Montana Noir

Edited by James Grady & Keir Graff

Akashic Books     2017

277 pages     Noir

I picked up Montana Noir because I saw Jamie Ford’s name on the cover. I had read and reviewed Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and realized that there were other well-known authors in Akashic’s noir series of books. Each of the authors of stories in the Montana Noir book has a connection with Montana. Jamie Ford, for example, has lived in Montana for seventeen years.

Each story is set in one of the great towns or areas of the state, generally the area where its author is connected. Jamie Fox’s story, for example, takes place in Glendive, Montana. It is a revenge story, not something that you would typically think of as noir, although the gritty characters are very noir-ish. David Abrams story is primarily a military story with a tenuous and edgy ending. Another story I enjoyed was Trailer Trash by Gwen Florio, which takes place in the university town of Missoula. It meets the definition of neo-noir. It is amazing how much plot and character development can happen in a few pages. 

One of the joys of the noir books by Akashic is that they are very diverse in theme, characters, and content. What is consistent across all of the books is the setting. Each book has a setting that is unique and colorful. It is quite impressive, actually. Another wonder of the books is that they are easy to pick up, read one or two stories, and then pick it up later.

 I have three other Akashic Noir books on my shelf—New Haven Noir, Buenos Aires Noir, and Montreal Noir. All have been very favorably reviewed by both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.  I picked up Buenos Aires Noir the other day and found that, unlike Montana Noir, the editors of Buenos Aires Noir had chosen entries that were more traditional noir. Curious, I wrote an email to my contact at Akashic, and she told me: “We actually make it a point to not define Noir for our Noir Series and allow the editors and authors to define it for themselves in whatever way will best fit their particular series, with the general idea that noir stories generally have a sense of darkness about them.”  

Another noir novel I recently read and reviewed for Akashic was The Painted Gun by Bradley Spinelli, which I really liked.

Look for my next review, Deadbomb Bingo Ray, the book that started me down this weekend rabbit hole. Also check out my  posting about noir fiction.