Santa Cruz Noir

Book excerpt: “A new collection of short fiction stories explores a seedier side of this beach town filled with murder and mystery.”—KAZU FM In Akashic Books’ award-winning series of original noir anthologies, each book comprises all new stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Following in the footsteps of Los Angeles Noir, San Francisco Noir, San Diego Noir, Orange County Noir, and Oakland Noir, “we get a series of crime stories rich with surf culture in a town loaded with itinerant spirits, typifying Santa Cruz as a place to be lost, or get lost, or lose yourself. That ethos permeates the stories in the collection, granting them an intriguing grittiness that might otherwise be missing. Concluding with a serious gutpunch of a story, Santa Cruz Noir is a worthy addition to the series” (San Francisco Book Review). This anthology features Elizabeth McKenzie’s “The Big Creep,” a Shamus Award finalist, and Lou Mathews’s “Crab Dinners” and Dillon Kaiser’s “It Follows as it Leads,” which have been included in the Distinguished Mystery Stories of 2018 list in The Best American Mystery Stories 2019. It also includes brand-new stories by Tommy Moore, Jessica Breheny, Naomi Hirahara, Calvin McMillin, Liza Monroy, Jill Wolfson, Ariel Gore, Jon Bailiff, Maceo Montoya, Micah Perks, Seana Graham, Vinnie Hansen, Peggy Townsend, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Lee Quarnstrom, Beth Lisick, and Wallace Baine. “A thrilling, whip-smart book that will dazzle local lovers of crime fiction.”—Good Times Santa Cruz “There are intricate plots, sketchier plots, dubious motives, inscrutable motives, downright creepiness, edgy stuff, and wonderful humor. Something for everyone’s taste in noir.”—Escape into Life