Akashic Books has been issuing a series of books that thematically collect "noir" stories related to specific cities, e.g., Richmond Noir, Philadelphia Noir, etc., although I see there is a recent one entitled "Grand Central Noir;" perhaps they ran out of cities. The books are an excellent way to discover authors writing in the noir genre -- if there is such a thing -- and I've already order some books based on stories in "Dublin Noir: The Celtic Tiger Vs. the Ugly American" edited by Ken Bruen.

Obviously, maintaining a consistent level of excellence is difficult with so many authors, and I doubt if I will seek out Jason Starr (very silly story). On the other hand, "Rope-A-Dope" by Craig MacDonald had a nifty twisted ending. One critique of mine is that I wish the editors had limited themselves to authentic Irish writers rather than include stories set in Dublin by non-native writers, e.g., Laura Lippman Personal prejudice. The real Dublin is, of course, much less noir. ( )

In his introduction, Ken Bruen, the editor of this collection of nineteen stories set in Dublin, explains, “The Irish are fascinated by how we appear to the world, so let’s have a look… at how this city (i.e. Dublin) appears from the outside”. He has presented this anthology in four parts as follows: Part I: The Inside Job, contains three stories by Irish authors originating outside the Pale. Part II: The Manhattan Connection has five contributions from Americans. Part III: Heart of the Old country presents four stories, three from UK residents and the fourth written by someone from Budapest. Par IV: New World Noir gives us seven stories from mostly American resident authors.

Before I discuss the stories specifically let me say three things. Firstly, a collection like this is a trap to any non-Irish author or any author who has not lived in Ireland for a significant amount of time. Secondly, most of the authors fell into the pitfalls that not living in Ireland presented. Finally, if you are Irish and you read this book you are likely to cringe. I see this book as selling to American tourists in Ireland or to Irish Americans at home in the US.

I have great sympathy for the non-Irish authors who contributed to this story. If someone asked me to write a story set in, for example, Paris, a city I know reasonably well, I would still be likely to make lots of mistakes, not just about the geography, but about the attitudes of and behaviour of Parisians. In the case of Dublin Noir, and the fact that most of the stories were written by Americans who generally have a leprechaun tinted view of the Emerald Isle, the trap was set and many of the authors plunged in head first.

Having stated the above let me praise Jason Starr for avoiding all the traps. His story, “Lost in Dublin”, stands out streaks ahead of the others. It deals with an American girl visiting Dublin to get her head cleared regarding how she should deal with a fickle boyfriend. Her experiences in Dublin, the locations in which she is placed and the characters she meets, all ring true. The story takes us along with her on an emotional journey and shows us how a vulnerable person can be duped in the simplest of fashions by unscrupulous conmen. Whether the resolution of her dilemma is realistic or not will cause debate between the sexes, but does not affect how well the story works in Dublin. I think Starr’s success was his focus on the story and the characters with minimal dependency on the location.

I would also mention Gary Philips who made a brave effort and only slipped up by assuming that the mention of the magic “dollar” would open doors in Dublin more readily than the euro or the pound.

The first story in the collection, “Taking on PJ” by Eoin Colfer (of “Artemis Foul” fame), started off promising but failed to keep interest and tension going. It very quickly became a schoolboy essay with the ban on bad language and lewdness removed.

Ken Bruen has a story of his own, “Black Stuff”, in the collection. It is an attempt to bring multicultural Dublin alive by having a black Dubliner recruited to carry off a “General” style art robbery of Whistler’s Mother, on loan from the Musée d’Orsay. Need I say more.

Pat Mullan’s “Tribunal” is an excuse to say there has been corruption in Ireland, politicians have been involved and it has led to tribunals. Oh, and just to make it really noir we have someone assassinated because they wouldn’t play ball with a corrupt politician.

The first American author to appear in the book, Reed Farrel Coleman, takes a head-on approach to the problem of Americans’ misperceptions of things on this side of the Atlantic. In his story, “Portrait of the Killer as a Young Man”, (Did you see what he did there? Did you see what he did there?) he presents a foul mouthed taxi driver cursing the Americans and presenting a litany of everything that is wrong with Americans. The taxi driver of course becomes a serial killer, specialising in despatching Americans to the next world.

“The Ghost of Rory Gallagher” by Jim Fusili has a Nick Leeson style crooked trader deciding to locate himself in Dublin after serving a short term in prison. He is attracted by the Celtic Tiger and thinks Ireland will be a good place to reside and make a comfortable living with the money he as stashed away, the princely sum of €300,000. This is the first big faux pas he makes. Our trader-robber manages to buy himself a pub in Dublin without using any of his core capital. Given the price of an average three bedroom house in Dublin has risen to over €300,000, and pubs selling in the millions, it is hard to see how he bought the pub with petty cash and kept his nest-egg intact.

He re-opens the pub as a Rory Gallagher theme bar and attracts dowdy old men reminiscent of the cloth cap, drowned raincoat brigade who made their way to the pub in the morning in the 1970s and 80s and propped up the bar till closing time. While Fusili used the Celtic Tiger as a key draw to Ireland for his main character he didn’t think it might have changed things a little and affected the price of property.

“In Tourist Trade”, by James O.Born, we have a serial killer from Galway who bumps off people in the centre of Dublin and then manages to walk to the Spa Hotel in Lucan within an hour. That’s not a bad walking pace for eleven miles.

Meanwhile, in “The Piss-Stained Czech” by Olen Steinhauer, we have the priceless, stage Irish line,
”And what might you be doing in Sean MacDougal’s flat?”
The guard who asked the question later shows his badge and is discovered to be working for the Galway force, not the Dublin force. The government’s decentralisation programme has been taken way further than Charlie McCreavy had ever imagined and we were never told.

Need I go on for all nineteen stories?

This book is a collection of superficial, flawed and often banal stories located in Dublin. These stories, with very few exceptions, show little evidence of the authors' knowing much about the city or of their having bothered to research what they didn’t know.
A more rigorous editing process would have saved the authors from making the most basic factual errors. ( )

Murder in Dublin, the short version of a possible review. These stories are gritty, realistic, amusing, true-to-life. A variety of authors from Ireland, the UK and the US, edited (and with a contribution from Ken Bruen) these are vicious stories of murder and mayhem in Dublin, with some very immoral focus characters. ( )