Dublin Noir (The Celtic Tiger vs. The Ugly American)

“The stories paint a picture of Dublin as the Celtic Tiger, a beast crouched on its hind legs about to leap at you and roaring with its intensity . . . The cynicism and despair of classic noir is portrayed within each of these stories.” —Metro LA

“Dublin Noir is perhaps the best short story anthology I’ve read.” —Reviewing the Evidence

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: Ken Bruen, Eoin Colfer, Jason Starr, Laura Lippman, Olen Steinhauer, Peter Spiegelman, Kevin Wignall, Jim Fusilli, John Rickards, Patrick J. Lambe, Charlie Stella, Ray Banks, James O. Born, Sarah Weinman, Pat Mullan, Reed Farrel Coleman, and others.

From the introduction by Ken Bruen:

“Tourists booking holidays in Ireland inevitably do Dublin first and seem to always end up in Temple Bar, our very own Times Square—replete with the squalor, the drugs, the homeless, and the wandering psychos . . . Pat Boran, the legendary director of the Dublin Arts Festival, once invited me to do a reading in Temple Bar. During my gig, a woman up and died . . . Temple Bar, naturally, features in many of the stories, and the authors certainly capture the noir element.

Here, the city’s not exactly seen through rose-tinted glasses. Black Irish humor shines in all the stories, as if instinctively the writers knew: You want it Dublin, then you want it funny as sin, dark as the smile on Joyce’s face when he found he was on the index of banned books. To be Irish is to dance on the Titanic; laughter is indeed the best revenge, it’s our way of evening the score. You won’t find many leprechauns or bodhrans here—and not one top o’ the mornin’. “The Quiet Man” has gone dark, and with a vengeance. If nothing else, this collection will kill stone-dead the Irish caricature of shite talk and blarney. In the days of Brit occupation, to be outside Dublin was to be outside the pale. This collection is so far from that parameter, you can’t even see the boundary.”