cover image Boston Noir 2: The Classics

Boston Noir 2: The Classics

Edited by Dennis Lehane, Mary Cotton & Jaime Clarke. Akashic, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-61775-136-3

The 14 superior selections in this “classics” volume in Akashic’s series of regional dark crime short stories, the works of established writers that have stood the test of time, collectively outshine the originals that appeared in Boston Noir. Perhaps the highlight is Linda Barnes’s “Lucky Penny,” about a female PI who must drive a cab to make ends meet. Three entries are excerpts from novels. The one taken from Barbara Neely’s Blanche Cleans Up, which features a cleaning-lady detective in Brookline, succeeds as a stand-alone, while another, a section of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, does not. Locale figures prominently in all the stories, especially Chuck Hogan’s clever “The Marriage Privilege,” set in West Roxbury. And no such volume would be complete without Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, who would be a cod out of water anywhere but Boston, represented by the taut “Surrogate,” a story that hasn’t appeared widely in the U.S. before. (Nov.)