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Unlike volume one, Dark Crimes 2 is a contemporary version of noir. Even John D. MacDonaldβs beautifully told tale from the forties, Miranda, has a decidedly contemporary feel.
Like most forms of popular fiction, noir has evolved and changed over the past decade and a half.
No longer does Bogie stand at his lonely window, staring out at a world he frequently despises. Nor does the conventional private eye take us through his conventional private eye routines; and the conventional femme fatale . . . well, she doesnβt invite us upstairs any more, either.
The new noir is as likely to be set in a trailer park as a gambling casino; in a small Texas town more often than New York; and feature not a slick mobster but a child molester as villain.
The "gem" of this collection is the stand-out, Triangle , the stunning 1982 short novel by Teri White. This Edgar winner traces the trajectory of a trio of lowlifes: a pair of Vietnam war vets who have become a highly successful underworld assassination squad, and an obsessed cop whose partner they have killed. White displays a brilliant sense of character, an accurate ear for colloquial speech and a sure control of tone in this early work.
Several of the featured detectives (and their authors) are familiar--such as Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone, here investigating an apparent suicide, and Loren Estleman's Amos Walker, faced with the murder of clients who wanted to renovate an old saloon. There is a cunning John Lutz tale about an ill-fated Mexican cliff-diver and a wry Lawrence Block inversion of It's a Wonderful Life , in which a man who survives a murder attempt realizes that he has to be nicer.
**Contents**
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Introduction - Ed Gorman
The Dripping - David Morrell
And Miles to Go Before I Sleep - Lawrence Block
Miranda - John D. Macdonald
Deceptions - Marcia Muller
The Long Silence After - Ed Gorman
The Dead Past - Nancy Pickard
All the Same - Bill Pronzini
The View - Brian Garfield
Hector Gomez Provides - John Lutz
The Steel Valentine - Joe R. Lansdale
The Triangle - Teri White
The Luckiest Man in the World - Rex Miller
The Party - William F. Nolan
Predators - Edward Bryant
In the Fast Lane - Thomas F. Monteleone
The Perfect Crime - Max Allan Collins
Paint the Town Green - Robert Colby
Jody and Annie on TV - John Shirley
Snow Angels - Loren D. Estleman
The Memorial Hour - Wade Miller
Pretty Boy - Billie Sue Mosiman
Secrets - Gary Lovisi