Liz Martinez

INDIAN COUNTRY NOIR is edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez. It is a short story anthology published by Akashik Books and is part of its prolific and very popular Noir series.
Authors include Joseph Bruchac - Jean Rae Baxter - Gerard Houarner - Melisa Yi - A.A. Hedgecoke - Mistina Bates - O’Neil De Noux - R. Narvaez - David Cole - Leonard Schonberg - Reed Farrel Coleman - Lawrence Block - Liz Martinez - Kimberly Roppolo.
All stories represent ‘noir’ - a genre of crime fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism and moral ambiguity. The settings are bleak, raw, sleazy, and often upsetting (as are the characters).
The anthology includes a Foreword by Richard B. Williams; an Introduction by Sarah Cortez; a map of the United States showing the locations of the stories; a Table of Contents and an About the Contributors which gives a short bio of the authors.
Stand out stories (for me) were “Helper” by Joseph Bruchac and Osprey Lake by Jean Rae Baxter.
INDIAN COUNTRY NOIR is an excellent addition to Akashik’s Noir series.… (mehr)

Akashic Books does a phenomenal job with their Noir anthologies. I originally found out about this series from Curt Colbert, a mystery writer in Seattle who edited the Seattle Noir anthology. Incidentally, Curt does a wonderful series of detective noir based in Seattle. Check out Rat City, the first in the series to get a taste of what it is all about.

Indian Country Noir did not disappoint. The book is divided into four parts representing tribal areas in the North, South, East and West of the United States and Canada. The stories all have indigenous people as the central character b ut they are by no means stereotypical.

In the section titled East, my two favorite short stories were “Dead Medicine Snake Woman” which had kind of an other worldly feel to it and “Indian Time” about a Native American Mohawk man’s custody battle with his white mother-in-law.

In South, “Daddy’s Girl” is a very entertaining detective story set in Memphis, Tennessee. I really enjoyed the marrying of two genre’s in this one. My other fave was “Juracan” which is about the indigenous population in Puerto Rico. I really loved this because it included a territory well away from the more travelled path. I had never considered or even known there was an indigenous group there. My sister-in-law is Puerto Rican and we have talked about Puerto Rico but now I have new information and questions.

I was slightly disappointed with West. It included stories set in Los Angeles, Tuscon and Montana. I lived in a state that has multiple established tribes, tribal areas and reservations. The Native Americans on the west side of my state have a history and culture completely different from the east side of the state. Not one story was set here. Nor were there any set in Alaska.

All that being said, my favorite was “Another Role”. It was one of those stories that has that little twist at the end that is just slightly reminiscent of the “Twilight Zone.” I also really enjoyed “JaneJohnDoe.com”. This covered a Navajo and a drug cartel.

Finally, there is North. “Prowling Wolves” is a great period piece covering the World War II era and “Quilt Like a Night Sky” was my favorite in this section. The northern stories were a little more forlorn than some of the others but that was fitting for the north which is kind of mournful itself.

If you haven’t read any of the Noir series books, please check them out. They are all wonderful. “Indian Country Noir” holds up and represents the franchise well. Great for readers and great for people who like to sample authors through some short stories.… (mehr)

When Jimmy sees his mother flying past his window one night on a broom, with his cat Tiddles along for the ride, the young boy is thrown into something of a tizzy. Can his mother, a seemingly 'normal' housewife, be a witch?!? And so begins his quest to discover just what a witch is, and how one can be recognized: "He'd heard about witches from stories in books, / but could you be sure just from somebody's looks? / It's useless, he thought, I need tips on detection, / So he went to the library and looked through the section / of books about witches and folk of the night. / But none of them said how to spot one on sight." After further research, Jimmy concludes that his Mum isn't a witch, only to discover stripy stockings (a sure sign!) on the clothes line! Just what is going on? Is she or isn't she, he demands, and is met with a surprising answer...

With a rhyming text, and quirky illustrations that reminded me a little bit of Quentin Blake's work, The Everyday Witch is a cute little witchy picture-book from the UK (it is not yet available in the states - sorry folks!), and focuses, in its unique way, on a common childhood experience: the discovery that our parents aren't quite who we think they are, and that they have an existence beyond what we had previously known or been aware of. The answer to Jimmy's question - is his mother a witch? - is an interesting one: yes, she is, but not in the way he means. Or rather, yes, she is a witch, but all these conceptions of what that means are wrong.

I liked what Liz Martinez was trying to do here - at least, what I think she was trying to do - but I'm not sure the narrative always quite worked for me. The rhyming sometimes felt a little forced, and I wasn't sure that it was the best storytelling choice, overall. The artwork was attention grabbing, even if not really in a style I particularly cared for. On the other hand, there were stickers, and that's always a good thing! No one else online seems to have reviewed this one, which makes me all the more curious to know how other readers would react to it. Speak up, online friends, if you want to borrow my copy of this one...… (mehr)