Like any collection where the stories have been solicited rather than pulled from already published works, the quality is uneven, with a few feeling uninspired and written at the last minute and others being memorable. Oddly, the best stories in the book were grouped at the back, and included Joyce Carol Oates, who writes about how a girl witnesses how the retelling of an incident in the life of her mother changes over time and who is doing the telling, and Edmund White, whose story involves the politics and struggles for tenure in the English department of a small college.

Val McDermid surprised me with an unexpectedly gripping story about an old lover returning for a bit of blackmail. I'd read one of her crime novels years ago, and hadn't been impressed, but I see that I'll have to read something else by her after all. The stories by Laura Lippman, Lawrence Block and Lee Child were all serviceable, but not up to what some of the authors came up with.

I read this as a palate cleanser between other books, and for that it served its purpose well. There were no unreadable stories and they were all recognizably noir, although if you were looking for a book of short crime stories, Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives would be a better choice. ( )

The Dark End of the Street is a good collection of short stories. Some of them are dark and bloody, while others are almost innocent and fluffy. Several of them had me hooked and I had to stay up a few minutes late just to finish reading. My favorite is probably the last: The Creative Writing Murders by Edmund White. Like some of the other stories, it is unclear until the end what is going on and where the characters are headed.
I won a copy through First Reads. ( )

I love that goodreads supports my reading addiction with periodically providing me free books.

Alright, I finally finished this. Even though I love collections of short stories, it's much easier to stall. Anyway, I really enjoyed this collection. Some weren't great, some were wonderful and truly surprising. great for mystery lovers.

Jill, I'm mailing this to you later this week. ( )

Christa Faust, author of Money Shot made a distinction between crime noir and some other noir but for the life of me, I can't recall the distinction. But it got me thinking, what defines crime noir? It's easy to say Raymond Chandler or James Cain; they pioneered the genre. But otherwise, what is it? There are 19 examples to ponder in The Dark End of the Street. I don't know if they make the cut so to speak, but they are intriguing stories by some of today's most well-known writers of crime fiction. We've got a few stories where the hunter gets captured by the game (Tricks--my favorite--by Laura Lippman) and Me & Mr. Rafferty by Lee Child. There are the unnerving stories of murders planned and carried out (Salon and Scenarios), delicately explained by the psychopath. And there's Dragon's Breath, a story about a journalist who's already slid down to the dark side many times and is trying to NOT make those mistakes again, although you can feel how flimsy his hold is on life legit; the ever-nearness of harm is palpable in this tale.

Those are just a handful of the stories presented. Of course, some are better than others. But there are enough stories here to satisfy all tastes for the crime fiction lover out there. The only missing thing is a list of contributors at the end, but the authors are so recognizable that it isn't a necessity. I give this one 3.5 stars. I'll keep it for re-reads. A couple of these stories are quite good and would make excellent night caps. ( )

Circumstances and books that kept me more interested than this one did prevented me from finishing and reviewing The Dark End of the Street in a timely manner. I suppose I am just not a fan of short stories, even those by some of my favorite writers. I could not keep reading these stories without a break for some real whodunnits. A couple of the stories were entertaining, but none of them were as satisfying a full length mystery from the likes of Connelly (my favorite), Child, or McDermid. Two stars and a "bleh". ( )