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Houston Noir
The fourth-largest city in the US is long overdue to enter the Noir Series arena, and does so blazingly.
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: Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Watts, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.
From the introduction by Gwendolyn Zepeda:
In a 2004 essay, Hunter S. Thompson described Houston as a “cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It’s a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West—which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.” For what it’s worth, that quote is now posted on a banner somewhere downtown and regularly, gleefully repeated by our local feature writers.
Houston is a port city on top of a swamp and, yes, it has no zoning laws. And that means it’s culturally diverse, internally incongruous, and ever-changing. At any intersection here, I might look out my car window and see a horse idly munching St. Augustine grass. And, within spitting distance of that horse, I might see a “spa” that’s an obvious brothel, a house turned drug den, or a swiftly rising bayou that might overtake a car if the rain doesn’t let up . . . Overall, this collection represents the very worst our city has to offer, for residents and visitors alike. But it also presents some of our best voices, veteran and emerging, to any reader lucky enough to pick up this book.
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: Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Watts, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.
From the introduction by Gwendolyn Zepeda:
In a 2004 essay, Hunter S. Thompson described Houston as a “cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It’s a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West—which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.” For what it’s worth, that quote is now posted on a banner somewhere downtown and regularly, gleefully repeated by our local feature writers.
Houston is a port city on top of a swamp and, yes, it has no zoning laws. And that means it’s culturally diverse, internally incongruous, and ever-changing. At any intersection here, I might look out my car window and see a horse idly munching St. Augustine grass. And, within spitting distance of that horse, I might see a “spa” that’s an obvious brothel, a house turned drug den, or a swiftly rising bayou that might overtake a car if the rain doesn’t let up . . . Overall, this collection represents the very worst our city has to offer, for residents and visitors alike. But it also presents some of our best voices, veteran and emerging, to any reader lucky enough to pick up this book.
256 pages, Paperback
Published May 7, 2019
30 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Gwendolyn Zepeda
12 books48 followersGwendolyn Zepeda was born in Houston, Texas in 1971 and attended the University of Texas at Austin. She began her writing career on the Web in 1997, with her long-running site gwendolynzepeda.com and as one of the founding writers of entertainment site Television Without Pity. Her first book was a short-story collection called To the Last Man I Slept with and All the Jerks Just Like Him (Arte Público Press, 2004).
Zepeda’s first children’s book, Growing Up with Tamales (Piñata Books) is a 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended Title. Her first novel, Houston, We Have a Problema (Grand Central Publishing, 2009) won praise from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist for its wit and upbeat story. Novelist Alisa Valdez Rodriguez calls Zepeda “a master wordsmith.”
A two-time Houston Arts Alliance literary fellowship winner and award-winning poet, Zepeda regularly lectures at universities throughout Texas. Her upcoming books include another children’s book – Sunflowers (Piñata Books, 2009) – and a new novel from Grand Central Publishing called Lone Star Legend.
Praise for Growing Up with Tamales / Los tamales de Ana:
"[This] charming story celebrates the satisfaction found in accomplishing a goal - no matter how big or small - and the trust new responsibility engenders. Young readers will delight in Zepeda's use of repetition and will giggle over the story's jocular ending."
- Kirkus Reviews "
Zepeda’s first children’s book, Growing Up with Tamales (Piñata Books) is a 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended Title. Her first novel, Houston, We Have a Problema (Grand Central Publishing, 2009) won praise from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist for its wit and upbeat story. Novelist Alisa Valdez Rodriguez calls Zepeda “a master wordsmith.”
A two-time Houston Arts Alliance literary fellowship winner and award-winning poet, Zepeda regularly lectures at universities throughout Texas. Her upcoming books include another children’s book – Sunflowers (Piñata Books, 2009) – and a new novel from Grand Central Publishing called Lone Star Legend.
Praise for Growing Up with Tamales / Los tamales de Ana:
"[This] charming story celebrates the satisfaction found in accomplishing a goal - no matter how big or small - and the trust new responsibility engenders. Young readers will delight in Zepeda's use of repetition and will giggle over the story's jocular ending."
- Kirkus Reviews "
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 13, 2019
Houston Noir is a great collection of fourteen noir mysteries in the always reliable, always intriguing Akashic Noir series. This collection was edited by Gwendolyn Zepeda who did a bang-up job of selecting writers and encouraging them to great noir. In fact, her selections were so good, I wish she would have included one of her own.
The anthology is organized by realtor-speak, neighborhoods that suit a certain description. These include Desirable Locations with Private Security; Peaceful Hamlets, Great for Families; Minutes from Downtown and Nightlife; and Up and Coming Areas, Newly Revitalized. What a great organizing structure.
The stories range from family dramas, love, divorce, and betrayal to crime and policing, drugs, trafficking, and serial murder. All the fun stuff of noir stories. Some, like Jamie’s Mother and Where the Ends Meet, will break your heart. On the other hand, I fell in love with Railway Track and would love to see Mona Naeem become a series detective. She may have started off on the wrong track, but she sure brought her case home and she was not stupid about it.
Xitlali Zaragoza, Curandera was another heartbreaker. A waitress by day, a curandera by night, Xitlali is a super-heroic woman fighting demons though she is exhausted. There is a tremendous sentence in it describing how those who work for the wealthy live in a nearby neighborhood. “They live close enough to get to work, but far enough for those who benefit from their work to feel safe.” American in a nutshell.
I love the Akashic Noir anthologies. I like armchair travel and this is travel to the other side of town, perhaps less picturesque, but always more interesting. Most of the anthologies are good. Houston Noir is great. I think because there is no effort to “elevate” noir. Zepeda doesn’t try to prove anything about herself in making her choices. She just chose great writers and challenged them to write great noir, and they did.
Houston Noir will be out on May 7th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Houston Noir at Akashic Books.
Gwendolyn Zepeda author site
Akashic Noir Series
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
The anthology is organized by realtor-speak, neighborhoods that suit a certain description. These include Desirable Locations with Private Security; Peaceful Hamlets, Great for Families; Minutes from Downtown and Nightlife; and Up and Coming Areas, Newly Revitalized. What a great organizing structure.
The stories range from family dramas, love, divorce, and betrayal to crime and policing, drugs, trafficking, and serial murder. All the fun stuff of noir stories. Some, like Jamie’s Mother and Where the Ends Meet, will break your heart. On the other hand, I fell in love with Railway Track and would love to see Mona Naeem become a series detective. She may have started off on the wrong track, but she sure brought her case home and she was not stupid about it.
Xitlali Zaragoza, Curandera was another heartbreaker. A waitress by day, a curandera by night, Xitlali is a super-heroic woman fighting demons though she is exhausted. There is a tremendous sentence in it describing how those who work for the wealthy live in a nearby neighborhood. “They live close enough to get to work, but far enough for those who benefit from their work to feel safe.” American in a nutshell.
I love the Akashic Noir anthologies. I like armchair travel and this is travel to the other side of town, perhaps less picturesque, but always more interesting. Most of the anthologies are good. Houston Noir is great. I think because there is no effort to “elevate” noir. Zepeda doesn’t try to prove anything about herself in making her choices. She just chose great writers and challenged them to write great noir, and they did.
Houston Noir will be out on May 7th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Houston Noir at Akashic Books.
Gwendolyn Zepeda author site
Akashic Noir Series
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
July 11, 2019
It’s so hard to accurately rate an anthology. There were a few stories in the collection I thought were excellent, and others that were, meh....
What I loved throughout was visiting my hometown. Why has it taken this long for Akashi to make a Houston Noir anthology? Crazy! But it’s finally here and I recommend it noir lovers and Houstonians.
What I loved throughout was visiting my hometown. Why has it taken this long for Akashi to make a Houston Noir anthology? Crazy! But it’s finally here and I recommend it noir lovers and Houstonians.
May 16, 2019
I had the intense pleasure of living in Houston for four years this past decade. But my fondness for my time there did not prevent my pleasure reading a collection of noir tales exploring Houston’s fetid underbelly.
I loved it there, and Houston has a lower crime rate than, say, Chicago or New Orleans, but this is still a place where the old-fashioned burglar bars on our house were a good idea, where a man was shot in an drive-by a block away from my house, where a body was found in new apartments under construction that marked my neighborhood as “transitioning,” where bodies were occasionally fished out of the bayou that ran a block from our house (sometimes closer).
The copy and intro both include a wonderful, vicious Hunter S. Thompson quote describing Houston as a “cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money, and violence. It’s a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops, and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West—which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.” It says something about Texas that the immediate response is to say “heck yeah!” and adopt the quote as a point of pride.
Houston is a big city. I mean really big. Texas is big, but Houston is so big we called the northern exurbs south Dallas. It is appropriate, then, that even before the table of contents the book gives us a map marked with bodies. A couple of which don’t fit on the map, because, again, Houston is really big.
I’m not familiar with every locale. I tried very hard when I lived there to never leave the embrace of 610. There are plenty of stories set a long way from the shiny glass and steel skyscrapers. But I was very interested in the stories labeled as taking place in the Museum District, River Oaks, Downtown, Third Ward, and Montrose. There are stories that take place near my apartment in Upper Kirby and my house in the (greater) Third Ward, that mention old stomping grounds like West Alabama Ice House and Stephanie’s Ice House. Sticking with the geographic theme, the stories are roughly organized by region (complete with faux-realtor-speak). Of course stories can be hard to place. I was disappointed that the Third Ward story only sort of takes place there, but I was delighted to learn the Downtown story takes place in the greater Third Ward area and concerns a previous transition of the neighborhood and the violence that came with it.
Houston is so big a collection like this isn’t enough to get a bead on it. But the collection highlights the diversity of Houston. Less a rich tapestry and more the explosion of life and death revealed by turning a rotting log (Houston has a lot of rotting logs). It’s not just a rich city, but a rich city that still offers opportunity for the 99 percent. It is a city of grinding heat and humidity. A city of soul-crushing traffic. When they aren’t transporting bodies, the bayous serve as inadequate flood control for a concrete swamp. Occasionally the bayous come for you, with floods that cover half of Houston in slime and oil residue. Rain and flooding are well represented here. The flooding from Hurricane Harvey tends to lurk in the background of these stories.
The stories veer from more literary to more pulp. The mix generally enhances the experience. The more literary stories display some of the worse impulses of literary fiction, but the noir prompt cabins them a bit and the presence of pulpier stories makes them a nice change of pace.
It is a solid lineup overall. There are some lame twists, some stories that are just barely stories (especially crime stories), and too many serial killers. But no short story collection is all winners. The diversity in the stories—all the more impressive given these are original publications—means that you never get too much of a bad thing, and even a story you don’t like is something new and different.
I like gritty stories about people just scraping by, and I like stories with a strong sense of place. These stories have both in spades. I could have used more stories about people in from the country (“One in the Family,” about someone from Mississippi, fits the bill), but that is a bit of an esoteric request. I was pleased to see apparent supernatural elements pop up in “Xitlali Zaragoza, Curandera.” I complained about the lack of story in some of the stories, but “Photo Album” is one of my favorite stories from the collection anyway.
Disclosure: I requested and received a review copy from the publisher.
I loved it there, and Houston has a lower crime rate than, say, Chicago or New Orleans, but this is still a place where the old-fashioned burglar bars on our house were a good idea, where a man was shot in an drive-by a block away from my house, where a body was found in new apartments under construction that marked my neighborhood as “transitioning,” where bodies were occasionally fished out of the bayou that ran a block from our house (sometimes closer).
The copy and intro both include a wonderful, vicious Hunter S. Thompson quote describing Houston as a “cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money, and violence. It’s a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops, and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West—which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.” It says something about Texas that the immediate response is to say “heck yeah!” and adopt the quote as a point of pride.
Houston is a big city. I mean really big. Texas is big, but Houston is so big we called the northern exurbs south Dallas. It is appropriate, then, that even before the table of contents the book gives us a map marked with bodies. A couple of which don’t fit on the map, because, again, Houston is really big.
I’m not familiar with every locale. I tried very hard when I lived there to never leave the embrace of 610. There are plenty of stories set a long way from the shiny glass and steel skyscrapers. But I was very interested in the stories labeled as taking place in the Museum District, River Oaks, Downtown, Third Ward, and Montrose. There are stories that take place near my apartment in Upper Kirby and my house in the (greater) Third Ward, that mention old stomping grounds like West Alabama Ice House and Stephanie’s Ice House. Sticking with the geographic theme, the stories are roughly organized by region (complete with faux-realtor-speak). Of course stories can be hard to place. I was disappointed that the Third Ward story only sort of takes place there, but I was delighted to learn the Downtown story takes place in the greater Third Ward area and concerns a previous transition of the neighborhood and the violence that came with it.
Houston is so big a collection like this isn’t enough to get a bead on it. But the collection highlights the diversity of Houston. Less a rich tapestry and more the explosion of life and death revealed by turning a rotting log (Houston has a lot of rotting logs). It’s not just a rich city, but a rich city that still offers opportunity for the 99 percent. It is a city of grinding heat and humidity. A city of soul-crushing traffic. When they aren’t transporting bodies, the bayous serve as inadequate flood control for a concrete swamp. Occasionally the bayous come for you, with floods that cover half of Houston in slime and oil residue. Rain and flooding are well represented here. The flooding from Hurricane Harvey tends to lurk in the background of these stories.
The stories veer from more literary to more pulp. The mix generally enhances the experience. The more literary stories display some of the worse impulses of literary fiction, but the noir prompt cabins them a bit and the presence of pulpier stories makes them a nice change of pace.
It is a solid lineup overall. There are some lame twists, some stories that are just barely stories (especially crime stories), and too many serial killers. But no short story collection is all winners. The diversity in the stories—all the more impressive given these are original publications—means that you never get too much of a bad thing, and even a story you don’t like is something new and different.
I like gritty stories about people just scraping by, and I like stories with a strong sense of place. These stories have both in spades. I could have used more stories about people in from the country (“One in the Family,” about someone from Mississippi, fits the bill), but that is a bit of an esoteric request. I was pleased to see apparent supernatural elements pop up in “Xitlali Zaragoza, Curandera.” I complained about the lack of story in some of the stories, but “Photo Album” is one of my favorite stories from the collection anyway.
Disclosure: I requested and received a review copy from the publisher.
July 2, 2020
I don't typically choose noir that is this dark. And it is DARK. However, the stories are short. Living in Houston brings the settings to life. My favorite story is about the Curandera (by Reyes Ramirez).
July 24, 2019
I enjoyed the short story format of the book. I also likes the fact that the locations of the stories were familiar to me. It made me want to investigate more about certain neighborhoods. The authors were all excellent writers, however, several of the topics were a bit too "noir" for me.
May 1, 2019
The series has finally gotten around to Houston, and though I haven’t heard of any of the authors, this is a worthwhile collection that conveys a sense of place to someone such as myself who’s lived here most of his life. The stories are categorized by the neighborhood where they’re set. Of course there are a few duds here, but that’s more than offset by one outstanding story, Xitlali Zaragoza, Curandera, a very atmospheric piece.
October 26, 2020
Very hit or miss, but I did enjoy reading stories set within the diverse locations of Houston. In particular, “Tangled in Tanglewood”, “The Use of Landscape”, and “Tolerance” were standout stories to me. It’s a relatively quick read and worth the time if you’re from Houston and enjoy darker stories.
September 14, 2019
Houston born and raised, I looked forward to this set of stories. (And I currently live in the neighborhood one of the stories is set in.
Some may call it a mixed bag...a hit or miss collection.
For me, it was more hit, then miss.
Some may call it a mixed bag...a hit or miss collection.
For me, it was more hit, then miss.
July 25, 2019
It was entertaining to read about the different parts of Houston.
November 23, 2019
More cute than good, it was nice to see murder and mayhem in old familiar places. I guess the writing was ok.
June 28, 2020
Really really liked some of the stories. Even the ones I didn't enjoy as much weren't bad, they just weren't my jam. Would totally read another one of these noir compilations.
May 23, 2019
It took me a long time to finish this because it simply wasn’t very good.
Most of the stories failed to maintain even a modicum of my interest and the ones that did were usually a bit longer than necessary.
Akashic’s Noir series tends to have hits and misses within each of its Noir volumes but this one is the most disappointing one yet and much of that is due to the writing.
Each of the stories had a great premise, and seemed to accurately represent the gritty, dark, and deviant side of Houston’s environ, but the execution of telling these stories—in a way that was both engaging—was lacking.
In fact, in many of the stories, whatever the thread was, that pulled you into the moment, often disappeared into rambling wrecks of meaningless dialogue and unnecessary attention to minute details.
In the end, I was bored but opted to continue in order to give each new writer a chance to redeem the last. Unfortunately, that never happened and the result was something less than I’ve come to expect from this series.
*I received a free eGalley of this book via Akashic and Edelweiss. My opinion was not effected by the complementary receipt of this work.
Most of the stories failed to maintain even a modicum of my interest and the ones that did were usually a bit longer than necessary.
Akashic’s Noir series tends to have hits and misses within each of its Noir volumes but this one is the most disappointing one yet and much of that is due to the writing.
Each of the stories had a great premise, and seemed to accurately represent the gritty, dark, and deviant side of Houston’s environ, but the execution of telling these stories—in a way that was both engaging—was lacking.
In fact, in many of the stories, whatever the thread was, that pulled you into the moment, often disappeared into rambling wrecks of meaningless dialogue and unnecessary attention to minute details.
In the end, I was bored but opted to continue in order to give each new writer a chance to redeem the last. Unfortunately, that never happened and the result was something less than I’ve come to expect from this series.
*I received a free eGalley of this book via Akashic and Edelweiss. My opinion was not effected by the complementary receipt of this work.
June 16, 2019
I really liked the editor's introduction. Well done. How do you rate a book of short stories by 14 Houston area authors that are writing about the worst case scenarios (serial killers, sex trafficking, teens, suicide and family situations) in various areas across Houston that are both familiar areas while some I had no clue? You can't get to deep in the details of story given how short they are so nothing to avoid reading at night. Overall the deep dark stories are 9-20 pages each and I would easily say that half are really good 4 stars. Others are 3 stars and a couple might be 2 stars ... one definitely 1 star. One you need to know some Spanish or pull up google translator! I'll let you read and figure it out.
Leaving it at 4 stars since it is unique and I will be recommending it to other Houston folks.
There are MANY more books in this Noir series of other places I've visited. I think I might pick up one or two and check them out as well in the next few years.
Leaving it at 4 stars since it is unique and I will be recommending it to other Houston folks.
There are MANY more books in this Noir series of other places I've visited. I think I might pick up one or two and check them out as well in the next few years.
June 22, 2022
I've read a handful of Akashic Books Noir series, and Houston Noir is my favorite. In any anthology, there are always going to be a few stories that you don't feel are up to par, but I'm happy to say there wasn't one that I didn't enjoy reading. Between the lack of misses and the absolute stunners, Houston Noir is well worth picking up.
Although I've never been to Houston, the stories in the book definitely had a feeling of place to them. Whether taking place in upscale suburbs with McMansions, in newly gentrified neighborhoods, or on the wrong side of the tracks, this collection, more than most in the series gave me a feel for the city. The diverse voices on a variety of subjects helped with this a lot.
The standout story is the final one in the book: Jamie's Mother by Stephanie Jaye Evans. It is a heartbreaker.
Although I've never been to Houston, the stories in the book definitely had a feeling of place to them. Whether taking place in upscale suburbs with McMansions, in newly gentrified neighborhoods, or on the wrong side of the tracks, this collection, more than most in the series gave me a feel for the city. The diverse voices on a variety of subjects helped with this a lot.
The standout story is the final one in the book: Jamie's Mother by Stephanie Jaye Evans. It is a heartbreaker.
June 14, 2019
Houston's gets its own "noir" entry (finally)!
There's rain. Lots of it. Almost each story has some rain in it. And of course, there's Harvey. While there's plenty of the usual noir suspects set in Houston - murder, River Oaks, astronauts, human trafficking, freeways, gentrification, traffic woes, this compilation is sorely missing A LOT!!! There's nothing south of Westpark which means there's no Hillcroft, Harwin, Sharpstown, Westbury and Sugar Land. Other parts have been left out too - Greenspoint, downtown barely makes an appearance.
Poorly edited with a mediocre selection, Houston Noir was terribly disappointing and underwhelming. I hope Akashic plans a #2 with a different editor.
There's rain. Lots of it. Almost each story has some rain in it. And of course, there's Harvey. While there's plenty of the usual noir suspects set in Houston - murder, River Oaks, astronauts, human trafficking, freeways, gentrification, traffic woes, this compilation is sorely missing A LOT!!! There's nothing south of Westpark which means there's no Hillcroft, Harwin, Sharpstown, Westbury and Sugar Land. Other parts have been left out too - Greenspoint, downtown barely makes an appearance.
Poorly edited with a mediocre selection, Houston Noir was terribly disappointing and underwhelming. I hope Akashic plans a #2 with a different editor.
July 2, 2019
Houston Noir is another excellent addition to the Akashic Noir series of books. Filled with short stories, each set in a Houston neighborhood, it is filled to the brim with all of the crime and depravity Houston has to offer. Obviously, some stories are better than others, but I find that these collections are a great way to discover new authors. Highly recommended for those who like their crime hard boiled.
(Note: this book was provided to me by the publisher as a LibraryThing early reviewer.)
(Note: this book was provided to me by the publisher as a LibraryThing early reviewer.)
February 21, 2019
This book captures the Houston lifestyle of the car culture, the bad weather, the traffic, and lowlifes. As a Texan though, I am always disappointed when there is a collection of writing from Texas and it is not stellar. There are many, many brilliant writers living in Texas, and apparently the editor of this book didn't bother to publish them.
October 28, 2019
Being very familiar with Houston and its neighborhoods, I loved reading this. Each short story set in a different Houston neighborhood, written by a different author, all in classic dark noir style. You could visualize each story. Of course, some stories I liked and some I didn’t. Now I want to read different books in this series about other locations I know.
July 29, 2019
Mostly decent stories. Some of them are very dark.
One that was not-ready-for-English and the editor didn't fix anything (I'm not talking about street talk or the like - this was misused and plain wrong English) and was a bit p.o'd that the editor didn't catch it.
One that was not-ready-for-English and the editor didn't fix anything (I'm not talking about street talk or the like - this was misused and plain wrong English) and was a bit p.o'd that the editor didn't catch it.
March 2, 2021
Really specific to Houston, which I enjoyed. Also, pretty good mystery stories. I wish there were some stories about Sugar Land, Katy, etc, but the stories as they were were pretty good. They honestly all felt real.
Read
August 20, 2019Reviewed by Chris Manno for Lone Star Literary Life.
February 12, 2025
Some good stories; some more boring than noir.
March 28, 2025
Mixed bag. Some stories were really good. Some stories were just ok.
December 23, 2021
This anthology seems to scream Houston and as a native Houstonian, I appreciate that. Some of the stories are clichéd but that is what makes them wonderful. They show that Houstonians are a wild and myriad group who sometimes fall into set patterns while at same time being outside of the "norm". I loved everything about Houston Noir from the cover art to the author profiles. It made me feel like someone knew and loved my hometown.
Want to read
May 25, 2019Houston, the city I have a tolerate-hate relationship with lol, is the latest to be featured in the Noir anthology! I am too excited to read this!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews