Hamburg Noir

by Jan Karsten (editor)

The historic northern port city Hamburg joins Berlin as the Akashic Noir Series continues its foray into one of Western Europe’s most storied nations "Even the supposedly 'most beautiful city in the world' has its dark sides. This well-edited anthology impressively shows them in literary form. Powerful Hamburg from below." ― Hamburger Abendblatt FEATURING BRAND-NEW STORIES Nora Luttmer, Till Raether, Matthias Wittekindt, Ingvar Ambjornsen, Bela B. Felsenheimer, Jasmin Ramadan, Frank Göhre, Timo Blunck, Katrin Seddig, Tina Uebel, Zoë Beck, Brigitte Helbling, Kai Hensel, Robert Brack; translated from German by Noah Harley, Paul Young, and Geoff Howes.
Hamburg Noir offers fourteen original stories, fourteen unique perspectives, fourteen distinct neighborhoods, and fourteen fascinating pieces of a larger puzzle. It is a gripping journey of discovery through the darker sides of the city―from the north of Hamburg to downtown, from the south via the harbor and Altona to the affluent Blankenese. The book is at once an exhilarating literary portrait and a deep, dark declaration of love to this multifaceted city.

296 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2025

Reviews

[Donna Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories that I found to be more esoteric and metaphysical than of a criminal bent. Even the selections that one could actually call a true crime or mystery story were not strong on noir elements at all. True noir elicits a very specific type of visceral reaction in the reader or viewer of noir literature and film and this collection just didn't conjure that up for me. In a couple of the stories there was a whisper of noir in a sentence or a word used that evoked that reaction, but it was extremely ephemeral and definitely not enough to earn this book the moniker of noir. That being said, and in all fairness, this is a collection of very fine and well-written literary stories, they're just not noir.

***I received an ARC copy of this book through a LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Giveaway. My review is strictly voluntary.***

[Miriam Downey]

Akashic Books has been highlighting crime in cities all over the world since 2004. Each book is the creation of writers of all varieties who share the underside of each neighborhood within the city. As well, each book has its own interpretation of the genre “noir.” Through the years, I have read and reviewed many of these books and enjoyed them all.

I have never visited Hamburg, but after having read Hamburg Noir, I think I want to go. Karsten notes in the introduction that like all good crime fiction, these stories look “toward lesser-known settings and living situations, repeatedly drawing our attention to lives overlooked, the lost souls and the powerless who have slipped through the cracks of commerce.” All the stories are very cleverly written and kept me entranced.

[Tom Donaghey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamburg Noir (2025) by Akashic Books. Here is a collection of 14 short stories set in and around Hamberg, Germany, each depicting the darker side of the city. This is the city where the porto-Beatles really learned their music and what the people liked. But this is also the city of infamous adult clubs, darkened alleyways and unsolved murder.
It feels like the definition of noir is being stretched to cover these stories, but in short there isn’t a bad story in the lot. Like all the books in the Akashic Noir series you will find tales of depraved citizens, foreigners with special problems, nice ways to dispose of bodies, humor and horror. Beer and ghosts haunt these pages, but I am certain you will find something amusing within the covers.

[Les Gehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual with collections of short stories, some are better than others. I think a few of the entries suffered from translation from German into English, as idioms, customs, styles, etc. do not always translate exactly. Still, there were some very enjoyable stories. My favorites are "The Girl at the Dom" by Kai Hensel and "Ant Street" by Nora Luttmer.

[Note: The publisher provided me with a review copy of this book.]

[Anastacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamburg Noir is a collection of stories set in Hamburg. These are mostly dark stories, and most stories are excellent. There is murder, longing, ghosts, and lots of beer. A very good collection, although most aren't mysteries.

[Laurel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of the Akashic noir series, but this edition didn’t work for me. It took me a long time to read it because I kept putting it aside to read something else. The stories seemed more bizarre than noir. Perhaps the next anthology will be better.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories, like many anthologies, is somewhat uneven in terms of style. One tale might build tension slowly as it leads up to a crime, while the next might focus more on the aftermath. And some are, well, just plain bizarre. This book is not at all what I expected in a "noir" collection. I was looking for something cynical and bleak, perhaps even slightly tragic, like the hardbitten detective who spends his life helping others but never finds happiness himself. Instead, I found a lot of ickiness, gory details worthy of a horror anthology, and way too close a look at some depraved and deranged characters. There is very little in the way of detective fiction here; rather, it's more crime fiction, and it's often from the POV of the killers. Consequently, there is little mystery, and—even worse—there's seldom a character to root for. The setting of Hamburg does not play as prominent a role in these stories as it might have, and the repetition of so many stories following the same formula makes for an underwhelming experience. There is some high-quality prose here, and the individual tales are well-written. Collectively, however, they add up to less than the sum of their parts.