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Film noir is a particular passion of mine, so naturally throughout the years I’ve turned to its literary cousin—Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane in particular. So much can be done within that framework that it’s practically inexhaustible in the hands of good writers. And Greg Herren and J.M. Redmann’s Men of the Mean Streets has good writers in spades—Sam Spades, that is.

Of course, Men of the Mean Streets has a nicely queer spin to the tales, akin to the recently-reviewed queering of Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Lavender. Given such a spin, the writers in both books seem to be freed from the conventions of their predecessors to create wonderfully intriguing scenarios with rich characters.

Take the powerhouse trio that opens this collection as an example: ‘Nathan Burgoine’s “Keeping the Faith” is an incredibly successful foray into hard-boiled religious philosophy as a priest visits a detective to discover who has stolen his faith while Rob Byrnes’ “Patience, Colorado” explores more than mere genre tropes as his hero is set up by a small town gayboy longing to hit the streets of San Francisco. And then there’s “Mouse,” by Jeffrey Round, a deftly drawn character study of two brothers and the chilling incident that changed their lives forever.

All three of these gems are fascinating reads that make the most of noir-ish elements as well as queer life. But as terrific as they are, they’re only the beginning. Michael Thomas Ford turns in a bravura performance with “Faithful,” which sees a mob wife taking on an enemy family—in more ways than one—to secure her husband’s safety, with a wicked-ass twist at the end. And Greg Herren’s “Spin Cycle,” about a man driven to murder by laundry is creepily hysterical. Jeffrey Ricker’s “Murder on the Midway” is a neatly plotted gumshoe epic, and the editor-turned-murderer in Max Reynolds’ “The Thin Blue Line(s)” is a hapless victim who turns the tables on one of his writers.

There are other marvelous pieces here as well, including Neil Plakcy’s graphic and twisted “An Appetite for Warmth,” Josh Aterovis’ “The Case of the Missing Bulldog” and even a spec-fic noir (“Imago Blue”) from the ever-inventive Felice Picano. No matter what your taste for mystery is like, Men of the Mean Streets is likely to take you for a long ride with a big gun.

I can hardly wait to start its distaff counterpart, Women of the Mean Streets, but I need to let in a little light before I read any more noir.

Otherwise, I’ll lose my summer tan.

Reviewed by Jerry Wheeler