Chicago Blues » (Reprint)

Dark collection of crime stories from Chicago.

Publishers Weekly

This classy anthology of mostly original short stories from 21 renowned Windy City authors blends the blues, crime and Chicago, quite surpassing Akashic's recent Chicago Noir. Several series heroes make appearances, including Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski, Kris Nelscott's Smokey Dalton and J.A. Konrath's Jack Daniels. Stuart M. Kaminsky takes a different tack with "Blue Note," a fine story of a poker game where the real stakes are a mother's fingers. Two authors with acclaimed recent debut novels, Jack Fredrickson (A Safe Place for Dying) and Marcus Sakey (The Blade Itself), demonstrate equal talent in short form. Best of all are Michael Allen Dymoch's "A Shade of Blue" in which a man claims to have witnessed a murder that took place 30 years earlier; D.C. Brod's "My Heroes Have Always Been Shortstops," which measures the depths of a Cubs fan's devotion; and Barb D'Amato's "The Lower Wacker Hilton," about the death of a homeless man in Chicago's underworld. This impressive volume has soul, grit and plenty of high notes. (Oct.)