The Return of Noir at the Bar!
November 6 saw a thematically appropriate torrential downpour and the return of Noir at the Bar to Seattle’s Alibi Room. Noir at the Bar features mystery and crime fiction writers sharing stories of murder and mayhem. Hosted by Scotti Andrews, with dynamite readers Kathleen Kaska, Brian Thornton, Kate Jackson, Jim Thomsen, Alex Kenna, Robert J. Binney, and yours truly. Each reader brought something different to the table.
Jim Thomsen (a Quinn Martin Production) kicked it off with real-life tales of awkward postal employee encounters, and the glorious description of seventies Seattle from The Killing Rain anthology.
Alex Kenna followed up with an excerpt from her novel featuring kidnapping, and force burglary, and now I’m dying to know what happens next. (It also made me want to sing Cops & Robbers from George Thorogood, but that was probably just me.)
Brian Thornton brought us to the intermission with historical fiction featuring a ghost ship of the 1800s. His reading included accents and gave off Wild Wild West vibes (no, not the horrible movie version, the original 60s TV version that was probably a Quinn Martin production…)
The newest Stiletto Gang member, Kathleen Kaska, brought us an excerpt of her post-WWII detective that started out as a short story, but couldn’t be contained by that kind of word count.
Robert J. Binney gave us Eddie Vedder as a Private Eye solving the mystery of who stole the Heart concert box office take. It had old-school Encyclopedia Brown short-form mystery vibes, complete with clues and Seattle references. (I would read more. Eddie Vedder was clearly destined for P.I. greatness.)
Kate Jackson gave us an Elton John-themed murder of a caregiver who had stopped giving decades earlier. Best part of murder fiction? Killing off those who deserve it guilt-free.
I finished off the evening by trying to cut through the rain with a little Hawaiian sunshine and Mayhem & Mahalo – just a sunshiny story about five dead bodies and one no longer mint-in-box heroin addict.
Thanks to Scotti Andrews for all her hard work putting the evening together!
Want to hear more Noir at the Bar?
Listen to a recording from KUOW and/or of Bethany reading one of her NATB short stories: CONNECT
