In this chilling portrait of America’s Sin City, lady luck is just as likely to dispense cold hard cash as a cold-hearted killing.
Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.
Brand-new stories by: John O’Brien, David Corbett, Scott Phillips, Nora Pierce, Tod Goldberg, Bliss Esposito, Felicia Campbell, Jaq Greenspon, José Skinner, Pablo Medina, Christine McKellar, Lori Kozlowski, Vu Tran, Celeste Starr, Preston L. Allen, and Janet Berliner.
From the introduction by Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce:
“‘Ooh, Las Vegas,’ sang the pioneering country-rocker Gram Parsons. ‘Every time I hit your Crystal City, you know you’re gonna make a wreck out of me.’ As Las Vegans, we regularly read about these wrecked lives in newspapers and magazines. We routinely observe people going about their wildly destructive antics on mainstream TV. Often we can’t believe these stories are unfolding in our city. They almost seem like put-ons, elaborate pranks borrowed from atrocious cut-rate screenplays. But there they are, these inhabitants of our city, their mug shots staring us down, making us wonder if what Parsons said is really true—that in Las Vegas your only real friend is the queen of spades . . .
“The stories gathered in Las Vegas Noir are written by longtime residents and avid chroniclers of Sin City, authors who take you far beyond the neon of Caesars Palace and into the neighborhoods too dangerous for CSI. Absolutely cliché-free, these stories are full of flesh-and-blood characters trapped in dire circumstances that only real Las Vegas neighborhoods can spring.”
Lawrence D. Zeilinger
4 out of 5 stars
How could Vegas not be noir?
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2008
Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase
I was hoping for a little more casino action, but the 16 stories comprising this great new addition to the Akashic noir series conceived by Tim McCloughlin is one of the better ones. The best thing about the Akashics is how they introduce us to some of the finest new talent writing in this genre today. It's where I discovered Charlie Stella and Ken Bruen, amongst many others. This is the 10th title of the already-published 20; another 15 are forthcoming. All have thumbnail photos and bios of the authors at the end of the books, giving further information about the writers and their other work. This one is divided into three sections: Sin City, Neon Grit, and Tales from the Outskirts. My favorite stories are the five in the first section. John O'Brien's "The Tik" is about a man who returns to his woman's house after a prolonged absence and re-enacts a dark ritual with a strange drug and a woman the couple picks up on a late-night prowl of the strip and lures home. David Corbett's "Pretty Little Parasite" concerns a woman drawn into the world of cocaine dealing and the junkie undercover cop she enables. Tod Goldberg's "Mitzvah" is about a pair of aging Chicago gangsters who for years have posed as rabbis and preside over a private cemetery which is a perfect dumping ground for the Mob. Scott Phillips' "Babs" covers an ex-stripper he visits while on his way back to L.A., to pick up a package of meth for a friend. One of the finest stories is Vu Tran's "This or Any Desert" about an Oakland cop who travels to Vegas to avenge the abuse his ex-wife suffers at the hands of her new husband. In Part Two, my favorite was Pablo Medina's "Benny Rojas and the Rough Riders" whose protagonist is a Cuban exile landing a new life on the boulevard of broken dreams. In Part Three, I especially liked Bliss Esposito's "Guns Don't Kill People". Schockingly, I learned John O'Brien, author of "The Tik" and to whom he and his sister this book is dedicated, came to a tragic end at 34 years old in the eighth year of a prodigal writing career. He produced many fine short stories and three brilliant novels including the now-famous "Leaving Las Vegas". Two weeks after learning it was to be made into a movie, he inexplicably blew his brains out. Next on my to-read list: Havana Noir and Detroit Noir. For the latter, Akashic couldn't quite swing Elmore Leonard, but landed one of Motor City's finest scribes, the superbly prolific Loren D. Estleman. Hats off to editors Jarret Keene and Todd James Pierce for ferreting out these terrifying tales from Vegas' dark side.
