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Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics
Unavailable
Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics
Unavailable
Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics
Ebook385 pages6 hours

Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this ebook

From Hollywood starlets to downtown taxi dancers, and from Central Avenue speakeasies to clapboard Venice Beach shacks to Depression-era hobos riding the rails, this volume brings you the masters of the genre penning tales of love, lust, and loss in the City of Angels.

Includes classic stories by: Raymond Chandler, Paul Cain, James Ellroy, Leigh Brackett, James M. Cain, Chester Himes, Ross MacDonald, Walter Mosley, Naomi Hirahara, Margaret Millar, Joseph Hansen, William Campbell Gault, Jervey Tervalon, Kate Braverman, and Yxta Maya Murray.

Editor Denise Hamilton is the author of the Eve Diamond series and the editor of Los Angeles Noir. Her latest novel, Los Angeles Times bestseller The Last Embrace, has been compared to works by James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler. She lives in Los Angeles.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAkashic Books
Release dateApr 1, 2010
ISBN9781617752209
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Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics

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Reviews for Los Angeles Noir 2

Rating: 3.6470576470588236 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

17 ratings4 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Enjoyed that all the stories were set in various parts of Los Angeles, familiar locations.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The anthology has it ups and downs. While the authors are mostly Los Angeles residents, some of them don't seem well versed in noir, and their inclusion is more predicated on them being well established authors of the city. “Dangerous Days” by Emory Holmes II is a nasty tale of cops, ex-cons, drugs, guns, and a femme fatale. “Moroco Junction 90210” by Patt Morrison would have been a fine story for anthology of tame mysteries, but here it lacks the dark edge. “Fish” by Lienna Silver just don't much at all—not even flop about.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Dark and darkly enjoyable collection of crime stories set in and around L.A. My favorite is "The Method," about a waitress who turns the tables on a scummy guy. The last one- yowza. In between, some good, some better but all will give you a taste of southern California.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Akashic has a series of geographically-themed collections of crime fiction. This one, as the title aptly implies, features Los Angeles, which, if you have spent decades of your life here, immediately makes you suspicious that the stories will be filled with cliches about Hollywood and Beverly Hills and Malibu. They are not. The collection is geographically divided into different areas of greater LA and the authors do a great job of capturing the different neighborhoods, making them even recognizable by a native. The stories take the reader through disparate neighborhoods such as Mulholland Drive where fancy sportscars go over the cliff's edge (Connelly's "Mulholland Drive") to the massage parlors and bus stops of Koreatown (Hirhara's "Number 19"). They take you into Leimert Park ("Dangerous Days" by Emory Holmes III). "Midnight in Silicon Valley" by Denise Hamilton is a tale about Chinese entreprenours driving Lexuses by the gravel pits of Irwindale: "They caught up with Russell Chen as he drove home from work, running his Lexus off the frontage road by the gravel pits of Irwindale."

    The second part of the anthology is subtitled "Hollywoodlandia" and takes the reader to a trattoria on Hillhurst that feels just like Los Feliz and even talks about the mansions north of Los Feliz and the older duplexes south of it where the older washed-up actresses retire ("The Method" by Janet Fitch). Patt Morrison's rendition of Beverly Hills is unlike anything you saw on "90210." "Over Thirty" is a chilling and explicit look at the underbelly of the alternative lifestyle of West Hollywood. "Once More, Lazarus" by Hector Tobias is about children and guns and detectives and has that East Hollywood desperate feel.

    The third part of the anthology takes the reader to that legendary land "East of La Cienega." Susan Straight's "The Golden Gopher" begins just like an old rock song about nobody walking in LA and features the neighborhoods of Echo Park and Downtown. "The Kidnapper Bell" by Jim Pascoe is about the LA River, the concrete-lined channel that passes for a river in this dry desert clime. It is about bodies and bells and Pavlov's dog. Neal Pollack's brilliant piece "City of Commerce" is an absolute gem that talks about a marriage on the rocks and the gambling bug in a concrete industrial wasteland where dreams go to die. "Fish" by Lienna Silver captures the atmosphere of the Russian emigre in Plummer Park. Gary Phillips's piece "Roger Crumbler Considered His Shave" rehashes some old noir themes about graft and adultery and mistrust. It doesn't necessarily evoke Mid-City, but its a good piece nonetheless.

    Part IV of the anthology is the Gold Coast and it begins with a topnotch piece by Scott Phillips, entitled "The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones." It is about washed-up actresses, barmaids, and bartenders finally getting lucky. "Kinship" by Brian Ascalon Roley is a story that takes place in Mar Vista, a neighborhood that is about manhood, fatherhood, and neighborhood. It manages to vividly capture the neighborhood stashed between trendy Santa Monica and gang-infested Venice. Terrific story. Robert Ferrigno's "The Hour When The Ship Comes In" captures the intersection of various social and economic neighborhoods from Belmont shore, "the yuppie jewel of Long Beach" to the working-class areas of Long Beach in the shadow of the Queen Mary. Things happen - everywhere - and the trails of bloodstains can't always be washed away. Finally, "What You See" by Diana Wagman captures the Westchester hood.

    All in all, it is certainly a worthwhile collection taking on LA's mean streets from a variety of writing styles and giving the reader the flavor of all kinds of neighborhoods.