Review: Columbus Noir edited by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Trade paperback, 284 pages
Published 2020
Acquired February 2020
Read July 2020

Columbus Noir
edited by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Akashic Books's "Urban Noir" books are frequently offered through LibraryThing's EarlyReviewer program; I picked up one many years ago and found it so-so, so I haven't picked up any since... but I have kept an eye on the offerings, because I decided I was sufficiently intrigued that I'd pick up any set in places with which I was familiar. It took a long time, but finally Akashic has released one set in my home state of Ohio, Columbus Noir. I have to admit, however, that despite living in Ohio from birth to age 23, I've only been to Columbus three times, so I'm not overly familiar with it.

I feel like the selling point of a book like this would be to make the city come alive... but you don't really get a sense of Columbus from Columbus Noir. Really the only thing you come out of it knowing is that it is gentrifying: I think half or more of these stories deal directly or indirectly with gentrification, with people remodelling homes or going to fancy coffee shops in run-down neighborhoods. While I'm sure this is an important part of Columbus in 2020, it did get repetitive, and doesn't really feel unique. But can you make a unique book about Columbus? Maybe this is just because I haven't gone much, but the vibe one gets off Columbus is that it's Ohio's least interesting major city (aside from Dayton). I feel like I would have done a Cincinnati Noir or Cleveland Noir long before I did a Columbus Noir-- those cities have dark and seedy histories that lead to dark and seedy presents.

All that said, there are some good individual stories here. Things occasionally get repetitive (there are a lot of hot but ill-intentioned women), but there are some good pieces of dark fiction. I particularly enjoyed Kristen Lepionka's "Gun People" (middle-class woman falls for working-class home renovator), Andrew Welsh-Huggins's "Going Places" (about the governor's bodyguard), Tom Barlow's "Honor Guard" (a guy's dad accidentally kills someone, and he has to deal with the consequences), Mercedes King's "An Agreeable Wife for a Suitable Husband" (a period piece about a woman with an awful husband; I wish there had been more period pieces, actually, but this was it), Laura Bickle's "The Dead and the Quiet" (a homeless junkie finds liberation), and Julia Keller's "All That Burns the Mind" (the rare academia story that gets the details right). So it's worth reading if you come across it and want to spend a diverting couple days reading it.