Revenge edited by Kerry J. Schooley and Peter Sellers Insomniac Press 167 pages ISBN 1-894663-66-7

» Globe and Mail, review by Margaret Cannon

Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail, October 30, 2004

This is the third in Insomniac's collections of noir short stories. Hard Boiled Love and Iced were both excellent specialty collections, and this one, while a bit brief, continues the tradition. There are some new stories, along with those already published, and all are solid. Peter Sellers and Kerry Schooley know their noir, and they get the grit, the sighs, the black-and-white style into every paragraph. All the works are good, and some of the names, such as William Bankier and James Powell, are well known. There's a smart comic piece by Barbara Fradkin, and Italics, by newcome Fabrizio Napoleone, a Hamilton lad who knows his Mafiosi lingo. The best work, for me, is Hunky, an uncollected work by Hugh Garner. It has the gritty realism of Steinbeck, but it's very Canadian in tone and content. One forgets just how good Garner could be, and this story has him at his best. Top of Page

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