Seattle Noir, edited by Curt Colbert

Seattle Noir

Jeremy Richards
05/23/2009

After World War II, Seattle earned the nickname "Rat City." Police corruption, racism, and rampant alcoholism dominated many Seattle neighborhoods. Imagine a few blinking neon lights illuminating a rainy 1940s evening in Pioneer Square, and you've got the perfect backdrop for a hardened private eye trying to make sense of right and wrong. That's how Seattle novelist Curt Colbert sees it. Curt merges history and fiction in noir mysteries with names like "Sayonaraville," "Queer City" and "Rat City." Curt is also the editor of a new short story anthology called "Seattle Noir." Some of the characters Curt writes about come from memories of his father and the men he knew. Curt Colbert talked with KUOW's Jeremy Richards about the real life behind his noir mysteries.