The Dark End of the Street edited by SJ Rozan & Jonathan Santlofer

The Dark End of the Street edited by SJ Rozan & Jonathan Santlofer. Bloomsbury £7.99/$16.00

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

I checked the city's two large bookshops recently and short story collections of crime fiction were a rarity. So this one promised to be a treat -- and it is a promise handsomely fulfilled.

Here are 19 stories by some of the finest crime writers around with tales themed on sex and violence. I'm pleased to report that we do not get a series of serial killers hacking hapless victims and then having sex with their corpses; oh no, we get some sophisticated and thoughtful stories that explore the boundaries of sex and crime. And sometimes the sex part is barely present; it's somewhere in the background or in the past. Sometimes it's love gone awry; sometimes, it's just lust -- and power. It's all about control.

I'll only mention a few stories, the ones that stood out for me. "Dragon's Breath" by Madison Smartt Bell deals with drugs in New York. Meanwhile, "Scenarios" by Lawrence Block is a humorous examination of the serial killer -- rather the potential to be one. "The Heredity Thurifer" by Stephen L Carter is about a 30 year old murder that haunts a community and is, in effect, a rather good ghost story.

"Sunshine" by Lynn Freed and "Daybreak" by SJ Rozan both have similar themes and similar penalties for the villains -- much deserved, I say. "Tricks" by Laura Lippman is all about serial relationships while "Deer" by Janice YK Lee shows how an unexpected event -- the dead deer -- can fracture friendships. "Midnight Stalkings" by James Grady reminded my of Mr & Mrs Smith (the movie) but in a good way; it's a twist-in-the tail story that works well. "The Creative Writing Murders" by Edmund White is an effective story of ambition in academia, and how deaths appear to be beneficial to the protagonist. Co-editor's Jonathan Santlofer's "Ben & Andrea & Evelyn & Ben", one of my favourites, is about the breaking relationship between Ben and his wife Andrea.

In fact, all good fiction deals with people and their relationships with others and their world, and how they deal with it -- or not. And that's one of the strengths of this anthology: it's a microcosm of humanity touched by, and touching sexual crime. There were just two or three stories that didn't work for me, but out of 19 ... well, that's like worrying over a zephyr whilst being battered by a hurricane. (Besides, an anthologist once told me that he doesn't expect an individual reader to like every story in a book -- if he or she did, they'd be that anthologist.)

The Dark End of the Street is a brilliant collection of stories, no doubt about it. The writing is crisp and the stories (with the aforementioned proviso) gripping. These are noir crime tales that eschew rote detectives and wise-ass, cynical cops. If Crime Wave magazine is on your reading list you should get hold of this book. An additional treat are the illustrations scattered throughout. These, by Santlofer, capture the black & white & grey tones of the genre. I really enjoyed this book: recommended.

Dead End of the Street competition

Think you can write like Lee Child, Michael Connelly or Val McDermid?

Want to get some advice on how to write the perfect short crime story?

Top crime writers SJ Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer will answer the ten best questions on how to write crime fiction, exclusively from Bloomsbury.
Send in your question to marketing@bloomsbury.com by Friday 3 September 2010. The most thrilling and chilling questions will be answered and posted here on Monday 6 September 2010. And if your question makes the cut you will win a copy of The Dark End of the Street and the new novels from debut crime writers, Conor Fitzgerald and Jason Eliot.

The Dark End of the Street

Coming in September from Bloomsbury, The Dark End of the Street is a new crime anthology, edited by SJ Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer. Yes, that's right: Bloomsbury is publishing an anthology. Excellent news! According to the blurb: "a glittering line-up of some of today's finest writers weave fresh and memorable stories from the classic themes of sex and crime [...to provide a...] suspense-filled cocktail of dark-haired vixens and cold-blooded killers, of crimes of passion and premeditated revenge." It adds that this book is "a rare treat for fans of great fiction."

It certainly looks very promising and I aim to start reading it a.s.a.p. There are 19 original stories in this book, including tales by Lawrence Block, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Jonathan Lethem, Val McDermid and Joyce Carol Oates. I especially like the title of the last story in the book: "The Creative Writing Murders" by Edmund White. (I've just realised: the stories appear in alphabetical order [by author]; don't think I've noticed that in an anthology before.)

In addition to all the words, the book is illustrated by Jonathan Santlofer -- noirish pictures that suit the subject matter.

I hope the book sells well for Bloomsbury, if only to encourage them and other publishers to do more of the same, please. Out on 6 September as a paperback original at £7.99.