Noir Anthology

In a world of criminals, thugs, con artists, cheats, and swindlers, there must be a man to stand against the powers of darkness and corruption. A man not afraid to walk the mean streets—whether they be those of 1930s Los Angeles, an ancient fantasy realm, or some far-flung planet of a future star empire. He is a man who knows that a “good man” is not always a “nice guy”. But when the chips are down, he understands that a hero does the right thing, even if it means losing everything.

Manila provides the ideal, torrid setting for an Akashic Noir series volume. It's where the rich rub shoulders with the poor, where five-star hotels coexist with informal settlements, where religious zeal coexists with superstition, and where politics is often synonymous with celebrity and corruption.

Laura and Sam are obsessed with film noir. In their sun-drenched apartment in Miami, they watch 1940's black and white movies, whose characters move in shadows and narrow slats of light. They're fascinated by a Hollywood genre without happy endings, where everyone is corrupt, where lovers betray one another, where the war might be over and the boys might be home, but where nothing is going back to the way it was.

He's touching the front of his coat, feeling the shape of the gun. Should have got rid of it. On any other night, any other job, he would. This isn't any other job. This, he intends, will be his last... It begins with two deaths: a money-man and a grass. Deaths that offer a unique opportunity to a man like Calum MacLean. A man who has finally had enough of killing. Meanwhile two of Glasgow's biggest criminal organisations are at quiet, deadly war with one another. And as Detective Michael Fisher knows, the biggest - and bloodiest - manoeuvres are yet to come...

Come sit on the veranda and pour yourself a glass of sweet tea, fortified with a slug of bourbon. Put your feet up and enjoy these stories set in Atlanta, a city sewn from the ashes, where everything that grows is both fertilized and corrupted by the past.

Trinidad Noir reveals the Caribbean island’s darkness and its appeal with an unexpected and gratifying result. Features brand-new stories by Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez, Lawrence Scott, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Kevin Baldeosingh, Vahni Capildeo, Willi Chen, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Keith Jardim, Reena Andrea Manickchand, Tiphanie Yanique, and more.

A comic vignette in which a carnival barker's valuable watch gets stolen during an illegal poker game. The local sheriff seems in no hurry to apprehend the thief, until a reward is offered.

Brand-new stories by: Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Watts, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.

What marks life in Addis Ababa are the starkly different realities coexisting in one place. It's a growing city taking shape beneath the fraught weight of history, myth, and memory. It is a heady mix. It can also be disorienting, and it is in this space that the stories of Addis Ababa Noir reside....

From "Trench Town" to "Half Way Tree" to "Norbrook" to "Portmore" and beyond, the stories of Kingston Noir shine light into the darkest corners of this fabled city. Joining award-winning Jamaican authors such as Marlon James, Leone Ross, and Thomas Glave are two "special guest" writers with no Jamaican lineage: Nigerian-born Chris Abani and British writer Ian Thomson.

Akashic Books’ 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.

The Wrong End of a Gun is a modern day noir mystery short by bestselling novelist R. Barri Flowers. When a man meets a beautiful blonde woman, his dream turns into a nightmare in which there may be no escape.

Dos escuelas de escritores hiperbreves luchan por hacerse con el dominio del género. Los fundadores de las escuelas son los gemelos Salazar, irremediablemente enfrentados por su ideología y por un odio fratricida. Es este libro se recogen las obras de los excéntricos o los desgraciados que formaron parte de una de estas escuelas. Fantasía, horror, ciencia ficción, noir y realismo mágico quedan miniaturizados en los cien microcuentos que recoge la antología.

Vous n'en ferez qu'une bouchée ! Lola Stefani est une jeune mannequin retenue prisonnière depuis 3 mois par un homme qui la force à se nourrir. Pesée régulièrement, elle souffre de se sentir prendre du poids. Attachée à son lit, elle se remémore ses parents, ses débuts de mannequin et sa perte de poids ayant entraîné l'admiration de son amie Giulia, morte en essayant de lui ressembler. Sa captivité a-t-elle un lien avec cet événement ?

Each contributor presents a brand new story set in a distinct neighborhood. Brooklyn Noir mixes masters of the mystery genre with the best of New York’s literary fiction community - and, of course, leaves room for new blood. These brilliant and chilling stories see crime striking in communities of Russians, Jamaicans, Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Irish and many other ethnicities - in the most diverse urban location on the planet.

In the stories of Havana Noir, current and former residents of the city - some international sensations such as Leonardo Padura, others exciting new voices like Yohamna Despestre - uncover crimes of violence and loveless sex, of mental cruelty and greed, of self-preservation and collective hysteria.

From the introduction by James Thompson: Finland, the myths and truths. Internationally, it has a reputation as perhaps the best place in the world to live. A great economy. A low crime rate. Good and nearly cost-free health care. The needy are provided for by the state and live in reasonable comfort. Finns: peaceful and quiet people, living in the perfect example of a social democracy functioning as it should. A tourist, or even a person who has lived here for a length of time, might well view Finland as such.

Stories by: Desmond Barry, Ken Bruen, Stewart Home, Barry Adamson, Michael Ward, Sylvie Simmons, Daniel Bennett, Cathi Unsworth, Max Décharné, Martyn Waites, Joolz Denby, John Williams, Jerry Sykes, Mark Pilkington, Joe McNally, Patrick McCabe, and Ken Hollings. Cathi Unsworth moved to Ladbroke Grove in 1987 and has stayed there ever since. She began a career in rock writing with Sounds and Melody Maker, before co-editing the arts journal Purr and then Bizarre magazine. Her first novel, The Not Knowing, was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2005.

A valiant band of lobsters stage a daring escape from a restaurant on Valentine's Day. A miniature ballerina in a glass globe dances with a beauty that transcends time, space, and reality. A mild-mannered man is driven to violent madness by the machinations of an enormous spider who has invaded his home. A hard-nosed, hard-drinking detective tracks a talking femme fatale cat in a hardboiled kitty city. Temporal manifestations of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse struggle with familiarly human existential crises.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. This anthology includes brand-new stories by: Tommy Moore, Jessica Breheny, Naomi Hirahara, Calvin McMillin, Liza Monroy, Elizabeth McKenzie, Jill Wolfson, Ariel Gore, Jon Bailiff, Maceo Montoya, Micah Perks, Seana Graham, Vinnie Hansen, Peggy Townsend, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Lou Mathews, Lee Quarnstrom, Dillon Kaiser, Beth Lisick, and Wallace Baine.