New Orleans Noir
The Classics
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
"Explores the dark corners of our city . . . set both pre- and post-Katrina . . . harrowing reading, to be sure, but it's pure page-turning pleasure, too." —The Times-Picayune
Residents of the Big Easy are proud of its unique history and character. Resourceful and resilient, they are survivors—of natural disasters, as well as everyday tragedies. For off the beaten path, where tourists never travel, is a city that revels in scandal, sin, and seduction.
New Orleans Noir includes stories by Ace Atkins, Laura Lippman, Patty Friedmann, Barbara Hambly, Tim McLoughlin, Olympia Vernon, David Fulmer, Jervey Tervalon, James Nolan, Kalamu ya Salaam, Maureen Tan, Thomas Adcock, Jeri Cain Rossi, Christine Wiltz, Greg Herren, Julie Smith, Eric Overmyer, and Ted O'Brien.
"A vivid series of impressions of the city in moments that brought out either the best or worst in people . . . a thrilling read and a harbinger of what should be an interesting stream of works." —Gambit Weekly
"When you've waded through these anguished pages, you can begin to understand why—as corrupt as it is, as broken as it is—so many of New Orleans's refugees still long to go home." —Mystery Scene
"Excellent . . . Appropriately, Smith divides the book into pre- and post-Katrina sections, and many of the more powerful tales describe the disaster's hellish aftermath." —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 18 stories in this irresistible sequel to Smith's New Orleans Noir run chronologically from Armand Lanusse's "A Marriage of Conscience" (1843), about an unusual social custom of the day, to Maurice Carlos Ruffin's "Pie Man" (2012), a powerful examination of ethnic tensions in post-Katrina New Orleans. Famous bylines punctuate the book, but even the lesser-known authors hold their own. Former New Orleans police office O'Neil De Noux's "The Man with Moon Hands" has particular relevance in view of recent controversial police shootings. Ace Atkins's "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" mixes New Orleans's traditions of music and crime. There's one outright ghost story, Poppy Z. Brite's "Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz," a surrealistic swirl of time travel and assassination. Anyone who knows New Orleans even slightly will relish revisiting the city in story after story. For anyone who has never been to New Orleans, this is a great introduction to its neighborhoods and history.
