Twin Cities Noir: The Expanded Edition (Akashic Noir)

An expanded edition―with brand-new stories added to the fourth printing of this best-selling Noir Series installment. Here, the unseemly underside of Minneapolis/St. Paul is revealed like never before.

“If you’ve never read an Akashic Noir book, Twin Cities Noir is a fine place to start.” ―San Francisco Book Review/Sacramento Book Review

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: John Jodzio, Tom Kaczynski, Peter Schilling Jr., David Housewright, Steve Thayer, Judith Guest, Mary Logue, Bruce Rubenstein, K.J. Erickson, William Kent Krueger, Ellen Hart, Brad Zellar, Mary Sharratt, Pete Hautman, Larry Millett, Quinton Skinner, Gary Bush, and Chris Everheart.

From the introduction by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz:

“St. Paul was originally called Pig’s Eye’s Landing and was named after Pig’s Eye Parrant―trapper, moonshiner, and proprietor of the most popular drinking establishment on the Mississippi. Traders, river rats, missionaries, soldiers, land speculators, fur trappers, and Indian agents congregated in his establishment and made their deals. When Minnesota became a territory in 1849, the town leaders, realizing that a place called Pig’s Eye might not inspire civic confidence, changed the name to St. Paul, after the largest church in the city . . . Across the river, Minneapolis has its own sordid story. By the turn of the twentieth century it was considered one of the most crooked cities in the nation. Mayor Albert Alonzo Ames, with the assistance of the chief of police, his brother Fred, ran a city so corrupt that according to Lincoln Steffans its ‘deliberateness, invention, and avarice has never been equaled.’ As recently as the mid-’90s, Minneapolis was called ‘Murderopolis’ due to a rash of killings that occurred over a long hot summer. Every city has its share of crime, but what makes the Twin Cities unique may be that we have more than our share of good writers to chronicle it. They are homegrown and they know the territory . . .“

Julie Schaper has been a Twin Cities resident for eighteen years. She is the coeditor with Steven Horwitz of Amplified: Fiction from Leading Alt-Country, Indie Rock, Blues, and Folk Musicians.

Steven Horwitz worked in publishing for over thirty-five years. He lives with his wife and two dogs in St. Paul.