Fade to Black: Noir Stories of Grifters, Drifters, and Unlovable Losers (Close to the Bone, 2024)
Homicide cops talk about the “unholy trinity” behind most murders: greed, lust, revenge. In White’s collection of 22 noir tales you have all three motives on display, sometimes all three working in combination with one another. Take “Gone Fishing,” for example. A man cheats on his best friend with the man’s wife. That man wants to take him fishing in rough weather in a small boat on open water. There’s more than catching yellow perch behind the invitation.
Sleazy motels, seedy diners, factories, jails, and bars aren’t the only places where danger lurks in these stories. The luckless men and women who try to escape their fates in Fade to Black mostly discover that they’ve been running toward it all the time. White’s subtitle is fitting: “Noir Stories of Drifters, Grifters, & Unlovable Loser.” It isn’t all hopeless, as some stories will show, lfalls on the just and unjust alike.
Fade-Black-Robert-White/dp/B0D7TR9MT9
Published in Murder, Mayhem, & More, 12/30/24
I’ve read all of the author’s Thomas Haftmann books, and really enjoyed them all. As a Brit, I am fascinated by an American’s view of his own country, pulsing with some deeply noir illustrations of life below the breadline; relentless crime and violence, not a happy ending in sight. Actually, that last bit’s not entirely true, but it depends on The Reader to decide whether one or two of the tales end well or not. Involving and entertaining stuff.
There are several themes and a few of the author’s favourite hobbyhorses raise their shaggy heads (what’s with the downer on fast cars?), all adding to a characterful and involving set of stories. Mr White’s stories remind me of Derek Raymond’s ‘factory’ series of novels, with a similar sorrowful relish at what is a seriously seamy side of life.
If you’re after light, frothy reading, look away. If you fancy meeting some seriously unlovely characters and trying to understand how they happen to be that way and how they work in their own darknesses… try these stories.
9/10
Reviewed by Frank Westworth