The Ancient Rain - Hardcover

*Starred Review* The third volume in Stansberry’s Dante Mancuso series again draws effectively on the rich history of San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. Chasing the Dragon (2004) looked back to the area’s Italian roots, while The Big Boom (2006) covered the more recent dot-com era. We split the difference here with a gripping noir mystery that takes its plot from events during the radical 1970s, the time of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Mancuso becomes involved in a politically charged case when a fellow PI is arrested suddenly and charged with the murder of an innocent bystander during an SLA-like bank robbery more than 30 years previously. Attempting to track back the initial investigation of the crime, Mancuso resurrects old wounds and simmering resentments as he ponders whether his friend is telling him the truth. It’s a solid enough mystery, oozing the kind of palpable North Beach atmosphere that fans of the series have come to expect, but what makes Stansberry stand out from the crowd is the genuine noir sensibility he brings to his work, the overwhelming feeling that things must go wrong. The last paragraph of this fine novel, reflecting on the “old rain” that keeps falling, even though it doesn’t clean anything, captures the core of Stansberry’s view perfectly, its eloquence suggesting Joyce describing the snow at the end of his celebrated story “The Dead.” --Bill Ott