Columbus Noir

by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Editor)

Overview

The state of Ohio could only escape the Akashic Noir Series for so long.

“Perfect for fans of crime novels and mysteries. The book tells stories of Columbus’ dark doppelgänger, where greed and pride have run rampant.” —Columbus Monthly Magazine

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

Brand-new stories by: Lee Martin, Robin Yocum, Kristen Lepionka, Craig McDonald, Chris Bournea, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Tom Barlow, Mercedes King, Daniel Best, Laura Bickle, Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Julia Keller, Khalid Moalim, and Nancy Zafris.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617757655
Publisher:	Akashic Books, Ltd.
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Series:	Akashic Noir Series
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	643,794
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the Shamus, Derringer, and ITW-award-nominated author of the Andy Hayes Private Eye series and editor of Columbus Noir. Library Journal called his crime novel The End of The Road one of the best thrillers of 2023. His short fiction has appeared in multiple magazines and anthologies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Sin in Cbus

“The Satin Fox” by Robin Yocum (Victorian Village)

“Gun People” by Kristen Lepionka (Olde Towne East)

“Curb Appeal” by Craig McDonald (German Village)

“My Name Is Not Susan” by Chris Bournea (Eastmoor)

Part II: Capital Offenses

“Going Places” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Ohio Statehouse)

“Honor Guard” by Tom Barlow (Clintonville)

“An Agreeable Wife for a Suitable Husband” by Mercedes King (South End)

“Take the Wheel” by Daniel Best (Short North)

“The Dead and the Quiet” by Laura Bickle (Union Cemetery)

Part III: Buckeye Betrayals

“The Luckiest Man Alive” by Lee Martin (San Margherita)

“The Valley” by Yolanda Tonette Sanders (Whitehall)

“All That Burns the Mind” by Julia Keller (Ohio State University)

“Long Ears” by Khalid Moalim (North Side)

“Foreign Study” by Nancy Zafris (West Broad Street)

Editorial Reviews

01/27/2020

This superior Akashic noir anthology gathers 14 dark snapshots of Ohio’s capital, a very dangerous place indeed, with heavy drug use and murder touching down everywhere, from the German Village neighborhood to the statehouse. One highlight is Craig McDonald’s “Curb Appeal,” one of several invoking the homicidal search for housing. In the editor’s effective “Going Places,” a security man who covers up affairs for the governor gets pulled into a murder plot. In Mercedes King’s memorable “An Agreeable Wife for a Suitable Husband,” an abused wife who grew up “on a farm in Kentucky, slaughtering hogs” decides she’s had enough. Another strong entry is Laura Bickle’s “The Dead and the Quiet,” in which a young woman tries to score drugs, even “some Percs, not as good as Oxys, but she was desperate at this point.” The five tales in “Buckeye Betrayals,” the the third and final section, might lack the hard edge of the rest of the book, but, overall, noir fans should be well satisfied. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This entry in Akashic's signature series is solid and brings attention to a growing metropolis that is claiming homegrown crime-fiction talent. Columbus may not be as exotic as Belfast, Havana, or Baghdad, but this collection demonstrates that it is equally as sinister."
—The Rap Sheet

"This superior Akashic noir anthology gathers 14 dark snapshots of Ohio's capital, a very dangerous place indeed, with heavy drug use and murder touching down everywhere, from the German Village neighborhood to the statehouse...Noir fans should be well satisfied."
—Publishers Weekly

"The latest stage in Akashic's master plan to paint the world black is marked by 14 new stories...and the different shades of noir they invoke, from light gray to pitch black."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Very appealing."
—The Cyberlibrarian

From the Publisher

04/10/2020

The first noir-themed collection put out by Akashic was Brooklyn Noir, edited by Pete Hamill. This volume, compiled by reporter Welsh-Huggins is the 101st edition; 13 more are already slated to appear. With one exception, the collections are city-based. Most of the tales are crime, not detective, stories—with a noir twist. Columbus used to be a sleepy place, but modern tensions have hit the metropolis with a bang. An opioid crisis, rising sales of heroin and Fentanyl, and tension between the well-off and the poor conspire to make the it a perilous place to navigate. The 14 stories here vary in quality but the best are little shockers, starting with Robin Yokum's revenge thriller, "The Satin Fox," and continuing with Nancy Zafris's "Foreign Study," an ugly tale of how an unsuspecting immigrant seeking to advance his education ends up lying on the ground, beaten and broken. VERDICT This attractive collection will appeal to lovers of crime noir and short crime fiction.—David Keymer, Cleveland

Library Journal

2019-11-24
The latest stage in Akashic's master plan to paint the world black is marked by 14 new stories whose most appealing features are their come-hither titles and the different shades of noir they invoke, from light gray to pitch black.

The hallmark here is competent but unspectacular professionalism that ticks all the boxes but originality. Sex fuels the plots of Robin Yocum's "The Satin Fox," in which a vice cop's romance with a junkie stripper is threatened by blackmail; Kristen Lepionka's "Gun People," in which a wife takes up with one of the contractors upgrading the place her accountant husband has purchased; Craig McDonald's "Curb Appeal," which follows a woodworker's romance with an interior decorator to its all-too-logical end; Mercedes King's "An Agreeable Wife for a Suitable Husband," whose ill-assorted title couple plot to rid themselves of each other; Julia Keller's "All That Burns the Mind," in which an Ohio State University English teacher finds a sadly predictable way of dealing with two problem students; and Khalid Moalim's "Long Ears," whose heroine learns a great deal about an ancient accident and a present-day murder but keeps mum. None of the entries excels editor Welsh-Huggins' "Going Places," in which a rising politician's wife and fixer collude to shelter him from the consequences of his peccadilloes; the nearest competitors are Chris Bournea's "My Name Is Not Susan" (a retired football player's lover is suspected when he and his wife, the lover's friend, are murdered), Tom Barlow's "Honor Guard" (a chronically disappointing son negotiates frantically to keep his father out of prison after an argument with a stranger turns deadly), and Daniel Best's "Take the Wheel" (a tawdry, fast-moving tale of a pair of frenemies whose partnership in a coffee shop is threatened by some lethally laced heroin). The newly arrived Chinese student in Nancy Zefris' darkly comic "Foreign Study" manages to stumble through town without occasioning a single felony, and Laura Bickle's "The Dead and the Quiet," Lee Martin's "The Luckiest Man Alive," and Yolanda Tonette Sanders' "The Valley" are notable for their closing intimations of grace, that rarest of qualities in noir.

As for Columbus, it comes across much like other Midwestern cities in noir stories, which may be the point.

Kirkus Reviews

"Femmes fatales, shady clubs and antiheroes: all the elements are here in Columbus Noir, a satisfying collection of 14 stories by some of Ohio’s best authors, in a series of more than a hundred books in an award-winning series that includes locales like Baghdad Noir and Wall Street Noir."

Akron Beacon Journal

"Like the rest of the state of Ohio, Columbus has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, and the stories included in Akashic’s ode to the city are as full of misery as the city currently is in real life. Moments of humanity shine through in many of the tales in this collection, and epic takes on pride and greed make many of the stories in this collection go beyond small miseries into the realm of Shakespearian tragedy. Urgent, beautiful, and not to be missed."

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