"All the heavy hitters...came out for USA Noir...an important
anthology of stories shrewdly culled by Johnny Temple."
--New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
One of Zoom Street Magazine's Favorite Books of 2014
Indie Books Roundup #1 Pick, Barnes & Noble Book Blog
Included in Zoom Street Magazine's Summer Reading
(Mysteries/Noir) Roundup
One of "100 Best Books for Readers Young and Old,"
HispanicBusiness.com
"Readers will be hard put to find a better collection of short
stories in any genre."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A must read for mystery fans, not just devotees of Akashic's
'Noir' series, this anthology serves as both an introduction for
newcomers and a greatest-hits package for regular readers of the
series
There isn’t a weak story in the collection...Strongly
recommended for readers who enjoy mysteries published by Hard
Case Crime, as well as for fans of procedurals."
--Library Journal (starred review)
"The 37 stories in this collection represent the best of the
U.S.-based anthologies, and the list of contributors include
virtually anyone who’s made the best-seller list with a work of
crime fiction in the last decade...a must-have anthology."
--Booklist (starred review)
"It's hard to imagine how the present anthology could be topped
for sheer marquee appeal...Perhaps the single most impressive
feature of the collection is its range of voices, from Joyce
Carol Oates' faux innocent young family to Megan Abbott's
impressionable high school kids to the chorus of peremptory
voices S.J. Rozan s in a haunted thief's head. Eat your
heart out, Walt Whitman: These are the folks who hear America
singing, and moaning and screaming."
--Kirkus Reviews
"A less enlightened Temple cover collection of crime and mystery
stories could easily reduce itself to stereotypical cartoons
about white detectives with a whiskey bottle and a in the
drawer but Akashic's series takes itself very seriously in its
mission to represent all aspects of a city’s dark side."
--Kirkus Reviews, Feature Story/Interview with Johnny Temple
"For those who prefer their crime closer to home, there is USA
Noir, a veritable greatest hits of Akashic's long-running,
accled noir anthology series, rounding up solid gold blackness
of the bleakest and darkest kind...Like Chuck Berry sang,
'Anything you want, we got right here in the USA.'"
--Mystery Scene Magazine
Launched with the summer 2004 award-winning bestseller Brooklyn
Noir, the groundbreaking Akashic Noir series now includes over
sixty volumes and counting. Each book is comprised of all-new
stories, each one set in a distinct location within the city of
the book.
Featuring stories by: Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, Michael
Connelly, George Pelecanos, Susan Straight, Jonathan Safran Foer,
Laura Lippman, Pete Hamill, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, T.
Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Terrance Hayes, Jerome Charyn,
Jeffery Deaver, Maggie Estep, Bayo Ojikutu, Tim McLoughlin,
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Reed Farrel Coleman, Megan Abbott,
Elyssa East, James W. Hall, J. Malcolm Garcia, Julie Smith,
Joseph Bruchac, Pir Rothenberg, Luis Alberto Urrea, Domenic
Stansberry, John O'Brien, S.J. Rozan, Asali Solomon, William Kent
Krueger, Tim Broderick, Bharti Kirchner, Karen Karbo, and Lisa
Sandlin.
From the introduction by Johnny Temple:
"From the start, the heart and soul of Akashic Books has been
dark, provocative, well-crafted tales from the disenfranchised. I
learned early on that writings from outside the mainstream almost
necessarily coincide with a mood and spirit of noir, and are
composed by authors whose life circumstances often place them in
environs exposed to crime...This volume serves up a top-shelf
selection of stories from the series set in the United States.
USA Noir only scratches the surface, however, and every single
volume has gems on offer."