Category Archives: Noir-esque fiction

Amsterdam Noir (Akashic Noir Series) -René Appel and Josh Pachter (Editors), Josh Pachter (Translator)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “It wasn’t until he’d come to see me a dozen times that he told me he wanted to concentrate on women who looked like the victims who’d escaped from him his first time around.” This man … Continue reading

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Marrakech Noir (Akashic Noir Series) – Yassin Adnan (Editor)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Morocco has no tradition of noir literature.” “Marrakechis are willing to read every type of story about the city—except those that are garbed in black.” Yassin Adnan, the editor of Marrakech Noir had a difficult time … Continue reading

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Vancouver Noir (Akashic Noir Series) – Sam Wiebe (Editor)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “…Vancouver may seem idyllic. But living here is different—cold and baffling and occasionally hostile…locals see a heroin crisis…It’s ground zero for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, a nationwide catastrophe involving … Continue reading

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Sydney Noir (Akashic Noir Series)- John Dale (Editor)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Noir is as much a part of Sydney’s character as frangipanis and cockroaches, rusted iron lace and sandstone terraces, torrential rain and potholed roads.” “Crime and Sydney have always been inseparable: a deep vein of corruption … Continue reading

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Poso Wells- Gabriela Alemán (Translated from the Spanish by Dick Cluster)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Something crouches in the streets of Poso Wells, and it attaches the nerves like a persistent drumbeat. Whatever it is haunts the dreams of the residents, panting I their faces, slobbering them with noxious saliva and … Continue reading

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The Third Hotel: A Novel – Laura van den Berg

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The foundation of horror is a dislocation of reality, a dislocation designed to reveal the reality that has been there all along, and such dislocations happen all the time. “ That was according to the fictional … Continue reading

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Lagos Noir – Chris Abani (Editor)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) I have never been to Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria and actually, the largest city in the entire African continent. In fact, I have never been anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. That said, I enjoyed the … Continue reading

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The Painted Gun – Bradley Spinelli

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I was in it now, there was no getting out. But since Ashley was painting creepy snapshots of my life, I guess I was always in it. The fact that I didn’t know what I was … Continue reading

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Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large – Walter Mosley

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I spent that morning inside the mind of a madman or a genius or maybe outside of what Lawless refers to as the hive mind, the spirit that guides millions of heedless citizens through the aimless … Continue reading

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In the Café of Lost Youth – Patrick Modiano (Translated from the French by Chris Clarke)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I’ve always believed that certain places are like magnets and draw you towards them should you happen to walk within their radius. And this happens imperceptibly, without you even suspecting… It seems to me that because … Continue reading

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