This book is a collection of very dark stories - some are very dark indeed.
They are all interesting and very atmospheric mostly taking place around a less well-known side of Venice. A couple of the pieces are almost too nauseating for me - the stuff of nightmares.

So far, Venice Noir is one of my very favorite of the Akashic Noir series. First, I should say that the stories in these books don’t have to be strictly noir for me to enjoy an installment in the series. Instead, I look for captivating stories that remain with me after I’ve finished the book. Venice Noir delivered that for me in spades.

There are a number of very captivating, sometimes creepy stories, which you can’t help but turn over and over in your mind long after the reading is done. Maria Tronca's Tourists for Supper is my favorite, but by no means the only one I enjoyed.

The setting in each of the stories was strongly evocative of Venice and made me feel, in almost every case, as though I was seeing everything being described. I was impressed with the fact that almost all of the authors who were represented in this book were able to make me feel that sense of place.

Of all the books I’ve read in this series, this one felt strongest to me in terms of setting, and that enhanced all of the stories as well as the overall experience. This one I will probably re-read.

I have learned something reading this book. The stories are great and I've enjoyed most of them. The problem and what I've discovered is that they're to short and that I don't care for the short-story medium of story-telling. I guess that's the reason I normally stay clear of short stories. As I said at the beginning, the stories are good and the setting was interesting. If you enjoy short stories, and don't mind the darker side of life, then give this a go. ( )

For a collection of short stories that I was going to pace myself by reading one story a night, I ended up finishing the 14 stories contained in the collection over the course of three evenings of reading. This collection of noir stories has a common theme: location. The seedier side of Venice Italy is examined in stories written by 14 unique contributors. I was delighted to discover Emily St. John Mandel and Michelle Lovric were among the contributors.

The stories are grouped into 4 parts/categories of stories: Amongst the Venetians - stories of the dark underbelly of modern Venice; Shadows of the Past - stories with a historical/flash of the past aspect to them; Tourists and other Troubled Folk - self explanatory dark examination of visitors to Venice and lastly, An Imperfect Present - for stories that really didn't seem to fit the other three categories.

As a rule, I am not usually taken with noir genre but the idea of Venice as a backdrop was enough to entice me to want to pick up the book. As with any collection of short stories, some appealed to me more than others. I found Maria Tronca's Tourists for Supper unique, written from the point of view of rats. Barbara Baraldi's Commissario Clelia Vinci left me wanting to read more of the Commissario and Inspector Franco Armati of the Venice police. I was intrigued by the mysterious woman in Maxim Jakubowski's Lido Winter and I was placed under a spell by Michelle Lovric's Pantegana

Of all the stories, Francesco Ferracin's The Comedy is Over, Emily St John Madel's Drifter, Micheal Gregorio's Laguna Blues had the gritty crime feel I was expecting the stories to take.

Overall, a very interesting and unique collection that has something for everyone but may be a bit of a letdown for more dedicated readers of crime/noir genre than myself. For me, it was a delicious escape into a genre and world that I don't usually venture into as part of my reading adventures and has whetted my appetite to consider adding more stories of this nature to my reading repertoire. It has also provided me with a further glimpse at the works of authors I have previously read as well as introducing me to new authors to keep an eye out for. ( )

Akashic Noir finally reached Venice... and I almost wish it had not.

I like the series - having stories concentrated on a specific city is nice and adds something to the overall enjoyment of the anthologies. But while the first anthologies were noir at its finest, the later ones are departing from the genre and move toward something else - the stories either feel too light or end up way over in the dark side (Maria Tronca’s "Tourists for Supper" is a prime example for that).

The 14 stories that make up the volume are set in Venice and the surrounding cities (Mestre for example) and range wildly both in quality and in the feeling of the stories. A big number of them are Italian - which adds something to the authenticity. And the authors tackle all kind of crime that goes into that beautiful city - from the lyrical "Lido Winter" to the more cruel and noirish "Laguna Blues", "Cloudy Water" and "The Comedy is Over". The story that stands out in the collection is "Commissario Clelia Vinci" by Barbara Baraldi - not perfect but it is the kind of story you expect in this kind of an anthology.

Overall the selection felt weak - there should be better stories out there. Venice is a story in itself and it does not take that much to make something memorable out of it. And somehow, most of the authors managed to. But at least most of them managed to show Venice in its brilliance - and the selection spanned the city pretty well. Which at the end of the day may be what made the whole anthology not so bad. ( )