Staten Island Noir

“Staten Island is the forgotten borough, lacking a subway system, left out of Jay-Z’s songs, known for organized crime, bad accents, fake tans, and garbage—which makes it a rich setting for Akashic’s noir series . . . In a thrilling tilt-a-whirl of crime and drama, editor Patricia Smith has carefully chosen writers concerned with the true nature of the small suburban borough.” —Electric Literature’s “The Outlet”

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: Bill Loehfelm, S.J. Rozan, Ted Anthony, Todd Craig, Ashley Dawson, Bruce DeSilva, Louisa Ermelino, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Michael Largo, Michael Penncavage, Linda Nieves-Powell, Eddie Joyce, Shay Youngblood, and Patricia Smith.

From the introduction by Patricia Smith:

“There’s crime here. Good crime. Mystery. Dark, scary stuff. Big crime. The noir kind, without a good guy in sight. Just scan the headlines: Skeleton in Staten Island Basement Points to Unsolved Murder; Staten Island Man Commits Murder after Victim Had Spit in Wife’s Face. Then there’s the haunted Kreischer mansion on Arthur Kill Road. Mob Wives, for Chrissakes, with all that squalling, hair-pulling, and Botox. A recent spate of hate crimes against blacks, Mexicans, Muslims. Mist-shrouded abandoned psychiatric hospitals. Guys named Eddie. Underground caverns. Willowbrook. The ghostly ship graveyard. The legend of Cropsey. That rolling landfill and all those secrets buried beneath it. Even the one movie that was named after the borough got it exactly right. Here’s the synopsis: A Staten Island mob boss Parmie is robbed by septic tank cleaner Sully who has a pal Jasper, a deaf deli employee moonlighting as a corpse chopper . . . That’s a damned sunshiny day on the island.

I’m not sure why Staten Island is the borough bringing up the rear in Akashic Books’ Noir Series, but here we are, as rotten, vengeful, unforgiving, and badass as any one of its quartet of brothers.”