Vancouver Noir

The latest Akashic "Noir" collection features stories by Canadian writers, both crime writers and not, residents and expats, with stories all about characters who live in gritty everyday Vancouver, BC, settings. Here readers can explore the financial district through a disgruntled employee in Sheena Kamal's "Eight Game-Changing Tips on Public Speaking." The tips are worthwhile if a little unusual but the story is unforgettable. Sam Wiebe's characters clean up gang activity along Commercial Drive in "Wonderful Life." R.M. Greenway's standout "The Threshold" questions a photographer's morals when he waits to call 911 as a dying man's life drains away, providing the perfect image. Robin Spano's "The Perfect Playgroup" stars a superficial, label-driven woman who is the catalyst for revenge. Crime abounds, affecting regular people who struggle to make rent and care for their families. As Carleigh Baker writes in "The Midden," there are rats in these stories, both four-legged and two-, scurrying through the pages, in basements, on the streets, even in the homes of the well-to-do.