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. Following in the footsteps of Los Angeles
Noir, San Francisco Noir, San Diego Noir, Orange County Noir, and
Oakland Noir, this new volume further reveals the seedy underbelly of
the Left Coast.
Brand-new stories by: Tommy Moore, Jessica Breheny, Naomi Hirahara,
Calvin McMillin, Liza Monroy, Elizabeth McKenzie, Jill Wolfson, Ariel
Gore, Jon Bailiff, Maceo Montoya, Micah Perks, Seana Graham, Vinnie
Hansen, Peggy Townsend, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Lou Mathews, Lee
Quarnstrom, Dillon Kaiser, Beth Lisick, and Wallace Baine.
From the introduction by Susie Bright:
Every town has its noir-ville. It's easy to find in Santa Cruz. We live
in what's called "paradise", where you can wake up in a pool of blood
with the first pink rays of the sunrise peeking out over our mountain
range. The dewy mist lifts from the bay. Don't hate us because we're
beautiful - we were made that way, like Venus rising off the foam with a
brick in her hand. We can't help it if you fall for it every time....
"If I lived in a place like this," visitors often say, "I'd wake up
with a smile every day."
Oh, we do, thank you for that. There's no beauty like a merciless
beauty - and like every crepuscular predator, she thrives at dawn and
dusk. You're just the innocent we've been waiting for, with your big
paper cone of sugar-shark cotton, whipped out of pure nothing. We have
just the ride for you, the longest tunnel ever. Santa Cruz is everything
you ever dreamed, and everything you ever screamed, in one long drop
you'll never forget.
Full cast of narrators includes: James Patrick Cronin, Richard Ferrone,
Susie Bright, Beth Lisick, Liza Monroy, Bailey Carr, Florence Cuddihy,
Dan Bittner, P. J. Ochlan, Jon Bailiff, Derek Stephen Prince, Eliza
Foss, Almarie Guerra, Therese Plummer, Michael Crouch, Nick Sullivan,
Allison Hiroto, and Thom Rivera.
