Venice Noir - A review
“Venice belongs to the world, attracting us from all over in its spider web of beauty, crumbling stones, and water, so this time around I didn’t just invite Italian writers to let their imaginations loose on the city.”
These words come from crime fiction writer and critic Maxim Jakubowski in his introduction for this entry in the Akashic Books Noir Series. And with only around half of the contributors to this anthology being native Italians, he is good to his word. For comparison, fifteen of the sixteen writers included in ‘Rome Noir’ are Italian.
It is therefore a great compliment that the mixture of nationalities, cultural perceptions and imaginations combine to provide something equally as diverse as it is coherent. But what of the stories themselves?
Split into four sections, the first, ‘Amongst the Venetians’, opens with ‘Cloudy water’ by Matteo Righetto. The story follows illegal clam digger Alvise, and goes beyond the usual question of morality posed by such activity, as Righetto introduces us to aspects of Venice, such as the effect of sewage runoff (which is a near frequent theme in this book) and illicit trade that operates in the lagoon.
A strong opening with a tense and gripping ending. Perhaps it was because of this strong ending that the next story ‘The comedy is over’ by Francesco Ferracin left me a little unsure. The tale features an anonymous mid-thirties woman who gets attacked by foreigners, and her experience shatters her naïve world view. Our champagne socialist starts off quite unlikeable, but when the inciting incident occurs we are compelled to support her, and soon become swept up in the change that occurs in and outside of her, and the actions she takes in order to regain control of her life.
This story is followed by ‘Commissario Clelia Vinci’ by Barbara Baraldi. Having previously read Baraldi’s ‘The girl with the crystal eyes’, I had high expectations for this story, and once all the protagonists’ emotional baggage had been laid out, then this tale of despair, betrayal and helplessness did not disappoint. The same could not be said unfortunately for ‘Little sister’ by Francesco Mazzucato, which I struggled to engage with and while it contained flashes of intrigue and shock, the story was hard reading and fell flat.
Moving beyond this, we enter the second section, ‘Shadows of the past’, and ‘Lido winter’ from the book’s editor, Maxim Jakubowski. Jakubowski’s tale is as mysterious as it is evocative, and credit has to be given to the author for making me long to return to La Serenissima based on his words alone. Focusing on an aging protagonist, Jonathan, a man who is chasing the past from city-to-city, this introspective story’s melancholic nature perfectly complements its beautiful descriptions and thoughtful, not to mention sometimes informative, conversational nature.
After this strong start, Michelle Lovric takes things down a different route with a unique POV in her tale, ‘Pantegana’, however while I understood the basic premise, it left a lot of questions unanswered and not in a positive way. ‘Desdemona undicesima’ by Isabella Santacroce followed and really contributed to the feeling of a lull in the anthology. Coming across more as a creative writing exercise than a commercial story, I struggled to get into this story – although the repugnant characters didn’t help either.
At this point we thankfully move on to part three, ‘Tourists & other troubled folk’, and a name that many readers might be familiar with: Peter James. Who with his story, ‘Venice aphrodisiac’ gives us the typical tale of a spurned lover seeking revenge but given a Venetian twist. This was a solid read with a disturbing ending and will certainly please any reader of crime fiction. The quality continues with ‘Drifter’ by Emily St.John Mandel. Geographically speaking, this is the most expansive of all the entries, with Venice being the last stop in our protagonist Zoe’s bid to get away from her old life.
Using a long buildup, relative to the length of the story at least, perfectly establishes Zoe’s situation and allows for a satisfying payoff. Which is something that the enjoyable ‘Rendezvous’ by Tony Cartano could have benefitted from. Although a brilliant and captivating read in the most part, so perhaps I am being too harsh, but the journey was certainly better than the destination. Rounding out this section and marking it as the best of the lot is ‘Signor Gauke’s Tongue’ by Mike Hodges, in which businessman Lenny compares his personal ethos and life to that of a mafia member, and with that comes all the paranoia being a marked man brings. A terrific read containing some fantastic lines.
The final; section, ‘An imperfect present’, opens with ‘Tourists for supper’, by Maria Tronca. While the title sounds like something that should be included in the previous section, I am glad it wasn’t, simply because it would have let the side down. Purely down to personal taste, but because of its overly quirky POV and focus, this story did not interest me at all. Meanwhile, ‘Laguna blues’ by Michael Gregorio is in fact two short stories rather than one, and not connected either. Both stories provide decent entertainment and proved captivating, but ultimately fell flat. The teased quality and promise of a better pay off make me think that Gregorio should have developed one rather than providing two halves.
Rather aptly, ‘A closed book’, by Mary Hoffman, ends the anthology and does it with a bang. One of the best stories in the book, this tale of arrogance, repressed trauma and revenge, provides enough foreshadowing to let you guess the main points, but is written well enough that you won’t care or feel cheated at the end.
Overall, across the fourteen stories that make up ‘Venice noir’, the city (and surrounding areas - often the urban dumps that are Mestre or Porto Marghera, literally with the latter) is beautifully imagined allowing the reader to feel close to the city, but safe enough to witness all the deceit and violence that lies beneath the cheap knock-off carnival masks, the overpriced Spritz’s and the facade that Veniceland has become.
While not every story resonated with me, and whether you share my tastes or not, I doubt every story will appeal to you either, Editor Maxim Jakubowski has put together a diverse and relatively consistent collection of stories which manage to make the city itself a living character.
In summary, ‘Venice Noir’ perfectly captures of the duality of the dying city. From the splendour of its buildings to the rotting decay of its sewage output, this anthology has many more hits than misses, and no matter what your crime fiction style preference, there will be enough here to make it worth your while.
The stories written by Italian authors were ably translated by Judith Forshaw, who is someone I will look out for regarding her translation of other authors’ work.
