Sketches of Gotham by Ike Swift offers a concentrated, compelling experience within fiction / literary. This concise work presents carefully drawn characters and purposeful plotting that together explore themes of choice, consequence, and human connection. The prose is precise and economical, balancing vivid scenes with clear pacing to maintain narrative momentum. Ideal for readers seeking a thoughtful, accessible read, the book is well-suited to book clubs and classroom discussion. Its in...

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 fo...

Now available in paperback, William C. Banfield’s acclaimed collection of interviews delves into the lives and work of forty-one Black composers. Each of the profiled artists offers a candid self-portrait that explores areas from training and compositional techniques to working in a exclusive canon that has existed for a very long time. At the same time, Banfield draws on sociology, Western concepts of art and taste, and vernacular musical forms like blues and jazz to provide a frame for t...

"A must-read book by Croatian authors available in English. A collection of crime stories set across Zagreb, each one by a different Croatian writer."--Time Out (Croatia)"Zagreb, Croatia--its culture and its touchstones--will be terra incognita for many U.S. readers...Notable is Nora Verde's 'She-Warrior,' in which a young woman's carefully planned anarchist activities are smacked down by a triple helping of reality."--Publishers ...

"If ever a city was made to be the home of noir, it's Chicago. These writers go straight to Chicago's noir heart" (Aleksandar Hemon, National Book Award finalist and New York Times–bestselling author of The Lazarus Project).Chicago's rough-and-tumble tough-guy reputation may have been replaced in recent years by the image of a tourist- and family-friendly town—but that original city isn't gone. The hard-bitten streets once represented by James Far...

Sixteen stories reveal the dark side of Arizona's capital, including tales from #1 New York Times–bestselling authors Lee Child and Diana Gabaldon.Even a desert metropolis has its share of cold-blooded criminals. Along with suburban sprawl, Phoenix is home to shady developers, police corruption, and organized crime. Being close to the country's southern border makes it a hot spot for trafficking humans, guns, and drugs. Though known as the Valley of the Su...

Sixteen stories of capital crimes and misdemeanors—the basis for the film directed by George Pelecanos, producer and writer of The Wire.Mystery sensation Pelecanos pens the lead story and edits this groundbreaking collection of stories detailing the seedy underside of the nation's capital. This is not an anthology of ill-conceived and inauthentic political thrillers. Instead, in D.C. Noir, pimps, whores, gangsters, and con-men run rampant in zones...

O-H-Oh-No! Fourteen storytellers reveal a gritty side to C-Bus in this collection of crime tales.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.With stories by: Lee Martin, Robin Yocum, Kristen Lepionka, Craig McDonald, Chris Bournea, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Tom Barlow, ...

Seventeen storytellers take readers on a dark tour of the arty New Mexican city in this collection of crime tales.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.With stories by: Ana Castillo, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Byron F. Aspaas, Barbara Robidoux, Elizabeth Lee, Ana Ju...

This anthology of noir fiction set in São Paulo, Brazil, "might be the strongest entry yet in the long-running and globe-spanning Akashic Noir series" ( San Francisco Book Review).Once known as the Land of Mist, São Paulo is now a dense, diverse, and globalized metropolis. It is the most populous city in the Americas, the Portuguese-speaking world, and the southern hemisphere—with some of the worst traffic on the planet. From its gleaming skyscrapers to it...

Lisa D. Gray's story "The Queen of Secrets" won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award!John Crowley's story "Spring Break" won the 2018 Edgar Award for Best Short Story!"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...The stories Bloom chooses share a strong sense of place, detailing the quirks that make every corne...

Named a Pick of the Week for the week of February 29th by Publishers Weekly"Grouped under three headings, the 13 stories in this outstanding entry in Akashic's noir series capture the gloomy underside of Sweden's capital, portraying the hopelessness of those trapped in what Larson and Edenborg in their introduction call the city that devours your soul."--Publishers Weekly, Starred review"Coedited by local a...