I have enjoyed Colin Conway’s 509 series, detective novels set in the Spokane, Washington area. When the story collection, The Eviction of Hope, showed up, I realized I hadn’t read one of the books in a while, so I got this one.

The concept (based on a real-world situation) is that “The Hope,” a residential hotel, once a grand place but now home to transients and drug addicts, is being sold for gentrification. That means the residents, some of them hard-luck civilians, others low-level criminals, are being thrown out onto the streets. Author Conway gathered a group of established crime writers to imagine some of the stories of those dispossessed people.

I am of two minds about the stories in this book. They are well-written. Several of them grabbed me.

However, most of them are downers. One, in particular, involves a Christian woman who disappoints us morally.

All in all, The Eviction of Hope was depressing but well done.

Cautions for language and mature situations.