In the “Crime” column in the NYT Sunday Book Review section, editor Marilyn Stasio reviews four works set in different parts of the world. An anthology of crime stories “USA Noir” published by Akashic, contains mystery stories written by some of our best writers. Stasio says that there is “hardly a dud in the pack” but some shine above the rest. From Phoenix to the Aqueduct Racetrack to Boston, these stories feature a wide array of characters from a gangsta-goth teenager to a big lug named Bob who tends bar in Dennis Lehane’s Boston to down on their luck horse trainers at a NY racetrack.
On the other side of the pond, an ex-con named Danny Callaghan has a tough time staying alive in Gene Kerrigan’s novel “Dark Times in the City.” No sooner than Callaghan is released from a Dublin prison, he is back in trouble. This is a tale of a ruthless crime boss and dark figures from the underworld.
“The Invisible Code” by Christopher Fowler is quite different. Set in London, this mystery centers on the city’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. Its job is to find the killer of a corpse that was found on the marble floor of a landmark church. St. Bride’s Church was built on a pagan site of worship honoring Brigit, the Celtic goddess of healing, fire and childbirth. Because of the location of the murder, Fowler has his detectives investigating the crime in some of the weirder sights of London.
Finally, we travel to the medieval city of Bruges to an investigation by Detective Pieter Van In of the death of a German businessman. “The Midas Touch” by Pieter Aspe is described as a police procedural mystery. What sets this novel apart is Detective Van In is not your suave policeman but an “intemperate lout with an almost preternaturally ability” to discern petty details that solve the crime.
Good mysteries and interesting locales make for good reads.