Peter MaravelisCritiques

Reflections of San Francisco in this collection of featuring stories by: Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris, Mark Twain, Jack London, Dashiell Hammett, Fletcher Flora, Bill Pronzini, Joe Gores, Don Herron, Ernest J. Gaines, Marcia Muller, Oscar Peñaranda, Janet Dawson, Seth Morgan, Craig Clevenger, William T. Vollmann, and John Shirley.

Each story relates in some way to an area of the city, an idea that particularly appealed to me, although as it turned out the stories I liked most weren't necessarily the ones set in the areas I knew best. My absolute favourite was Kid's Last Fight by Eddie Muller set in the South of Market district, which is about an ex-boxer rescuing a woman from an attack. I also liked Alejandro Murguia's story The Other Barrio, set in the Mission about arson and unscrupulous property development, and It can Happen by David Corbett (set in Hunters Point, an area I'd not even heard of before reading this - both of these felt quite close to what I traditionally think of as noir in tone.

4/5