Waiting for the 400: A Northwoods Noir

Rating:
Summary: superb ?small town? Noir
Review: In 1955 in a Chicago rail station, Sheila Lindstron looks like any other girl heading to her track. However, this time Sheila will not stick out in the crowd when she apparently commits suicide in the bathroom holding a ticket to the last stop of the Northbound Flambeau 400, Watersmeet, Michigan.

Four hundred miles due north of Chi-Town, station master Jess Burton knows that the seemingly isolated and small town Watersmeet has plenty of glamour girls arriving by train. Though he admires their looks as any girl watcher would, Jess is used to the beauties who exit at his last whistle-stop to visit the mansions of the wealthy that populate the nearby lakefront property. That is until Nina arrives and soon twists the guts of Jess and every male in the area. Nina has a murderous agenda of revenge and will use her sexy siren's lure to dupe male pawns like Jess to do her bidding.

This Northwood Noir pays homage to stories like Double Indemnity. The story line is moody, atmospheric, and gothic in nature as Kyle Marrfin brings his speculative fiction roots to provide an eerie dark background. Nina is a unique femme fatale mindful of Stanwick in Double Indemnity or Aster in the Maltese Falcon. Jess is a relatively simple guy wanting to escape his current job and home, but is unaware how much until Nina uses him. Think Fred McMurray from Double Indemnity. Fans of "small town" Noirs will appreciate this delightful salute to some of the genre's best.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: superb ¿small town¿ Noir
Review: In 1955 in a Chicago rail station, Sheila Lindstron looks like any other girl heading to her track. However, this time Sheila will not stick out in the crowd when she apparently commits suicide in the bathroom holding a ticket to the last stop of the Northbound Flambeau 400, Watersmeet, Michigan.

Four hundred miles due north of Chi-Town, station master Jess Burton knows that the seemingly isolated and small town Watersmeet has plenty of glamour girls arriving by train. Though he admires their looks as any girl watcher would, Jess is used to the beauties who exit at his last whistle-stop to visit the mansions of the wealthy that populate the nearby lakefront property. That is until Nina arrives and soon twists the guts of Jess and every male in the area. Nina has a murderous agenda of revenge and will use her sexy siren's lure to dupe male pawns like Jess to do her bidding.

This Northwood Noir pays homage to stories like Double Indemnity. The story line is moody, atmospheric, and gothic in nature as Kyle Marrfin brings his speculative fiction roots to provide an eerie dark background. Nina is a unique femme fatale mindful of Stanwick in Double Indemnity or Aster in the Maltese Falcon. Jess is a relatively simple guy wanting to escape his current job and home, but is unaware how much until Nina uses him. Think Fred McMurray from Double Indemnity. Fans of "small town" Noirs will appreciate this delightful salute to some of the genre's best.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: With sensual thrills and danger lurking in the shadows
Review: Set in the spring of 1955, Waiting For The 400: A Northwoods Noir by Kyle Marffin is a steamy novel of dangerous women, misguided men, and deals in black shadows with deadly consequences. Deftly written with the dank mystique of classic noir, Waiting For The 400 irresistibly draws the reader into the story with sensual thrills and danger lurking in the shadows.