Like with a lot of anthologies, there were several that were pretty good and several that were “meh.” Personally, there were too many stories of men stalking women to earn more than three stars.

Opening tale, "Pasolini's Shadow," is amazing! Wonderfully heartfelt, dramatic, poetic. I'm floored. Pasolini's death has cast as long a shadow across literature and film as Byron's affair with Lady Caroline Lamb--the other book I'm reading today--heh heh.

"Eternal Rome." As bad as the first story was good--riddled with cliche, more sci fi than noir, with a dumb. "shock" ending.

"The Melting Pot." Not bad in terms of tone but--and this may not be a valid criticism of a story obviously about naivete--I found the narrator unrealistically naive.

"Last Summer Together" Not bad--but a bit like even the best Italian pop tunes, way over-dramatic.

"Don't Talk to the Passenger." Started out really great. The first truly noir story, using the trope of the psychopathic cop. End in a rather racist way though. Bugged me. Italians have a lot to learn about other cultures.

"Roman Holidays." Rather dull, plodding story in pedestrian language, imagery, concept.

"Tiburtina Noir Blues." Slightly effective, a great idea, but too broad/comic book in execution to be very convincing. Derivative of Psycho, with the same lame epilogue explaining everything in a condescending way.

"Words, Thought." Finally, another pretty good story. Like Italian pop music again a bit overdone, but I was pretty engrossed. Nice use of crime as a McGuffin to speak of other things: adolescence, first love, the generation gap.

"Christmas Eves." Wow. beautiful. A tiny little gem. Not really noir, per se, but haunting.

"Beret." Short and sweet--unexpectedly amusing. Move along, nothing much to see here.

"Remember Me with Kindness." Meh. Was hoping for more from the only non-translated story in the collection."

"Eaten Alive." Another good one! Not exactly noir in the US film sense, but dark indeed--and isolates the real enemy for once. All of the best stories in this collection are by women.

"For a Few..." A complex tale with little payoff, sadly. I assume the title is a reference to the Sergio Leone western but the translator didn't get it.

"Silence Is Golden." Horrible sexist piece of crap. This is exactly what's most wrong with the Italian male, their mommy complexes, and their violent, childlike self-absorption.

"Caput Mundi." Well written, truly hard boiled, but kinda fizzled at the end.

"1988." Quite witty and well written. So the collection begins and ends with a bang but sadly sags quite a bit in the middle.