Review: Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics

Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics by Diana Schutz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics is a very thin volume of short crime stories, written by a variety of authors, well known and less well known. As with many anthologies, the results here are a mixed bag. While several of the tales here are pretty traditional pulp stories, most of them add some kind of spin to the genre, for better or worse. Unfortunately, in too many of these tales, the twists and tropes are very easily spotted. A number of the stories contained within have a strong science-fiction bent, which isn't bad, but was decidedly not what I was looking for or expecting from a book called Noir. The end result is a book of stories that are readable, but ultimately forgettable.

While the stories are generally all pretty middle of the road, the artwork is a more varied; with so many different visual styles involved, there's almost bound to be at least one that works for a particular reader. Of course, that also means there's almost certainly a story or two that just don't work.

While this is far from the worst crime comic I've picked up, there's not very much to recommend this. If you're looking for noir or crime comics, there's a lot better fare out there than this.

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Review: The Devil's Home on Leave

The Devil's Home on Leave by Derek Raymond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In The Devil's Home on Leave, Derek Raymond's unnamed detective sergeant in the Unexplained Deaths division takes on a cruel and twisted killer who boils a body to prevent the police from identifying the victim. As the detective closes in on a suspect and digs into the possible motives, he starts to wonder if this case isn't a lot bigger than it first appeared.

In this, the second book in the "Factory" series, readers are treated to more British slang, another sordid case, and more information about the jaded but dedicated detective.

While this entry is less introspective than the first book--the detective doesn't have hundreds of cassettes and journals from a philosophical writer to muse about this time--it's no less engaging. Raymond even manages to sneak in a quite a bit of humor. The interactions between the detective and his bosses and superiors area almost always at least chuckle-worthy; it helps when you've written a character who isn't just disinterested in promotion, but actively hostile towards the prospect.

Another solid entry from Derek Raymond.

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Review: He Died with His Eyes Open

He Died with His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

He Died with His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond, is the story of an unnamed police officer working in the small and under-funded "Unexplained Deaths" department of the British police force. In this, the first book in the series, he is brought in an apparently drunk, possibly homeless, old man is found brutally beaten to death. Over the course of the case, the narrator digs into the man's past and discovers his passions and fears. The further the detective digs into the case, the harder he finds it to maintain any professional distance from the crime.

Raymond's neo-noir mystery really captures the world-weary but driven detective character; the unnamed narrator hints at a dark or troubled past, but also displays a passion for uncovering the truth and providing justice to the people least likely to see it.

The sections dealing with the old man's writing are perhaps a little overly long at times, but this is still a really good entry.

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