Next up in Akashic Noir

The well-regarded indie publisher announces its latest round of themed noir anthologies, and of course I’d say that the lineups look pretty amazing, what with being in another one and all. But bias aside, let’s go through them in order:

April brings MANHATTAN NOIR, edited by Lawrence Block. Like last year’s Brooklyn Noir, this one features stories set in specific neighborhoods, from Battery Park (Thomas Cook) to the Upper East Side (Charles Ardai) to Harlem (S.J. Rozan, probably because Carol Lea Benjamin called dibs on Greenwich Village first  actually because she wrote it while in the process of writing her next book, IN THIS RAIN, set in Harlem) to Inwood (C.J. Sullivan.) My only quibble is how you can have stories set in Hell’s Kitchen and Clinton since, uh, they are the same neighborhood. And for god’s sake, can’t we dispense with Clinton as a neighborhood name? It’s lame and most of all, it will always be Hell’s Kitchen.

May features BALTIMORE NOIR, edited by Laura Lippman. This is a fantastic lineup, and I’m not just saying that for the obvious reasons. Besides, I’m just honored to be in the same pages as a member of my family, who has been an excellent writer for all the years I’ve known him (undoubtedly longer than anyone in the crime fiction world, I might add.)

Along in June is TWIN CITIES NOIR, edited by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz. The stories are split fairly evenly between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and many of the finest mystery practitioners are here: Mary Logue, William Kent Krueger, Judith Guest, Erin Hart and Quinton Skinner have contributed offerings.

Then in August it’s time for LONDON NOIR, edited by Cathi Unsworth. It’s a good mix of established (Ken Bruen), eclectic (Stewart Home) and personal faves (Martyn Waites & John Williams) just to name a few.

After that? there’s LA, Miami, Lone Star and Wall Street. And if you thought Dublin was far-flung…wait till HAVANA NOIR.