DC Noir (Akashic Noir) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1888451904 ISBN 13: 9781888451900

Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd., 2006

Synopsis

Mystery sensation Pelecanos pens the lead story and edits this groundbreaking collection of stories detailing the seedy underside of the nation’s capital.

“Every story in this all-original noir anthology set in the nation’s capital is well-written.” ―Publishers Weekly

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: George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman, James Grady, Kenji Jasper, Jim Beane, Ruben Castaneda, Jim Patton, Robert Wisdom, Norman Kelley, Jennifer Howard, Jim Fusilli, Richard Currey, Lester Irby, Quintin Peterson, Robert Andrews, and David Slater.

From the introduction by George Pelecanos:

“It’s about the collective memories of the locals, and also about the voices. If you close your eyes and listen to the people of this city, you will hear the many different voices . . .We have tried to explore every quadrant of the city and many of the neighborhoods within them, and have not forgotten the federal city and downtown. We have enlisted the well-known and the someday-will-be. The writers include lifelong Washingtonians, imports and exports, a gentleman who was incarcerated when he wrote his story, a police officer, an actor, bloggers, journalists, blacks, whites, Hispanics, males and females, and yeah, even a Greek American.“

About this title

About the Author

GEORGE PELECANOS is the author of twenty-two novels and story collections set in and around Washington, DC, and has been the recipient of numerous international writing awards. He is a screenwriter, essayist, and television writer/producer whose credits include The Wire, Treme, The Deuce, and We Own This City. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Reviews

The short stories in D.C. Noir (Akashic; paperback), edited by George Pelecanos, are grouped by subject matter and neighborhood, allowing the reader to take a felonious tour of the city. Interested in the gritty side of Georgetown? Try Robert Andrews's "Solomon's Alley." Not so sure Mt. Pleasant always lives up to its name? You'll find confirmation in (The Washington Post's) Ruben Castaneda's "Coyote Hunt." You can travel vicariously to the mean streets of Petworth and Chevy Chase, Logan Circle and the Hill -- and even to K Street, maybe not the meanest but probably the crookedest area of all, thanks to formidable recent efforts by corrupt lobbyists. The noir-dealing contributors include Pelecanos himself; mystery novelist Laura Lippman, on leave from her home turf in Baltimore; and former Book World contributing editor Jennifer Howard.

Also among them is the veteran James Grady, best known for his novel Six Days of the Condor; his "The Bottom Line" is a tour de force of narrative bravado. A story of double-dealing on Capitol Hill, it crams enough plot to power a full-length novel into a mere 30 pages. From its opening sentence -- "The Capitol building glowed in the night like a white icing cake" -- to the surprises at its finish line, this is a story that never stops barreling along. Grady seems to draw on his own resumé (former Senate aide) when he sums up a certain kind of Hill staffer's career in a single sentence: "Victory at work that day meant he . . . brokered a deal to give air polluters a six percent rollback of fines instead of the seventeen percent proposed by his Senator's opponents."

Richard Currey's "The Names of the Lost" encompasses both local details and international angst. In mid-winter its protagonist, Liebmann, takes a long walk through Shepherd Park, where he owns a liquor store. He crosses Georgia Avenue, follows the fence line of Walter Reed Hospital, returns to the intersection of Georgia and Alaska Avenues and Kalmia Road. All the while he carries with him memories of Auschwitz, along with a tattooed number. Crime happens in this story, but the pace here is measured and ruminative -- a match for the progress of an old man making his way through a tough neighborhood when he ought to know better than to be out and about.

Crime in All Four Quadrants
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

While only a few of the contributors, such as editor Pelecanos, will be familiar to most readers, every story in this all-original noir anthology set in the nation's capital is well written, even if each captures the cynicism and despair of classic noir with varying success. Highlights include Pelecanos's "The Confidential Informant" and Laura Lippman's "A.R.M. and the Woman," though these could have been set elsewhere with little change to characters or plot. Jim Fusilli's "The Dupe," a contemporary political tale of betrayal, best makes use of the Washington setting. Despite Pelecanos's claim in his introduction that it's too easy to call the city polarized, rarely do the paths of the haves and the have-nots cross in these 16 tales, 10 of which have their crimes occur in the prosperous Northwest section of D.C. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The publisher's Noir series, launched with Brooklyn Noir (2004), is growing with viruslike rapidity--even though it's not always infectious. The problem may lie with the choice of editors. Chicago Noir, for example, was selected by Neal Pollack (Never Mind the Pollacks, 2003). Whatever his talents may be, murder is not his metier, and his lineup included some lightweights. For D.C. Noir, Akashic had the good sense to turn to Pelecanos (Drama City, 2005), who delivers a wholly satisfying volume. From his own "Confidential Informant," to James Grady's "Bottom Line," Pelecanos shows us how both trash-strewn alleys and oak-paneled offices can trap their occupants with dreams, compromise, and heartbreak. Even Quintin Peterson's "Cold as Ice," which features an O. Henry-like twist and a happy ending, has a downbeat feel, reminding us that victories wrought by violence are still losses. The forthcoming Manhattan Noir will be edited by Lawrence Block--too bad they couldn't get Michael Connelly for Los Angeles Noir. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd.
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1888451904
• ISBN 13: 9781888451900
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 325
• Editor: Pelecanos George