Key West Noir

BRAND-NEW STORIES BY: Rosalind Brackenbury, Joanna Brady, Lucy Burdette, Meg Cabot, Hy Conrad, S.A. Cosby, Mike Dennis, Mark Hedden, Stephen Kitsakos, Michael Marrero, Jonathan Santlofer, Katrin Schumann, Alex Segura, and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION:

Key West. Close to perfect. Far from normal. At least that’s what the Monroe County Tourist Development Council would have you believe. Sunshine in abundance, tropical breezes, picturesque architecture, pink shrimp, Key Lime pie, and a mojito on every corner. No matter where you are, you’re never far from sultry waters—the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean buffer the 4.2-square-mile “key” or cayo, a corrupted Spanish word for very small island. In fact, Key West was referred to as Cayo Hueso, or Isle of Bones, because, as one historian tells it, the coral reefs looked like bones. 

Yet beneath the radiant sunlight and clear cerulean skies lies a tenebrous layer of corruption, scandal, and murder. The island has produced a spicy, irreverent soup born out of a history of Cuban cigars, shipwrecking and sponging, Bahamian and Cuban emigres, Jewish merchants, and the mid-twentieth-century influx of gay men and lesbians who saw Key West as a safe harbor among the friendly fishing boats nestled into the bights. With its proximity to Cuba, only ninety miles away, and the powerful subculture of Miami, its closest mainland attraction to the northeast, Key West entices a collection of tourists and troublemakers. And when the sun goes down, there are things afoot on the streets of Old Town that would give the rest of Weird Florida a run for its money.