Reviews

Denver Noir by Francelia Belton, R. Alan Brooks, Amy Drayer, Twanna LaTrice Hill, Mark Stevens, Erika T. Wurth, Mario Acevedo, Mathangi Subramanian, Barbara Nickless, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Manuel Ramos, Cynthia Swanson, D.L. Cordero, Peter Heller

jolynne's review

dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Reading this dark and gritty take on my hometown was interesting.

oldmansimms's review

3.0

Having moved to the Denver area a few years ago, this seemed like an ideal place to crack into the ever-growing "_____ Noir" library put out by Akashic Books. Certainly I would expect most people picking up one of those books will be from the area the book is themed around (there's more than 100 of them now, it would be very hard to pick one to start with otherwise), and the "local color" is part of the charm. Or, I might say, most of the charm. Looking beyond the local history and voices represented in the stories (which are wide-ranging, and sure to meet most Denverites' fancies), on a plot level most of these stories are just okay. That's not really the authors' fault - mystery, especially noir, is a very difficult genre to do in short form -- but it's a little disappointing nonetheless.

james7634's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.5

It was a good collection of stories set in Denver neighborhoods. Some stories setting seemed like an afterthought but others had the feel of the area. 

There were diverse characters and authors which was appreciated. I thought it was a good collection overall. 

vince_reads's review

4.25

 If you've left pieces of yourself in Denver, you might find a few of them in the pages of this anthology. 

dgrachel's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

My favorite of the collections to date. There is not a single story I did not enjoy. Cynthia Swanson has curated and edited a stunning series of diverse stories, not only in terms of authors and characters, but also a wide variety of time periods and styles. There’s even a graphic story! The stories are full of interesting characters you have to care about while maintaining that classic noir atmosphere. TWs for nearly everything. I loved it.