“All the heavy hitters, from Michael Connelly in Los Angeles to Joyce Carol Oates in suburban New Jersey . . . an important anthology.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) Features Dennis Lehane’s story “Animal Rescue,” the inspiration for the movie The Drop starring Tom Hardy. Launched with the summer 2004 award-winning bestseller Brooklyn Noir, the groundbreaking Akashic Noir series now includes over sixty volumes and counting. The stories in USA Noir “represent the best of the U.S.-based anthologies, and the list of contributors include virtually anyone who’s made the best-seller list with a work of crime fiction in the last decade . . . a must-have anthology” (Booklist, starred review). Featuring stories by: Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Susan Straight, Jonathan Safran Foer, Laura Lippman, Pete Hamill, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Terrance Hayes, Jerome Charyn, Jeffery Deaver, Maggie Estep, Bayo Ojikutu, Tim McLoughlin, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Reed Farrel Coleman, Megan Abbott, Elyssa East, James W. Hall, J. Malcolm Garcia, Julie Smith, Joseph Bruchac, Pir Rothenberg, Luis Alberto Urrea, Domenic Stansberry, John O’Brien, S.J. Rozan, Asali Solomon, William Kent Krueger, Tim Broderick, Bharti Kirchner, Karen Karbo, and Lisa Sandlin. One of Zoom Street Magazine’s Favorite Books of 2014 One of “100 Best Books for Readers Young and Old,” HispanicBusiness.com “Perhaps the single most impressive feature of the collection is its range of voices, from Joyce Carol Oates’ faux innocent young family to Megan Abbott’s impressionable high school kids to the chorus of peremptory voices S.J. Rozan plants in a haunted thief’s head. Eat your heart out, Walt Whitman: These are the folks who hear America singing, and moaning and screaming.”—Kirkus Reviews

Enter the dark welter of troubled history throughout the Americas, where a heritage of violence meets the ferocity of intent. This sharp, stylised and ambitious anthology of Native American literature sees authors of Indian heritage or blood join non-Indian authors in creating these diverse, gripping, dubious and sleazy stories. Includes contributions from award-winning author Reed Farrel Coleman and Lawrence Block, author of Hit and Run (Orion, 2009).

“Traverses Texas, finding evidence of the hard boiled, sultry, and disreputable throughout the state . . . Think of the book as a sort of criminal travelogue.” —Booklist If everything is bigger in Texas, then that includes the boldness of the criminals who call the state home. From large urban centers to the Cajun Gulf coast, there is big money to be made running guns, drugs, and catering to the greedy and disillusioned. Each distinctive region can claim its own special brand of outlaw. In Lone Star Noir, you’ll find stories by James Crumley, Joe R. Lansdale, Claudia Smith, Ito Romo, Luis Alberto Urrea, David Corbett, George Wier, Sarah Cortez, Jesse Sublett, Dean James, Tim Tingle, Milton T. Burton, Lisa Sandlin, Jessica Powers, and Bobby Byrd. “This isn’t J.R. Ewing’s Lone Star State. This is the Texas of chicken shit bingo, Enron scamsters, and a feeling that what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico . . . So what defines Texas noir? Who knows, but you better pray that blood doesn’t stain your belt buckle.” —The Austin Chronicle

Gritty all-new crime stories set in the bustling Texas city, by Ben Fountain, Kathleen Kent, James Hime, and many more. In a country with so many interesting cities, Dallas is often overlooked—except on November 22 every year. On that day in 1963, Dallas became American noir. This collection of crime stories takes its inspiration from the darker corners of everyday life in a city that many associate only with a historic assassination—or a glitzy TV show about oil fortunes and family feuds. Featuring brand-new stories by Kathleen Kent, Ben Fountain, James Hime, Harry Hunsicker, Matt Bondurant, Merritt Tierce, Daniel J. Hale, Emma Rathbone, Jonathan Woods, Oscar C. Peña, Clay Reynolds, Lauren Davis, Fran Hillyer, Catherine Cuellar, David Haynes, and J. Suzanne Frank.

"Brooklyn Noir came first in 2004, and now, 15 years later, Houston Noir--14 stories of intrigue, betrayal and death set from Tanglewood to Third Ward penned by current or former Houston authors--goes on sale." --Houston Chronicle "Akashic Books's long-running Noir Series tasks writers with imagining the dark sides of their communities, spinning gritty, shocking tales atop the local landscape. Recently the publisher tapped writer and former Houston poet laureate Gwendolyn Zepeda to serve as editor on a collection of stories about her native Bayou City. The end result is Houston Noir, out this month, whose 14 entries explore the murder, betrayal, and brujería lurking everywhere from River Oaks to the Ship Channel to a trailer park off FM 1960." --Houstonia Magazine "Houston is a city on the rise when it comes to crime fiction--something about all those lonely highways, gravity-defying overpasses, and drastic urban sprawl (and of course, the crime rate) make Houston a perfect setting for noir. This port city of close to five million residents is ready for a new reputation as a world capital of literature, and we're here to support Akashic's new collection of noir tales from Texas's most complex city." --CrimeReads, included in The Best New Crime Fiction of May 2019 "With sprawl and serial killers, Houston Noir packs a mean punch...Houston Noir is a welcome addition to the city's slowly filling bookcase." --Texas Observer "Editor Gwendolyn Zepeda has cannily divided the collection into four separate areas of the city, which only serves to multiply a reader's certainty: Like the sodden sheet covering a much-lacerated corpse, all of Houston is pretty much dripping with crime. Best to experience it, we suggest, only between the covers of this new paperback." --Austin Chronicle Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. 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. From the introduction by Gwendolyn Zepeda: In a 2004 essay, Hunter S. Thompson described Houston as a "cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West--which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch." For what it's worth, that quote is now posted on a banner somewhere downtown and regularly, gleefully repeated by our local feature writers. Houston is a port city on top of a swamp and, yes, it has no zoning laws. And that means it's culturally diverse, internally incongruous, and ever-changing. At any intersection here, I might look out my car window and see a horse idly munching St. Augustine grass. And, within spitting distance of that horse, I might see a "spa" that's an obvious brothel, a house turned drug den, or a swiftly rising bayou that might overtake a car if the rain doesn't let up...Overall, this collection represents the very worst our city has to offer, for residents and visitors alike. But it also presents some of our best voices, veteran and emerging, to any reader lucky enough to pick up this book.

“Fourteen uniformly strong stories in [this] outstanding noir anthology devoted to Russia’s second city . . . an ideal backdrop for crime fiction.” —Publishers Weekly The origins of St. Petersburg’s rich noir tradition come from the city’s history, urban landscape, and the weather. The freezing winds from the Baltics give rise to hopelessness, despair, and the darkest of humor. The swamps upon which the city was built cloak it in a thick haze that inspires ghostly tales and furtive behaviors. In St. Petersburg Noir, you’ll find original stories by Lena Eltang, Sergei Nosov, Alexander Kudriavstev, Andrei Kivinov, Julia Belomlinsky, Natalia Kurchatova & Ksenia Venglinskaya, Anton Chizh, Vladimir Berezin, Andrei Rubanov, Vadim Levental, Anna Solovey, Mikhail Lialin, Pavel Krusanov, and Eugene Kogan. “The Russian soul is well suited to a style defined by dark, hard-edged moodiness in underground settings. With St. Petersburg, the tsar’s ‘Window on Europe,’ we get European-style existential angst as well—not to mention the scary sociopolitical realities of the new Russia . . . For all sophisticated crime fiction readers.” —Library Journal “A riveting collection. An insightful ‘tour’ of St. Petersburg. And a spellbinding introduction to Russian literature and perspective.” —Killer Nashville

"Patrick Millikin...as if to prove his witty claim that 'sunshine is the new noir, ' offers one superb specimen, 'Whiteout on Van Buren, ' in which author] Don Winslow makes skillful use of a city street at high noon to provide the perfect metaphor for life and death."--New York Times Book Review Brand-new stories by: Diana Gabaldon, Lee Child, James Sallis, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jon Talton, Megan Abbott, Charles Kelly, Robert Anglen, Patrick Millikin, Laura Tohe, Kurt Reichenbaugh, Gary Phillips, David Corbett, Don Winslow, Dogo Barry Graham, and Stella Pope Duarte. Patrick Millikin is a bookseller at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. As a freelance writer, his articles, interviews, and reviews have appeared in Publishers Weekly, Firsts Magazine, Paradoxa, Yourflesh Quarterly, and other publications. Millikin currently lives in central Phoenix.

“In an Ivy League town, Bloom turns Yale’s motto—Lux et Veritas—on its head, finding darkness and deceit in every corner of New Haven.” —Kirkus Reviews The image of a charming college town serves New Haven well, but its natives know that the city has been built on a rich—and violent—history that still seeps out from between the cracks in the sidewalks and the halls of learning. Now, New York Times–bestselling author—and Connecticut resident—Amy Bloom masterfully curates a star-studded cast of contributors, featuring Michael Cunningham, Stephen L. Carter, and Roxana Robinson, to portray New Haven’s underbelly. Highlights of the anthology include Lisa D. Gray’s “The Queen of Secrets,” which won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award and John Crowley’s “Spring Break,” winner of the Edgar Award for Best Short Story. Tales by Alice Mattison, Chris Knopf, Jonathan Stone, Sarah Pemberton Strong, Karen E. Olson, Jessica Speart, Chandra Prasad, David Rich, Hirsh Sawhney, and Bloom herself round out this impressive collection. “Town-gown tensions highlight several of the 15 stories in this stellar Akashic noir anthology set in the Elm City . . . This [volume] is particularly strong on established authors, many of whom have impressive credentials outside the genre.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “The anthology brings together writers who take varied approaches to the idea of noir in the Elm City. Some stories are historical, some are contemporary. All the classic New Haven landmarks are there, including plenty of Yale . . . The full sweep of New Haven’s character is on display in the anthology.” —Connecticut Magazine

Tampa Bay joins Miami in representing the (alleged) Sunshine State in the Noir Series arena. “Fifteen tales that reveal the dark side of sunny Tampa Bay.” —Kirkus Reviews Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographic area of the book. Brand-new stories by: Michael Connelly, Lori Roy, Ace Atkins, Karen Brown, Tim Dorsey, Lisa Unger, Sterling Watson, Luis Castillo, Sarah Gerard, Danny López, Ladee Hubbard, Gale Massey, Yuly Restrepo Garcés, Eliot Schrefer, and Colette Bancroft.

This anthology of new noir fiction set in the Dutch capital “features superior writing from authors largely unknown to an American audience” (Publishers Weekly). From its numerous coffee shops where drugs are openly available, to its world-famous Red Light District where prostitutes display themselves in shop windows, Amsterdam is a city where almost anything goes in broad daylight. And yet, this serene city of canals has its dark side as well. In fifteen tales of greed, jealousy and revenge, some of the finest Dutch crime writers—including literary award-winners and international bestsellers—explore the seamy shadows of this historic city. Amsterdam Noir features brand-new stories by: Michael Berg, Anneloes Timmerije, Murat Isik, René Appel & Josh Pachter, Simon de Waal, Hanna Bervoets, Karin Amatmoekrim, Christine Otten, Mensje van Keulen, Max van Olden, Theo Capel, Loes den Hollander, Herman Koch, Abdelkader Benali, and Walter van den Berg, whose story "Get Rich Quick" won the inaugural Literatuurprijs Nieuw-West award.