Tag: #NoirFiction

Scandinavian writing has been dominating the global crime fiction landscape, and this volume offers a delicious, devious sampling.

“The latest entry in the publisher’s series (41 and counting) proves the resilience of, and market for, these locale noirs. Editor Bo Tao Michaëlis, a Danish book critic, is both scholarly and insightful in the introduction and outlines how the stories reflect the greed and ennui of modern Denmark in contrast to the Danish idyll depicted in tourist brochures. [ . . . ] Although some stories veer from noir orthodoxy, there are fine examples of lyrical writing, noir sensibilities, and insight into the current Danish psyche. Overall, a very impressive anthology.” —Library Journal
“The indefatigable noir series of anthologies (Orange County Noir, Trinidad Noir, Brooklyn Noir 3, etc.) focuses in its 43rd volume on the home of Hans Christian Andersen. [ . . . ] Based on this collection, Copenhagen may be a great place to visit, but nobody seems to live there, at least not well or long.” —Kirkus Reviews

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: Naja Marie Aidt, Jonas T. Bengtsson, Helle Helle, Christian Dorph & Simon Pasternak, Susanne Staun, Lene Kaaberbøl & Agente Friis, Klaus Rifbjerg, Gretelise Holm, Georg Ursin, Kristian Lundberg, Kristina Stoltz, Seyit Öztürk, Benn Q. Holm, and Gunnar Staalesen.
From the introduction by Bo Tao Michaëlis:
“Copenhagen: the Little Mermaid, H.C. Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard, and Karen Blixen, a big city that perhaps more than any other is the absolute capital, origin, and center of northern European romanticism of the 1800s. Denmark’s Copenhagen, with its ramparts and moats forming the shell of the city and suburbs, has retained a glint of back then, that world of yesterday . . . At one point our metropolis was presented as an idyllic, modest-sized big city, where police stopped traffic when a mother duck guided her ugly ducklings across the street populated by cars, bicycles, and streetcars. But naturally, and quite unfortunately, such is the case no longer. Copenhagen long ago abandoned its Sleeping Beauty slumber for a cosmopolitan night and day that never sleeps . . . Those times are gone forever.
“All the short stories in Copenhagen Noir are about meaninglessness, violence, and murder in various districts of the city . . . Common for all the writers is a love for Copenhagen and for the dark story of coincidence and necessity, the good and bad luck of humans. In a metropolis that both has a style of its own yet also resembles the other black pearls of cities across the globe: New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Berlin. Enjoy.”

“This entry, with its high-quality stories from such genre masters as Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, outshines the typical all-original anthology.”—Publishers Weekly
 
In Akashic Books’s acclaimed series of original noir anthologies, each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. This collection of classic stories—the sequel to the award-winning, bestselling Los Angeles Noir—”reaffirm[s] that the shadows cast by the Southland’s sun, and its gloomy ocean fog, have proved some of noir’s most fertile territory” (Los Angeles Times).
 
This anthology features stories by Raymond Chandler, Paul Cain, James Ellroy, Leigh Brackett, James M. Cain, Chester Himes, Ross MacDonald, Walter Mosley, Naomi Hirahara, Margaret Millar, Joseph Hansen, William Campbell Gault, Jervey Tervalon, Kate Braverman, and Yxta Maya Murray.
 
“If you love either mysteries or tales about our corner of the world, pick up Noir 2 . . . Hey, the concept of ‘noir’—dark, steamy mystery stories—was invented here.”—Los Angeles Daily News

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Ralph E. Vaughan

5 out of 5 stars

Noir the Way it’s Supposed to Be

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2021

Format: Kindle

Verified Purchase

What this collection of older stories goes to show is how lost modern writers of noir have become, how far from the mark they have strayed. Although a dark vein of violence and brutality weaves its way through many of the stories, it never becomes the sole reason for a story’s existence. The characters and situations, even without overt violence, become manifestations of a nihilistic universe. In these older stories, restraint is also shown in language, which only serves to highlight characters, situations and dire fates. Without the crutches depended upon by modern writers, there is nothing to diminish the impact of shattering climaxes.

You may be disturbed—or possibly titillated—to discover what can happen once you cross the Orange Curtain . . .

“‘There’s a dark side to most places,’ even California’s sunny Orange County, Edgar-winner T. Jefferson Parker observes in his foreword to this outstanding entry in Akashic’s noir series, one of the stronger of the all-original anthologies. The crisp, often seductive prose of the 14 contributors, most of them relatively unknown, is a tribute to the critical judgment of the editor.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

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: Susan Straight, Robert S. Levinson, Rob Roberge, Nathan Walpow, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Dan Duling, Mary Castillo, Lawrence Maddox, Dick Lochte, Robert Ward, Gary Phillips, Gordon McAlpine, Martin J. Smith, and Patricia McFall, with a foreword by T. Jefferson Parker.

From the introduction by Gary Phillips:

“Orange County brings to mind McMansion housing tracts; massive shopping centers with their own zip codes where Pilates classes are run like boot camp and real-estate values are discussed at your weekly colonic; and ice-cream parlors on Main Street, U.S.A., side by side with pho shops and taquerías. Los Angeles has been and continues to be explored as the place where noir, if it wasn’t spawned there, sure as hell flowered. But what about its neighbor to the south? What secrets do Orange County’s denizens have to tell . . . or hide?

This volume, like coming in from a sudden storm and then being gripped by a heavy riff from Bird’s horn, takes you on a hard-boiled tour behind the Orange Curtain. Among those you’ll meet are a reclusive rock star who has lived way too long in his twisted head, a crooked judge who uses the court for illicit means, a cab driver prowling the streets with more than the ticking meter on his mind. In Orange County Noir, cultures clash, housewives want more than the perfect grout cleaner, and nobody is exactly who they seem to be.”

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Gordon McAlpine uses his narrator’s job as a security officer at Disneyland in “The Happiest Place” as an effective catalyst for a classic noir plot of betrayal.” — Publishers Weekly

About the Author

GARY PHILLIPS has published novels, comics, and short stories, and edited numerous anthologies. Violent Spring, first published in 1994, was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. Culprits, a linked anthology he coedited, has been optioned as a British miniseries, and he was a staff writer on FX’s Snowfall about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up. He is the editor of Orange County Noir and the coeditor of The Cocaine Chronicles. He has contributed stories to Dublin Noir, Los Angeles Noir, Phoenix Noir, and The Heroin Chronicles. South Central Noir is his latest anthology.

Latin American noir at its finest. “[A] diverse collection of stories which reflect the harshness and also the brittle brilliance of life in Mexico City.”—MostlyFiction Book Reviews
 
Akashic Books’s acclaimed series of original noir anthologies has set a high standard for portraying cities and their neighborhoods in all their dark and violent splendor. Now, “Mexico City Noir surpasses that standard with phantasmagorical tales of double-dealing, corruption, violence and self-delusion . . . This collection is such a varied literary feast. Fans of Jorge Luis Borges will find surprises galore in the story ‘Violeta Isn’t Here Anymore.’ The noir-ish maze that Myriam Laurini constructs with her flair for the shifting realities of ‘magical realism’ is dazzling enough, and then up pops Borges . . .
“Peel back one layer and find something totally unexpected, these tales tell us again and again. As Eduardo Monteverde writes, ‘the heart of Mexico City is made of mud and green rocks, and the God of Rain continues to cry over the whole country.’ And standing on that ground, the 12 writers here find inspiration to die for” (Shelf Awareness).
 
This anthology includes brand-new stories by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Eugenio Aguirre, Eduardo Antonio Parra, Bernardo Fernández Bef, Óscar de la Borbolla, Rolo Díez, Victor Luiz González, F.G. Haghenbeck, Juan Hernández Luna, Myriam Laurini, Eduardo Monteverde, and Julia Rodríguez.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The latest entry in Akashic’s Noir series is centered on one of the largest and most violent cities in the world, Mexico City. For readers unfamiliar with Mexico City’s distinctive culture of crime and corruption, a short foreword by editor Taibo, himself a critically acclaimed crime novelist, provides background and sets the stage for the 12 stories. Set across Mexico City in a variety of neighborhoods, the stories feature a cast of characters as diverse as the city, from homeless people to young children to innocent passersby. This is a strong collection, both for the way it showcases outstanding short fiction in the noir style and for the way it demonstrates how a strong sense of place can drive a narrative. Contributors feature editor Taibo and an array of lesser-known but talented Mexican writers, including Eugenio Aguirre and Julia Rodriguez. Definitely one of the better entries in a sometimes uneven series. –Jessica Moyer

Review

“With volumes devoted to numerous US cities and quite a few foreign capitals, it sometimes seems as if Akashic Books’ expanding line of noir story anthologies will wind up covering virtually every major metropolis on earth . . . The warped humor here, especially in Taibo’s contribution about the struggle for the soul of an embattled street corner, is part of the survival mechanism of people who have seen too much of life at its worst but must keep laughing anyway.”
― San Francisco Bay Guardian

About the Author

Achy Obejas is the author of The Tower of the Antilles, the critically acclaimed novels Ruins and Days of Awe, and three other books of fiction. Her poetry chapbook, This Is What Happened in Our Other Life, was both a critical favorite and a bestseller. As a translator, she has worked with Junot Díaz, Wendy Guerra, Rita Indiana, and many others. In 2014 she received the USA Ford Fellowship from USA Artists for both her writing and her translations. She’s written for, among others, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, the Village Voice, In These Times, and the Chicago Tribune, where she was part of a 2001 Pulitzer Prize–winning team. Born in Havana, she currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dennis Lehane steps up to the plate as editor and presents a scintillating collection of deep, dark fiction.

“Dennis Lehane advises us not to judge the genre by its Hollywood images of sharp men in fedoras lighting cigarettes for femmes fatales standing in the dark alleys . . . [Lehane] writes persuasively of the gentrification that has . . . left people feeling crushed.” —New York Times Crime Fiction Column

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: Dennis Lehane, Stewart O’Nan, Patricia Powell, John Dufresne, Lynne Heitman, Don Lee, Russ Aborn, J. Itabari Njeri, Jim Fusilli, Brendan DuBois, and Dana Cameron.

From the introduction by Dennis Lehane:

“Boston is a city that produces guys—or, in the city’s vernacular, knuckleheads—who once stole the replica of a cow that sat in front of a Braintree steak house. The cow weighed what a car weighed, and yet these knuckleheads had the industry to get it onto a pickup truck, drive it back to South Boston, and deposit it in the middle of Broadway. They did this solely so they could then call the Boston Police Department and ask them to respond to a “beef going down on Broadway” . . .

So we have our distinct humor and our distinct accent and our distinct vocabulary. All of which—sadly, possibly—is now endangered by progress. Because one can’t ignore that Boston has been beset by a new class war of late, one you’ll see reflected in the stories herein. It’s a war of gentrification. As the city continues to lose its old-school parochialism and overt immigrant tribalism, it’s also losing a lot of its character. Whether that’s a bad thing or a good thing is up for debate, but what can’t be argued is that it is, in fact, happening . . .

That’s the paradox of the new Boston—what’s lost has, in many cases, been taken; what’s left is what people can’t sell. Noir is a genre of loss, of men and women unable to roll with the changing times, so the changing times instead roll over them . . .”

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The latest in Akashic’s noir anthologies focusing on specific cities—there have been more than 30 of them since the series’ inception in 2004—features 11 original stories, each set in a different Boston neighborhood. In his introduction, editor Lehane calls noir “working-class tragedy,” which is an apt description of these stories. A woman murders her boss over an oft-promised but never-delivered promotion; a man finds a dog in the garbage, adopts it, and winds up exacting punishment on the dog’s abusive former owner; a down-on-his-luck New York musician, forced by his wife to relocate to Boston, finds something very unusual to do to pass the time; a post–World War II private eye is hired by a beautiful woman whose hidden agenda has unexpected results. The stories, written by Lehane and a host of contributors (including Brendan DuBois, Stewart O’Nan, and Jim Fusilli), are uniformly solid, with characters, plots, and atmosphere that evoke the classic noirs of Cain, Woolrich, and Thompson. –David Pitt

Review

“Dennis Lehane advises us not to judge the genre by its Hollywood images of sharp men in fedoras lighting cigarettes for femmes fatales standing in the dark alleys…[Lehane] writes persuasively of the gentrification that has…left people feeling crushed.” –New York Times, November 15, 2009

From the Publisher

A Boston Globe Bestseller!

From the Back Cover

Qui mieux que Lehane le Bostonien pouvait composer cette anthologie autour d’une ville qui inspira aussi George V. Higgins, l’auteur des Copains d’Eddie Coyle ? Pour en brosser un portrait riche et contrasté, onze nouvelles, chacune ancrée dans un quartier. Onze voix, parmi lesquelles celles de Stewart O’Nan, Brendan DuBois, et Dennis Lehane lui-même. Des sujets, des époques et des tons variés et pourtant, un point commun : des personnages proches de la rupture, qui ont tous commis ou vont commettre des actes extrêmes, poussés par les circonstances vers des zones obscures dont ils ne soupçonnaient pas toujours l’existence. Le résultat : des nouvelles conçues comme des romans en miniature et qui échappent aux clichés du genre. Comme l’écrit Lehane dans sa préface, le roman noir n’est pas un

About the Author

DENNIS LEHANE is the author of the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro mystery series (A Drink before the War; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; and Moonlight Mile), as well as Coronado (five stories and a play) and the award-winning novels Mystic River, Shutter Island, and The Given Day. Mystic River, Shutter Island, and Gone, Baby, Gone have been made into award-winning films. He is the editor of Boston Noir and coeditor of Boston Noir 2: The Classics.