to visit any of these locations. If you love the noir genre then I highly recommend these books. Short stories are great because they can be read any time, read out of order and if you don't like a story then you haven't invested too much time or effort.

[Elisa Holland]

Purchased the book because it included a talented friend's short story. Well, the entire book turned out to be really great. Perfect subway reads, although sometimes a bit shellshocking right before morning at the office! Recommend.

[Winston Lower]

I enjoyed reading through these short stories that were based in St. Louis. Most of them kept me entertained and it was a nice and easy book to get me back into reading.

[Edward]

A nice read.

It's been some time since I've read a Noir collection, and that was local. Here's a set of stories from the other side of the world. Some are psychotic, dark, fast-paced, or page-turning.

It's quite different from the noir collection here, possibly because of the history of both St. Louis and Manila. Most of the noir of St. Louis is centered around drug-related crime. The vibe of stories doesn't seem so claustrophobic, though not surprising as it is an experience of a different set pf perspectives and styles.

Glad to pick this book out of a whim. Hoping to find more noir collections from in and out of the US.

[James Aylott]

A selection of short stories featuring brutal Midwestern weather, cultish St. Louis high schools, overworked newspaper reporters, gridlock on highway ‘farty’, Sauget’s infamous strip clubs, and a cameo from what could only be Tiffany’s Diner in Maplewood is never going to get less than five stars from me. I will likely read a couple of the stories a second time to appreciate them fully.

[Christa Van]

A collection of gritty stories set in St. Louis, some of these are absolute gems and others area bit forgettable. A bakers dozen stories with a poetic interlude from U City's own Michael Castro. If you like noir, there will be something here for you.

[Udine]

Some were good, some not so much.

[Anna]

Favorites:
"Fool's Luck," LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn
"A Paler Shade of Death," Laura Benedict
"Have You Seen Me?," Jedediah Ayres
"The Pillbox," Chris Barsanti

[Julie Failla Earhart]

This is the latest installment of Akashic Noir’s Midwest series, following Chicago, the Twin Cities and Kansas City. In total, the Akashic Noir Series has about 75 titles, set around the world.

This particular collection has 14 entries, 13 dark, short stories and one poetic interlude. I recognized six of the authors for a variety of reasons. John Lutz and Scott Phillips are nationally recognized for their work: Lutz for “Single White Female” and Phillips for “The Ice Harvest.” Poet Michael Castro is the City of St. Louis’ Poet Laureate and locally famous before he was awarded the position. Jedidiah Ayres I’ve heard of from writer Joe Schwartz, and L. J. Smith I know from the local writing scene. Calvin Wilson is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

It was fun reading stories that take is familiar landmarks. The book is broken into four section, much like the metropolitan area itself: the City, the County, and Across the River (Illinois). The poetic interlude speaks to the large network of creative talent that call St. Louis home.

Phillips did a bang-up job with his Introduction: “High and Low Culture.” That describes St. Louis to a tee, past and present.

The collection gets off to strong start with the first story, “Abandoned Places” by S. L. Coney. In this story, after Ian’s father disappears, most assume he’s dead. But Ian isn’t so sure. He follows his stepmother one night and discovers that his father is held prisoner. There is some wonderfully vivid imagery especially involving the slitting of a throat. Without giving anything away (I hope), that one sentence that stood out among the rest was: “The skin gaped on either side, of that opening, giving (deleted to prevent a spoiler detail) a second smile.” This always gives me the shivers.

While “Abandoned Places” was my favorite, my least favorite was “Deserted Cities of the Heart,” by Paul D. Marks. It was rather existential, really didn’t have a plot and mostly seemed to center around loner Daniel Hayden lying under the Gateway Arch.

The rest of the authors cover the bases; it’s all here: a 1950s story about racism that also has no plot, a mentally unstable African-American man after a tour in Vietnam, slackers, femme fatales, divorces, death, missing children, skinheads, ending with a twist, convicts and drugs and drug dealers.

All in all, except for the first story, I felt that all the others were just okay. St. Louis Noir receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

[Tonstant Weader]

Bold travelers always want to go where the locals hang out, wanting to see past the usual tourist route that is programmed to keep them on a pristine path with never a touch of noir. But of course, if you never stray from the antiseptic path, you never see the real city. I think if I were traveling somewhere, in addition to the guide books to the official sites, i would search for an Akashic Noir series for that city, to give myself a taste of the grit and noir. St. Louis Noir by Scott Phillips is an introduction to the noir of that notoriously broken city.

Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, exploded on the national consciousness with the murder of Michael Brown and the subsequent Department of Justice report detailing the exploitation of its citizens by using the police to finance city services with abusive over-policing and policies that impoverished its citizen. It makes sense, then, that race play a central role in many of the short stories in St. Louis Noir.

Philips selected a great collection of stores that reinforce his view that St. Louis as a blend of high and low art, culture and society. There are rich, successful criminals and poor and hapless criminals. There’s wealth and poverty. The dichotomies are painful.

My favorite stories were Abandoned Places by S. L. Coney, a story of a young boy whose father has disappeared, staying with his dad’s girlfriend in uncertainty, fear and despair. It broke my heart into so many pieces I had to set the book aside for a day before I could approach it again. Another great story is Fool’s Luck by LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn, another story that reaching deep inside and squeezes.

I have rows of Akashic Noir books in my bookshelves, so I expected to enjoy St. Louis Noir and of course I did. The only problem is I came to the last page and wanted more, more, more. There were several great stories and poetry that represent the city in its duality. I love short stories, I love mysteries, I love reading about other places. Akashic Noir’s series brings them all together inside one book.

St. Louis Noir will be released next week on August 2nd. I was provided a e-galley of St. Louis Noir by the publisher through Edelweiss.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Tim Hennessy]

When it comes to fiction, especially of the criminal in nature, the Midwest has long taken a backseat to other regional literature often just seen as the boring, cold weather cousin with stories as spicy and as flavorful as a hotdish.
Stories that “traffic in fatality and doom and bad luck and characters who persistently, knowingly, act against their own best interests” might be another ample description for a deep vein of crime fiction or, maybe, a fair assessment of the current day Midwest. It is the lifeblood pumping through the rich assortment of stories in the St. Louis Noir anthology edited by Scott Phillips.
Laura Benedict’s “A Paler Shade of Death” wastes no time delving into the waking nightmares of Becca, a suburban mother reeling from grief. In the midst of clearing out of the house she once shared with her estranged husband, a young neighbor boy offers help and an unexpected gut punch, “My dad said your kid died.” As Becca attempts to move on with her upended life she veers between catharsis and psychosis; Benedict’s story thrills to the very end.
In Jed Ayres’ “Have You Seen Me?” Betts cleans up properties and scavenges through the unused pieces of buildings to be repurposed in the urban renewal projects of his wealthy boss, a developer only referred to as Citizen Number One. “The city was eating itself and he was part of the digestion process.” Amongst the empty remnants of a once thriving metropolis Betts occasionally comes across bodies he has to remove. He believes them to simply be vagrants, their resemblance to pictures of missing people on fliers he encounters just a coincidence until guilt forces him into action. It’s a dark, chilling tale, one of Ayres’ strongest stories to date.
Another high point in the collection, Umar Lee’s “A St. Louis Chirstmas” features a mismatched pair of vigilantes, members of the River City Robinhoodz, who look to appropriate a shipment of cash from crew of meth dealing good ol’ boys. The madcap holiday tale is an excellently paced heist story gone awry that makes for an enjoyable departure from the usual Christmas fare.
(my review from Crimespree #65)

[Krissy]

I received a copy of St. Louis Noir from a Goodreads giveaway. I am not an avid short stories reader, but I do like crime fiction/noir/mysteries. The stories in this book were written by fourteen different authors and took place in different areas of St. Louis and in various time periods and with different characters. It is difficult to award a "stars" rating because some of the stories were great, others just okay. The standout story to me was "The Pillbox" by Chris Barsanti, which took place in the Maplewood suburb of St. Louis in 1989. The story involves a S.H.A.R.P. skinhead (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) who gets involved in drug dealing with some racist skinheads. I graduated high school in 1989 and it brought me back to that year very well (warts and all.) I knew several SHARPs at that time and Barsanti's characterization of Randall was excellent. I really felt like he might have been someone I could have been acquainted with. Thank you Akashic Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

[Sarah]

There are a lot of layers of St. Louis life for authors to pull from to fuel their stories’ emotional turbulence: economic disparities, racism and segregation, urban decay, failing school systems, police brutality, environmental disaster zones, and so forth. But at the heart of nearly every story in “St. Louis Noir” is someone who makes mistakes and keeps making mistakes long after any sensible person would have stopped and re-evaluated their life decisions. Some stories are like artful train wrecks, in which readers can barely look away before seeing what disastrous turn the protagonist’s life takes.

You can read my full review of ST. LOUIS NOIR at the Current independent student newspaper website. A reviewer copy of the paperback was provided for free by Akashic Books; no other compensation was offered for this review, nor was a review required to receive the book.

[Stacy Cook]

I've read a couple of the Noir city anthologies previous to this & by far this one has to be my favorite! Filled with stunning prose & engaging stories from beginning to end.
For me there were a few stand outs. The first being Abandoned Places by S.L. Coney. The story of a boy living with his father's girlfriend when his dad just up & leaves one day. While I could see where the story was going I was still left speechless at the end. The second highlight was A Paler Shade of Death by Laura Benedict. Gripping from the beginning it is the story of a woman who is thought to have killed her young son & maybe more. Finally, Have You Seen Me? by Jedidiah Ayres. A "cleaner" of the most unusual kind searches for the forgotten of St Louis.

[Laurel]

St. Louis Noir, edited by Scott Phillips, is one of the better noir anthologies in the Akashic series and I’ve read quite a few. There’s not a story I didn’t like and the addition of poetry was particularly unique and appreciated. All of the stories Phillips chose to include were easy to understand and quite representative of St. Louis, a Midwestern city under siege that has outlived its past with a future that’s uncertain.