Belfast Noir (Akashic Noir) by Adrian McKinty (Editor), Stuart Neville (Editor)

This anthology is set in Belfast.  It's an area of unrest with old hurts from revolutions in the past.  I've never been there and this is fiction, but you can learn a lot about a city in a story.  With all the voices telling these stories, it amalgamates into a whole.  It's almost like visiting...

Akashic Books sent me a copy of this book to read for review (thank you).  It was published earlier this month, so check with your bookstore for a copy.

These are not cheery tales; they are about life in Belfast.  There is some humor but most of the stories are hard cold facts about life in a still warring country.  I only knew a few authors in this mix, so I was looking forward to "meeting" some new ones.

Reading this all at once is a bit hard to take.  The stories make you think, make you wonder and some I didn't even understand.  Most were okay, a few were not and only one really touched me.  It might be because it was about dogs.  I won't tell you too much about it or it will spoil it, but you do need to read "Pure Game" by Arlene Hunt.  It will stick with you for a while.  Quite a while, in fact.

All in all, I'm glad I read it.  I learned more about Belfast and got an insight into how life is there.  What I really learned was that there is a lot more to learn...