New Orleans Noir (Akashic Noir) | Heartbreaking, Gritty Stories of The Big Easy

New Orleans Noir (Akashic Noir) | Julie Smith

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New Orleans Noir (...

	New Orleans Noir (Akashic Noir) Akashic Books, 2007 - 270 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Brand-new stories by: Thomas Adcock, Ace Atkins, Patty Friedmann, David Fulmer, Barbara Hambly, Greg Herren, Laura Lippman, Tim McLoughlin, James Nolan, Ted O'Brien, Eric Overmyer, Jeri Cain Rossi, Maureen Tan, Jervey Tervalon, Olympia Vernon, Christine Wiltz, Kalamu Ya Salaam, and Julie Smith.

Julie Smith is the author of two detective series set in New Orleans and an Edgar Award winner. A former reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the San Francisco Chronicle, she lives in the Faubourg Marigny section of New Orleans, which is much funkier than it sounds.

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Heartbreaking, Gritty Stories of The Big Easy

I picked this book up because Julie Smith is the editor and has a story in it. I have to say that hers was my favorite, by far. She's an ace mystery writer and I highly recommend all of her books if you haven't yet discovered them.

Exploring the darker side of the "Big Easy", these tales are unputdownable, gritty and down-to-earth whether dealing with the aftermath of Katrina, Mardi Gras or the seamier underside of life in the French Quarter.

I was happy to discover that a portion of the profits from this book are being donated to the New Orleans Public Library, a fabulous cause.

I'd never before read the "Noir" series, but I plan to look up other books in it. It's well deserving of five stars!!

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Julie Smith

Very powerful and worth reading. Put Los Angeles Noir on your list too.

Powerful and captivating

This was the first (but certainly won't be the last) of my reads in the Noir series. I picked this up as a Louisiana native and lover of New Orleans and have to admit I was extremely pleased. Really enjoy the way the book was split "Before the Levees Broke" and "Living in Atlantis".

Great read for anyone who has never been to New Orleans and especially for those of us who "know what it means to miss New Orleans"...

New Orleans Noir, One of the Best Titles in the Series

It is fitting the great Julie Smith was chosen as editor and post-Katrina story contributor for this terrific (terrifying?) anthology. She also should have been asked to add to "San Francisco Noir" because as in New Orleans, she spent many years there as an ace newspaper reporter and set one of her mystery serieses there. Her story "Loot" is this book is really good, about the long-time friendship between a civil rights lawyer and her maid who is stranded Uptown after the storm, and the vicious little plot dig at the end. Ditto to Outside Magazine writer Ace Atkins, who was boots-on-the ground on assignment here in the sweltering days after Katrina's eye passed, in his gritty "Angola South" about the inhuman jail set up at the Greyhound bus station. Maureen Tan's "Muddy Pond" indelibly depicts the plight of Vietnamese-Americans stuck in flooded N.O. East right after the storm. There is not a less than great story in this 18-story anthology (well maybe one of the pre-K's). This is one of the better books of the half dozen I have read in creator Tim McLoughlin's very fine (Akashic) Noir series -- the other one is D.C. Noir edited and with a story by the great George Pelecanos. Neither should be missed!

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I Hate To Be The Killjoy

But, I found the stories to be rather uneven. That is,of course, the fear when one reads a book that features short stories from eighteen different authors. The book is divided into two sections. Prior and after Katrina. I very much enjoyed David Fullmer's Algiers, based in 1905, about a gambling cheater,guitar player and hustler who met his fate at the hands of Creole detective and strongman Valentin St. Cyr. All I Could Do Was Cry by Kalamu Ya Salaam was a superb story concerning the very sympathetic characters of Rita, who had survived a very hard childhood, and her hard working trusting husband Tyronne. Her son was shot and she achieved revenge. Muddy Pond by Maureen Tan told the post Katrina survival and heroism of Vietnamese immigrant Sonny Vien as he dispatched several looters. Loot by Julie Smith was another excellent post Katrina story. Telling of trust
betweeen Mathilde's long relationship with her maid Cherice. And how Cherice and her husband Charles managed to survive. Scared Rabbit by Tim McLoughlin was fine. Based upon a joke where a deer was frightened into saying he was a rabbit after being beaten by police. To me, those were the highlights.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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