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New Orleans Noir
New Orleans has always had a heart of noir.
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, who also edited the collection.
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, who also edited the collection.
270 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
170 people are currently reading
1851 people want to read
About the author
Julie Smith
259 books403 followersAuthor of 20 mystery novels and a YA paranormal adventure called BAD GIRL SCHOOL (formerly CURSEBUSTERS!). Nine of the mysteries are about a female New Orleans cop Skip Langdon, five about a San Francisco lawyer named Rebecca Schwartz,two about a struggling mystery writer named Paul Mcdonald (whose fate no one should suffer) and four teaming up Talba Wallis, a private eye with many names, a poetic license, and a smoking computer, with veteran P.I. Eddie Valentino.
In Bad GIRL SCHOOL, a psychic pink-haired teen-age burglar named Reeno gets recruited by a psychotic telepathic cat to pull a job that involves time travel to an ancient Mayan city. Hint:It HAS to be done before 2012!
Winner of the 1991 Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel, that being NEW ORLEANS MOURNING.
Former reporter for the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE and the San Francisco CHRONICLE.
Recently licensed private investigator, and thereon hangs a tale.
Resident of New Orleans, Louisiana
In Bad GIRL SCHOOL, a psychic pink-haired teen-age burglar named Reeno gets recruited by a psychotic telepathic cat to pull a job that involves time travel to an ancient Mayan city. Hint:It HAS to be done before 2012!
Winner of the 1991 Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel, that being NEW ORLEANS MOURNING.
Former reporter for the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE and the San Francisco CHRONICLE.
Recently licensed private investigator, and thereon hangs a tale.
Resident of New Orleans, Louisiana
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
November 18, 2016
4.5 stars
While most of these stories might not be classic ‘noir’ (apparently New Orleans as a setting does not have a long history in that genre), most are ‘classic’ New Orleans, especially the first several, and all are ‘noir’ as in dark (oh, how very dark!).
Of those first several stories (arranged chronologically), all but one I’d read before (see the fabulous N.O. Lit: 200 Years of New Orleans Literature), but was glad to read again with the definition of ‘noir’ in my head instead of merely thinking of them as New Orleans-based stories.
“Pleadings” (1976) by John William Corrington is the first of the collection to fit the true ‘noir’ label and is one that has stuck with me. I’d not read Nevada Barr or James Lee Burke before (his story “Jesus Out to Sea” is the only Hurricane-Katrina story in the collection) and their stories show me their talent without the genre elements of their novels that I know are not to my taste.
Editor Julie Smith has done a fantastic job and I appreciate the three categories she has placed these stories within, each a nod to a classic New Orleans literary work. I liked the original New Orleans Noir, but this one, with its distance of time, is even better.
While most of these stories might not be classic ‘noir’ (apparently New Orleans as a setting does not have a long history in that genre), most are ‘classic’ New Orleans, especially the first several, and all are ‘noir’ as in dark (oh, how very dark!).
Of those first several stories (arranged chronologically), all but one I’d read before (see the fabulous N.O. Lit: 200 Years of New Orleans Literature), but was glad to read again with the definition of ‘noir’ in my head instead of merely thinking of them as New Orleans-based stories.
“Pleadings” (1976) by John William Corrington is the first of the collection to fit the true ‘noir’ label and is one that has stuck with me. I’d not read Nevada Barr or James Lee Burke before (his story “Jesus Out to Sea” is the only Hurricane-Katrina story in the collection) and their stories show me their talent without the genre elements of their novels that I know are not to my taste.
Editor Julie Smith has done a fantastic job and I appreciate the three categories she has placed these stories within, each a nod to a classic New Orleans literary work. I liked the original New Orleans Noir, but this one, with its distance of time, is even better.
July 29, 2018
These stories were overall satisfying and some were excellent. Each section of the book focuses on a different neighborhood of New Orleans. My favorites revolved around Hurricane Katrina. A good read for those who enjoy crime short stories, and especially fans of New Orleans. I have only visited New Orleans twice - once in 1990 and again in 2016. Ten years after Katrina, much of the city is still recovering. I took a fantastic tour provided by a local who ran a 16 passenger van tour through the Lower Ninth Ward where he grew up and his mother still lives. https://lowernine.org/
It is an amazing city, and the book carries some of that flavor.
It is an amazing city, and the book carries some of that flavor.
March 2, 2016
I've long wanted to read one of Akashic's Noir anthologies and was pleased to have my first tour a sampling of southern fiction set in New Orleans. Each story here is set in the city and this being the second collection to be set here has been given a secondary theme of "classics". The stories are presented chronologically from 1843 up through to fairly modern offerings. The definition of "noir" is broad. This can mean classic private eye, gothic, dark, menacing and generally involve murder, but one thing they all have in common is ominous troubled endings. There were a couple of stories that missed the mark with me but generally the rest were good to excellent. I certainly look forward to reading other's in this publisher's series.
1. A Marriage of Conscience by Armand Lanusse (1843) - This first story is noir in the sense that it is dark but otherwise is more fairly termed as Gothic. A melodramatic piece of a pure-hearted young woman who finally gives her heart to a man who does her wrong once he has her. She cannot stand the disgrace afterward and publicly involves him in her own suicide. I loved the despair. (3/5)
2. The Little Convent Girl by Grace King (1893) - This is sad and morose with a final depressing ending. After the death of her father, the little girl who has been raised in a convent travels on a Mississippi steamer to Connecticut to meet her mother for the very first time. One needs to take some time to ponder what may have caused the tragic ending. (4/5)
3. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (1894) - A selfish woman gets her just deserts. (3/5)
4. Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking by O. Henry (1899) - This is the last story in part one and the closest to an actual noir in the sense that it has a crime though it is a happy story and a Christmas story to boot. A hobo meets some unexpected adversity one day, but along the way also meets unexpected kindness. He ends up with some friends who want to pull off a robbery but he's not that sort. He saves the day but in the end, chooses freedom over luxury. Pleasant story but I'm not really big on O. Henry. (3/5)
Part Two skips almost forty years in time to the era when noir is more what we can expect it to be.
5. The Purple Hat by Eudora Welty (1941) - A tale told at a bar by a man in the know to a bartender but is he perhaps really telling the story to the young man sitting alone at the other end of the bar. It's the story of an exotic older gambling woman, a seductress, who always plays and wins at the saloon the man works in. She's been murdered twice and wears an enigmatic purple hat. (4/5)
6. Desire and the Black Masseur by Tennessee Williams (1948) - I have no idea what to make of this; written in the US in 1948 the racial element must mean something as must the blasphemy. However, to me, it reads as a disgusting BDSM story of a cannibalistic serial killer, quite repugnant. I don't know how to rate it. I haven't read enough Williams to know whether this is typical of him. The theme was sickening, the writing was good. (3/5)
7. Miss Yellow Eyes by Shirley Ann Grau (1955) - Whoa. Heavy duty. An epic family story set during WWII of an African-American family and issues they face within their own community such as a couple who plan to move north and pass as white after the war is over. A powerful story that gets more intense as it goes along, reaching a point where things take a downward turn until the tragic ending. This is the longest story in the collection so far. Powerful. (5/5)
8. Pleadings by John William (1976) - A novella divided into parts or chapters, even longer than the previous piece and is quite different than the others as we have twenty-year gap chronologically in writing. Several themes are covered here but first we have a lawyer story one who becomes involved not so much in a case but in some people's "troubles" because they are brought to him as being friends of someone he knows. A domestic case where the man is seeking divorce, making up allegations, because he cannot deal any longer with their "vegetative" son in a home for the "feebleminded" since birth. This is a dark story and hard to read, practically every derogatory word imaginable (from the era this story was written) for the mentally ill is used from the beginning and gets worse as the lawyer actually takes a tour of the asylum. The father and the lawyer refer to these patients, not as he or she but "it". Though this takes a strong stomach, it suits the story as "Pleadings" is ultimately a tale of reconciliation, and a purging of sin through fire, a suitable redemptive ending, though not happy in the typical sense of the word. Powerful, well-written. (5/5)
9. Ritual Murder by Tom Dent (1978) - I've never heard of this author but this is the most powerful story I've yet read here. And it's not actually a story but a play; it's been a very long time since I've read a play (excepting Shakespeare) and the effect is moving. This is a story of black on black violence in the '70s but is a hard-hitting and gut-wrenchingly realistic read today to see how much things stay the same even though they change. A frank and potent play which would be chilling to see performed live. (5/5)
10. Rich by Ellen Gilchrist (1978)- The first story in part three is written in the same year as the last story and even after a string of 5-star stories is my favourite one so far. A true blue Southern Gothic about a seemingly wonderful well-off southern family. Life isn't perfect, but they go with the flow, have common sense and make the most of everything seeming to have the best of everything. But, being faithfully Catholic, they know everyone has a cross to bear and they bear theirs well. It wears them down eventually, nevertheless, until tragedy strikes and one of them breaks so hard he goes beyond the point of no return. Gloriously gloomy. Loved it! (5/5)
11. Spats by Valerie Martin (1988) - The story of a woman whose husband leaves her for another woman, but worst of all he leaves his beloved dogs behind because they aren't allowed at the new lover's home. I didn't connect with this. The woman moaned about being alone and one of the dogs was viscous, so she took revenge on her husband. I had no feelings for any of the characters, including the dogs. (2/5)
12. The Man With Moon Hands by O'Neil De Noux (1993) - This is short and strange. A cop meets up with two weirdos with guns and shoots one but not the other, who turns out to be a nutcase who thinks he has moon hands and waits every night with a bag packed for his ride to Alpha Six. The cop ends up watching him for a few years, then gets transferred to homicide, Now three years later he's called to a self-defense shooting by a cop. Didn't seem to have a point. (2/5)
13. Rose by John Biguenet (1999) - Very short. After his wife's funeral, a man discovers to what length she had gone to remember their little boy who had been killed in an accident when he was young. (3/5)
14. Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz by Poppy Z. Brite (1995) - Duke Ferdinand was not really killed by the assassin charged with his murder, in fact, it was a three-hundred-year-old Italian mage. Ferdinand's spirit come's back, inhabit's a drunken ex-cop's body and seek's out the mage in the 1919's before he can go on to an imminent future and another World War and become another Italian terror. In the meantime, the Ferdinand embodied cop becomes known as the New Orlean's Axeman. Pretty strange, but I liked it! (4/5)
15. GDMFSOB by Nevada Barr (2006) - A woman plots to murder her husband and he just won't die, but what he finally dies of is hilarious. Loved it! Well-written. (5/5)
16. Jesus Out to Sea by James Lee Burke (2006) - A group of guys are experiencing a very bad hurricane (Katrina I'm supposing) and they end up floating along with a Jesus statue. Atmospheric. (4/5)
17. Last Fair Deal Gone Down by Ace Atkins (2010) - Good ole New Orleans blues and jazz scene murder mystery. A detecting sax player gets caught up in the seamier side of life while solving the death of a beloved local sax player. This is totally my type of story. (5/5)
18. Pie Man by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (2012) - This has a very abrupt ending; I had to check and make sure I hadn't skipped a page. Plus I'm not sure why it's called Pie Man as he's only a peripheral character. However, this is quite an intense story of race violence set a few years after Hurricane Katrina. The story labels it as "brown-on-black" violence and we see a neighbourhood under attack by its youth because of an instance of robbery gone wrong. Baby, a fourteen-year-old is the main character and narrator but we see the situation from most sides except the shooter's, a Latino carpenter, who was robbed. Baby is quite mature in this situation, though, having been close friends with Sanchez, he can at times see his point of view, but, in the end, becomes a victim of his gang pride and peer pressure. A riveting read and well-placed story to end the collection with. (5/5)
1. A Marriage of Conscience by Armand Lanusse (1843) - This first story is noir in the sense that it is dark but otherwise is more fairly termed as Gothic. A melodramatic piece of a pure-hearted young woman who finally gives her heart to a man who does her wrong once he has her. She cannot stand the disgrace afterward and publicly involves him in her own suicide. I loved the despair. (3/5)
2. The Little Convent Girl by Grace King (1893) - This is sad and morose with a final depressing ending. After the death of her father, the little girl who has been raised in a convent travels on a Mississippi steamer to Connecticut to meet her mother for the very first time. One needs to take some time to ponder what may have caused the tragic ending. (4/5)
3. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (1894) - A selfish woman gets her just deserts. (3/5)
4. Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking by O. Henry (1899) - This is the last story in part one and the closest to an actual noir in the sense that it has a crime though it is a happy story and a Christmas story to boot. A hobo meets some unexpected adversity one day, but along the way also meets unexpected kindness. He ends up with some friends who want to pull off a robbery but he's not that sort. He saves the day but in the end, chooses freedom over luxury. Pleasant story but I'm not really big on O. Henry. (3/5)
Part Two skips almost forty years in time to the era when noir is more what we can expect it to be.
5. The Purple Hat by Eudora Welty (1941) - A tale told at a bar by a man in the know to a bartender but is he perhaps really telling the story to the young man sitting alone at the other end of the bar. It's the story of an exotic older gambling woman, a seductress, who always plays and wins at the saloon the man works in. She's been murdered twice and wears an enigmatic purple hat. (4/5)
6. Desire and the Black Masseur by Tennessee Williams (1948) - I have no idea what to make of this; written in the US in 1948 the racial element must mean something as must the blasphemy. However, to me, it reads as a disgusting BDSM story of a cannibalistic serial killer, quite repugnant. I don't know how to rate it. I haven't read enough Williams to know whether this is typical of him. The theme was sickening, the writing was good. (3/5)
7. Miss Yellow Eyes by Shirley Ann Grau (1955) - Whoa. Heavy duty. An epic family story set during WWII of an African-American family and issues they face within their own community such as a couple who plan to move north and pass as white after the war is over. A powerful story that gets more intense as it goes along, reaching a point where things take a downward turn until the tragic ending. This is the longest story in the collection so far. Powerful. (5/5)
8. Pleadings by John William (1976) - A novella divided into parts or chapters, even longer than the previous piece and is quite different than the others as we have twenty-year gap chronologically in writing. Several themes are covered here but first we have a lawyer story one who becomes involved not so much in a case but in some people's "troubles" because they are brought to him as being friends of someone he knows. A domestic case where the man is seeking divorce, making up allegations, because he cannot deal any longer with their "vegetative" son in a home for the "feebleminded" since birth. This is a dark story and hard to read, practically every derogatory word imaginable (from the era this story was written) for the mentally ill is used from the beginning and gets worse as the lawyer actually takes a tour of the asylum. The father and the lawyer refer to these patients, not as he or she but "it". Though this takes a strong stomach, it suits the story as "Pleadings" is ultimately a tale of reconciliation, and a purging of sin through fire, a suitable redemptive ending, though not happy in the typical sense of the word. Powerful, well-written. (5/5)
9. Ritual Murder by Tom Dent (1978) - I've never heard of this author but this is the most powerful story I've yet read here. And it's not actually a story but a play; it's been a very long time since I've read a play (excepting Shakespeare) and the effect is moving. This is a story of black on black violence in the '70s but is a hard-hitting and gut-wrenchingly realistic read today to see how much things stay the same even though they change. A frank and potent play which would be chilling to see performed live. (5/5)
10. Rich by Ellen Gilchrist (1978)- The first story in part three is written in the same year as the last story and even after a string of 5-star stories is my favourite one so far. A true blue Southern Gothic about a seemingly wonderful well-off southern family. Life isn't perfect, but they go with the flow, have common sense and make the most of everything seeming to have the best of everything. But, being faithfully Catholic, they know everyone has a cross to bear and they bear theirs well. It wears them down eventually, nevertheless, until tragedy strikes and one of them breaks so hard he goes beyond the point of no return. Gloriously gloomy. Loved it! (5/5)
11. Spats by Valerie Martin (1988) - The story of a woman whose husband leaves her for another woman, but worst of all he leaves his beloved dogs behind because they aren't allowed at the new lover's home. I didn't connect with this. The woman moaned about being alone and one of the dogs was viscous, so she took revenge on her husband. I had no feelings for any of the characters, including the dogs. (2/5)
12. The Man With Moon Hands by O'Neil De Noux (1993) - This is short and strange. A cop meets up with two weirdos with guns and shoots one but not the other, who turns out to be a nutcase who thinks he has moon hands and waits every night with a bag packed for his ride to Alpha Six. The cop ends up watching him for a few years, then gets transferred to homicide, Now three years later he's called to a self-defense shooting by a cop. Didn't seem to have a point. (2/5)
13. Rose by John Biguenet (1999) - Very short. After his wife's funeral, a man discovers to what length she had gone to remember their little boy who had been killed in an accident when he was young. (3/5)
14. Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz by Poppy Z. Brite (1995) - Duke Ferdinand was not really killed by the assassin charged with his murder, in fact, it was a three-hundred-year-old Italian mage. Ferdinand's spirit come's back, inhabit's a drunken ex-cop's body and seek's out the mage in the 1919's before he can go on to an imminent future and another World War and become another Italian terror. In the meantime, the Ferdinand embodied cop becomes known as the New Orlean's Axeman. Pretty strange, but I liked it! (4/5)
15. GDMFSOB by Nevada Barr (2006) - A woman plots to murder her husband and he just won't die, but what he finally dies of is hilarious. Loved it! Well-written. (5/5)
16. Jesus Out to Sea by James Lee Burke (2006) - A group of guys are experiencing a very bad hurricane (Katrina I'm supposing) and they end up floating along with a Jesus statue. Atmospheric. (4/5)
17. Last Fair Deal Gone Down by Ace Atkins (2010) - Good ole New Orleans blues and jazz scene murder mystery. A detecting sax player gets caught up in the seamier side of life while solving the death of a beloved local sax player. This is totally my type of story. (5/5)
18. Pie Man by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (2012) - This has a very abrupt ending; I had to check and make sure I hadn't skipped a page. Plus I'm not sure why it's called Pie Man as he's only a peripheral character. However, this is quite an intense story of race violence set a few years after Hurricane Katrina. The story labels it as "brown-on-black" violence and we see a neighbourhood under attack by its youth because of an instance of robbery gone wrong. Baby, a fourteen-year-old is the main character and narrator but we see the situation from most sides except the shooter's, a Latino carpenter, who was robbed. Baby is quite mature in this situation, though, having been close friends with Sanchez, he can at times see his point of view, but, in the end, becomes a victim of his gang pride and peer pressure. A riveting read and well-placed story to end the collection with. (5/5)
March 8, 2016
New Orleans Noir: The Classics
What an a amazing series of stories. I'm so happy that I ran across this book. Some of my favorite authors contributed to this book and one of my very favorite authors has the best story in this book. If you read any story in this book you have to read "Jesus Out to Sea" by James Lee Burke. I can't give enough praises for this piece of work and I'm looking forward to reading the first book in this series New Orleans Noir 1.
What an a amazing series of stories. I'm so happy that I ran across this book. Some of my favorite authors contributed to this book and one of my very favorite authors has the best story in this book. If you read any story in this book you have to read "Jesus Out to Sea" by James Lee Burke. I can't give enough praises for this piece of work and I'm looking forward to reading the first book in this series New Orleans Noir 1.
October 4, 2008
Like most topical collections, this collection of noir short stories set in New Orleans was inconsistent in quality. The book is divided into pre-Katrina and post-Katrina sections, and I generally found the post-Katrina stories to be the superior ones. There are enough good stories here to make this book a worthwhile read.
October 4, 2008
i really enjoyed this book. who knows, maybe i would not have loved it as much without katrina, but katrina happened, ain't a thing i can do about it, unfortunately.
noir, broadly defined (is intrinsically linked to a deep (if possibly controversial) attachment to the city and its neighborhoods, so i think the format, of dividing the stories by neighborhoods, works well. the city, as in many of the stories here, especially the post-katrina ones, is a city that's going to seed. at the same time, the characters love it. they love it even when it lets them down. they love it even when it's dangerous and tragic. they love it with an unbreakable heart.
i am someone who's quite in love with descriptions of seedy locales, both internal (dives, clubs, brothels) and external (rundown 'hoods, industrial wastelands, etc.), so that, too, spoke to me.
but i really, really liked the characters, which is another feature of the noir. however scuzzy, however morally shady they are, however loserish, noir characters are characters you can't help but like. they are good at heart. they would do better if they just could. they are down on their luck. often they do the right thing only because they can't help doing otherwise.
this would be, for instance, jack in angola south, by ace atkins, a black (yes?) cop who tries to hold it together, in spite of the utter breakdown of post-katrina civilization. people who looted a bottle of water (i don't remember the details -- i'm making this one up) are in the same makeshift jail cells as people who shot and maimed. in fact (doesn't another story mention this?) the only thing that seems to work in post-k. N.O. is the swift transport of apprehended criminals from the makeshift cells at the train station (again, maybe not getting the details right) to angola. the fact is that jack does not hold it together, not really, because, frankly, it's mayhem out there. but there's something tough and old-worldly to his lone, watchful, dedicated patrolling, to his sleeping in hard chairs, to his wading in the deep city swamp to catch a shooter who turns out to be a dead kid.
stories i really liked (short version, to keep this post from being too long):
two-stories brick houses by patty friedmann. not exactly noir, but chilling and powerful. i guess uptown in a nice part of town? i guess this is about the ghosts that haunt the well-off, the white people who live in nice houses and whose parents were killed in the holocaust. because this is definitely a story about class.
another story about class (and, inevitably, race), but with a nice & happy leftist/social justice twist at the end: loot by julie smith.
i loved james nolan's open mike, partly because i really dug the narrator, partly because i loved reading about the french quarter, and more than partly (imagine a large part) because of the writing. finally, i liked it for the moral debacle of the end. we all do what we can. no heroes in noir.
barbara hambly's there shall your heart be also was a winner with me, too. really really cool.
maureen tan's muddy pond stuck with me, and so did christine wiltz's night taxi, because the bad guys get it at the end, and because the tension is awesome.
i could go on. i'm picking at random. one more: the closing story, marigny triangle, by eric overmyer, because of how it's written, loose and desperate and obsessive, and because it brings home how sometimes the world really, really sucks.
noir, broadly defined (is intrinsically linked to a deep (if possibly controversial) attachment to the city and its neighborhoods, so i think the format, of dividing the stories by neighborhoods, works well. the city, as in many of the stories here, especially the post-katrina ones, is a city that's going to seed. at the same time, the characters love it. they love it even when it lets them down. they love it even when it's dangerous and tragic. they love it with an unbreakable heart.
i am someone who's quite in love with descriptions of seedy locales, both internal (dives, clubs, brothels) and external (rundown 'hoods, industrial wastelands, etc.), so that, too, spoke to me.
but i really, really liked the characters, which is another feature of the noir. however scuzzy, however morally shady they are, however loserish, noir characters are characters you can't help but like. they are good at heart. they would do better if they just could. they are down on their luck. often they do the right thing only because they can't help doing otherwise.
this would be, for instance, jack in angola south, by ace atkins, a black (yes?) cop who tries to hold it together, in spite of the utter breakdown of post-katrina civilization. people who looted a bottle of water (i don't remember the details -- i'm making this one up) are in the same makeshift jail cells as people who shot and maimed. in fact (doesn't another story mention this?) the only thing that seems to work in post-k. N.O. is the swift transport of apprehended criminals from the makeshift cells at the train station (again, maybe not getting the details right) to angola. the fact is that jack does not hold it together, not really, because, frankly, it's mayhem out there. but there's something tough and old-worldly to his lone, watchful, dedicated patrolling, to his sleeping in hard chairs, to his wading in the deep city swamp to catch a shooter who turns out to be a dead kid.
stories i really liked (short version, to keep this post from being too long):
two-stories brick houses by patty friedmann. not exactly noir, but chilling and powerful. i guess uptown in a nice part of town? i guess this is about the ghosts that haunt the well-off, the white people who live in nice houses and whose parents were killed in the holocaust. because this is definitely a story about class.
another story about class (and, inevitably, race), but with a nice & happy leftist/social justice twist at the end: loot by julie smith.
i loved james nolan's open mike, partly because i really dug the narrator, partly because i loved reading about the french quarter, and more than partly (imagine a large part) because of the writing. finally, i liked it for the moral debacle of the end. we all do what we can. no heroes in noir.
barbara hambly's there shall your heart be also was a winner with me, too. really really cool.
maureen tan's muddy pond stuck with me, and so did christine wiltz's night taxi, because the bad guys get it at the end, and because the tension is awesome.
i could go on. i'm picking at random. one more: the closing story, marigny triangle, by eric overmyer, because of how it's written, loose and desperate and obsessive, and because it brings home how sometimes the world really, really sucks.
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February 25, 2024Always hard to review story anthologies. Loved some, hated some, and also minus 1 star for killing the dog
October 14, 2019
These short stories about New Orleans focus on different neighborhoods and thus give the reader a flavor for the city. There are also pre-and post Katrina stories. They are interesting and revealing but remind why short stories are really not my jam—just as I think we are going to get into some meaty themes or details, the stories end. Still the stories provided a good flavor for the people and places of New Orleans.
December 14, 2023
This was a nice collection of stories about one of my favorite cities to visit. Some were darker than others. It is part of a larger collection of noir books about locations throughout the United States, but I probably won't read them all. I enjoyed this one, though.
February 26, 2013
A wonderfully eerie peek into the many neighborhoods and lives of New Orleans.
I had no idea what New Orleans Noir was other than a collection of short stories about my favorite adopted city. And, it took me half of the book to realize the common theme running through each story - as a friend pointed out the seemingly odd pattern of a dead body turning up in each. I guess I thought it just sounded like New Orleans. Perhaps that's the point.
New Orleans Noir offers a dark glimpse of an all-too-common travesty found in the loss of life. While some of the stories begin with such loss, others end with it, while yet for others it merely plays a background tune to the characters immediate lives.
There was once a time when short stories bothered me as too terse. Too insensitive to the wealth of information that could be shared on a page. To the depth of stories, lives, tales that could be woven between the front cover and back. This book helped to change that for me.
These vignettes are all powerful in their own right, dragging the reader from an uptown sleep over to the unlit street corner of the Bywater, and even across the river, stepping back two hundred years in the course of a dozen pages.
New Orleans Noir tantalizes from all angles and, while it may not be the best bedtime read for the light of heart, if you're not afraid to confront the muddy monsters of the Mississippi, then dive right in, because here they're waiting!
I had no idea what New Orleans Noir was other than a collection of short stories about my favorite adopted city. And, it took me half of the book to realize the common theme running through each story - as a friend pointed out the seemingly odd pattern of a dead body turning up in each. I guess I thought it just sounded like New Orleans. Perhaps that's the point.
New Orleans Noir offers a dark glimpse of an all-too-common travesty found in the loss of life. While some of the stories begin with such loss, others end with it, while yet for others it merely plays a background tune to the characters immediate lives.
There was once a time when short stories bothered me as too terse. Too insensitive to the wealth of information that could be shared on a page. To the depth of stories, lives, tales that could be woven between the front cover and back. This book helped to change that for me.
These vignettes are all powerful in their own right, dragging the reader from an uptown sleep over to the unlit street corner of the Bywater, and even across the river, stepping back two hundred years in the course of a dozen pages.
New Orleans Noir tantalizes from all angles and, while it may not be the best bedtime read for the light of heart, if you're not afraid to confront the muddy monsters of the Mississippi, then dive right in, because here they're waiting!
March 27, 2021
Noir fiction is rooted in corruption. Characters, often deeply flawed, must deal with it. And the 18 spots in New Orleans that provide settings for the short stories are arable for corruption to fertilize. So, grand dark vines twist their way through bandstands, playgrounds, swashes, churches, homes and sidewalks. Editor Julie Smith gives readers four 19th Century tales to launch the collection so the dark path of inequities and hypocrisies is set. Blazed by Armand Lanusse, Grace King, Kate Chopin and O. Henry, this reader looked forward to following the path. Stories published in the 1940s by Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams are just as engrossing, but tales published in later decades lack their je ne sais quoi. It's disappointing to be distracted with thoughts like, "Oh, this writer is so darn white," or "Are these characters in a new story off to Cafe du Monde, too?" Maybe a four-star rating is a bit much, but being in NOLA, literary though the visit may be, inspires generosity.
March 12, 2021
3.5 stars. Any short story anthology will have some hits and some misses. New Orleans Noir was mostly hits. The stories took place in a variety of neighborhoods, so it was a nice (although dark - these are noir stories) way to get a feel for the city. The collection is divided up pre/post Katrina. While I thought some of the post Katrina stories were stronger, I also appreciated the historical spectrum in the pre-Katrina section. All in all, I'm glad I read this and I ordered a couple more novels by authors who were featured in the collection - always a good sign. This collection came out in 2007 and my understanding is that there is a second collection that came out in 2017 - I will definitely pick that one up too.
February 5, 2017
My heart belongs to New Orleans as anyone who knows me well can attest. So this book was a natural fit for me. I loved the chronological order of stories and the fact that their locations/settings were mentioned at the beginning of each. Some of my favorites were the oldest pieces and they sometimes felt even fresher and more relevant perhaps than the newer ones. There is a wonderful group of authors represented and I highly recommend this entire series of Noir books. There's one for practically any place you might live in or love to visit!
June 28, 2017
A hit-and-miss collection. It helps if one is at least somewhat familiar with many of the nabes in which these crime tales are set. Enough of the stories are evocative enough to make it entertaining filler between more substantial reads. I'll try "Bronx Noir" next, but then that might be it. No need for anyone to check out "Manhattan Noir" -- read pretty much anything by Colin Harrison instead.
September 6, 2014
So good I was afraid to turn the pages to see what happened next.
January 1, 2017
I really looked forward to this Akashic collection, thinking that New Orleans would have some great noir, but I found it lackluster and disappointing overall.
March 2, 2018
By now, this series of Noir stories is getting close to 100 books. This is the first I have read. I was a little hesitant to pick it up, given that the idea of “classic noir” to me means noir writing from the classic days starting in the 1930s. Some of the stories in this collection go much farther back, the first a very short story by Armand Lanusse from 1843.
All of the stories take place in and around New Orleans — there’s even a crime map style illustration, showing the stories’ primary locations. The working definition of “noir” is, as you might think from the reach back into the nineteenth century, broad. Several of those early stories are particularly concerned with untenable racial relationships in old New Orleans — lives that can’t go forward, as in Grace King’s “The Little Convent Girl”, because the structure of racial relationships close in around them to cripple them.
That feeling of inevitable doom is often at the heart of noir stories, and I think that’s the common element that draws these stories together. They don’t all share that hard-beaten urban feel we associate with noir — they aren’t stories that take place in city bars at night. They aren’t all full of lives shaped by crimes that dig a whole the characters can’t dig out of. But they do have the background music of fate carrying the stories forward to endings that are unhappy but that draw our empathy.
The book is divided into three sets of stories, by the dates of their writing. The first four are those stories going back to the 1800s, including, along with the stories by Lanusse and Grace King, ones by Kate Chopin and O. Henry.
The second set goes from the 1940s through to the beginnings of contemporary noir in the late 1970s. This also includes some authors whose fame is not necessarily noirish — Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams are the authors of the first two of the five in this set.
The last is contemporary noir, beginning with Ellen Gilchrist’s 1978 story, “Rich”, and including well-known current writers like James Lee Burke.
The New Orleans feel in the stories is supplied by the neighborhoods, the bars and clubs, the peculiar racial history of New Orleans — not the history framed by agricultural slavery but the complex structures of urban society that, so far as I know, are unique to New Orleans’ history — and the music and cultural life of New Orleans. It’s a very different noir than the noir of New York City.
I think the book works. Like I said, I had some hesitations about it. So long as you don’t require your noir pure and pulpy, you’re free to focus on the uniqueness of New Orleans life, and the very good writing in bite-sized pieces by some great writers.
All of the stories take place in and around New Orleans — there’s even a crime map style illustration, showing the stories’ primary locations. The working definition of “noir” is, as you might think from the reach back into the nineteenth century, broad. Several of those early stories are particularly concerned with untenable racial relationships in old New Orleans — lives that can’t go forward, as in Grace King’s “The Little Convent Girl”, because the structure of racial relationships close in around them to cripple them.
That feeling of inevitable doom is often at the heart of noir stories, and I think that’s the common element that draws these stories together. They don’t all share that hard-beaten urban feel we associate with noir — they aren’t stories that take place in city bars at night. They aren’t all full of lives shaped by crimes that dig a whole the characters can’t dig out of. But they do have the background music of fate carrying the stories forward to endings that are unhappy but that draw our empathy.
The book is divided into three sets of stories, by the dates of their writing. The first four are those stories going back to the 1800s, including, along with the stories by Lanusse and Grace King, ones by Kate Chopin and O. Henry.
The second set goes from the 1940s through to the beginnings of contemporary noir in the late 1970s. This also includes some authors whose fame is not necessarily noirish — Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams are the authors of the first two of the five in this set.
The last is contemporary noir, beginning with Ellen Gilchrist’s 1978 story, “Rich”, and including well-known current writers like James Lee Burke.
The New Orleans feel in the stories is supplied by the neighborhoods, the bars and clubs, the peculiar racial history of New Orleans — not the history framed by agricultural slavery but the complex structures of urban society that, so far as I know, are unique to New Orleans’ history — and the music and cultural life of New Orleans. It’s a very different noir than the noir of New York City.
I think the book works. Like I said, I had some hesitations about it. So long as you don’t require your noir pure and pulpy, you’re free to focus on the uniqueness of New Orleans life, and the very good writing in bite-sized pieces by some great writers.
May 9, 2018
I'm not a big reader of short stories, but I will read anything about or set in New Orleans. This post-Katrina collection of short stories is wonderful. All are good. Some are better than others. Several are memorable. But one stands out
“Scared Rabbit” by Tim McLoughlin is one of the best short stories I've ever read. It captures something authentic about New Orleans in a perfectly structured story that doesn't reveal its true punch until the end -- and then in a most unexpected but perfectly crafted way. That story alone is worth obtaining New Orleans Noir.
Note: There is also New Orleans Noir Classic, which is also on my reading list. But they are different books.
“Scared Rabbit” by Tim McLoughlin is one of the best short stories I've ever read. It captures something authentic about New Orleans in a perfectly structured story that doesn't reveal its true punch until the end -- and then in a most unexpected but perfectly crafted way. That story alone is worth obtaining New Orleans Noir.
Note: There is also New Orleans Noir Classic, which is also on my reading list. But they are different books.
February 1, 2021
New Orleans Noir provides readers with 18 stories that put the human condition on full display. Given its publication date (2007), this is a fine assemblage of dark tales set in NOLA neighborhoods. Part One covers decades, even a century, before Hurricane Katrina broke the levees in 2005. Part Two stories are all set immediately after the storm. Editor Julie Smith gives readers an excellent assortment of contemporary authors, although the inclusion of Laura Lippman's work is mystifying. It's as if the publisher owed Lippman a favor for editing Baltimore Noir. That said, pandemic-constrained readers won't regret kicking off 2021's carnival season by visiting NOLA through this book.
November 12, 2021
This wasn’t my favorite short story collection, but I certainly felt the authenticity of the authors’ experiences in New Orleans shine through in each story. Three of my favorite stories in the collection were: “Two Story Brick Houses”, “Muddy Pond”, and “Marigny Triangle. What I was personally missing was a variety of writing styles which is something I seek in a collection such as this. Overall, if you’re a true crime fan you’ll enjoy this. There are some gems in this anthology that provide you with intriguing historical context and a compelling story.
December 1, 2021
With every book I read in this series, I think "Oh! This is the best one yet!"
This volume has a great mix of stories, some from an older time in New Orleans, some which feature the great turning point with Hurricane Katrina and some which are post-Katrina. Each features New Orleans geography and quirks as part of the plot, and it works.
When I think New Orleans Noir, I tend to think of Anne Rice and her vampires. By the end of this book I was thinking "dark, but not as dark as some New Orleans based literature."
This volume has a great mix of stories, some from an older time in New Orleans, some which feature the great turning point with Hurricane Katrina and some which are post-Katrina. Each features New Orleans geography and quirks as part of the plot, and it works.
When I think New Orleans Noir, I tend to think of Anne Rice and her vampires. By the end of this book I was thinking "dark, but not as dark as some New Orleans based literature."
August 3, 2020
This book is full of noir short stories. Part 1 is all before hurricane Katrina and part 2 is post hurricane Katrina.
My favorite short story was 'Muddy Pond' by Maureen Tan. There's plenty of sorrow in the stories, but the hurricane Katrina back drop sets these stories apart from other noirs. Although I remember Katrina was tragic, I forgot all the details of life the people of New Orleans endured. This book was a good reminder.
My favorite short story was 'Muddy Pond' by Maureen Tan. There's plenty of sorrow in the stories, but the hurricane Katrina back drop sets these stories apart from other noirs. Although I remember Katrina was tragic, I forgot all the details of life the people of New Orleans endured. This book was a good reminder.
February 5, 2021
I will read just about anything set in New Orleans or Louisiana especially when I am feeling homesick. This isn't the normal fun loving New Orleans books I am used to it is a darker side of New Orleans that only natives really know about. New Orleans Noir is a collection of short stories is this is set before/after Katrina. I really enjoyed the lot of the stories, but there are some memorable one that stand out to me and made this listening experience even more enjoyable.
July 11, 2017
Read this for the New Orleans category in AWLB Challenge 2017, and really enjoyed it. I'm generally not a fan of short stories, but most of these were so good. Definitely better than the New Jersey Noir volume in the same series. Gives an especially good sense of the difficulties of post-Katrina NOLA.
January 21, 2019
I purchased this when I was in New Orleans. I loved the stories, very dark and some were tragic. I think that the anthology really captured the feel of the city. The post Katrina were very well written giving a feeling of what it must have been like to live through that. Most of us can only imagine.
June 27, 2025
3.5
that pony girl story was kinda wild. i liked the racist preacher story too. “all i could do was cry” made me emotional. “muddy pond” started off slow but ended well.
decent collection of stories.
that pony girl story was kinda wild. i liked the racist preacher story too. “all i could do was cry” made me emotional. “muddy pond” started off slow but ended well.
decent collection of stories.
July 8, 2018
Dark tales, each one centered on inhabitants of a different NOLA neighborhood. While Some were more pulse-raising than others, all created a terrific sense of place.
April 16, 2020
My favourite was Maureen Tan's "Muddy Pond," about the older Vietnamese man who wades out into the street to rescue a statue and ends up finding a lot more than that.
April 16, 2020
Some beautiful writing (especially the post-Katrina stories), but I don't think noir as a genre is for me....
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