I picked up Vancouver Noir in the Canadian city last summer when I was on holiday there. It is a selection of short stories, edited by Sam Wiebe, all set in the city and intended to reflect a deeper reality than you see as a tourist.
The collection contains fourteen stories all of a reasonable length and all about crime. The city, in this book, is a place of shadows, seedy bars, dark corners and dubious activity. A lot of the stories feature drugs and violence although it is all with the plot and nothing too nasty. As Vancouver is a port and a significant railway terminal trains and ships are part of the landscape.
I have to say that none of the stories in this collection stand out either for their brilliance or otherwise. It is a solid set of good stories about criminal activities set in the city – those people who have been in the city for longer than one day will also recognise some of the locations. I note that most of the authors are Canadian which is what I would expect.
I really enjoyed reading these stories. I immersed myself in the slightly sleazy environment and the shady motives. I liked the fact that the book reflects the immigrant and First Nations people as well as the white inhabitants. There is also a touch of the supernatural in a couple of stories but nothing very overt.
This is one of a huge number of short story collections with the “Noir” tag and set in cities around the world. I thought that I might read some others and see if the standard is as high.
Anne Is Reading 