Supernatural Noir by Ellen Datlow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another exemplary anthology from Ellen Datlow, this time with a theme that’s right up my alley. The intersection of crime stories and the supernatural is fertile ground, one that’s reaped well by the authors assembled here. There isn’t a weak story in the bunch (such uniform excellence is a trait I’ve come to expect from Datlow anthologies), but of course that makes choosing standouts to mention in this review very difficult. Suffice it to say that the authors I expected great things from — Paul Tremblay, Laird Barron, Lucius Shepard, Tom Piccirilli, John Langan, Lee Thomas — all deliver, and many of the authors whose work I was less familiar with — Melanie Tem, Brian Evenson, Richard Bowes — left me greatly impressed. There are no shortage of novels that blend crime or detective stories with fantasy and horror — hell, I’ve written a few of them myself — but if you’re curious to explore this evolving subgenre, I can’t think of a better place to start.
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