- Paperback: 400 pages
- Published: 11/17/20
- IBSN: 9781617758065
- e-IBSN: 9781617758669
- Hardcover
- IBSN: 9781617759536
- Genre: Fiction
Catalog » Browse by Title: M » Miami Noir: The Classics
Miami Noir: The Classics
The long-awaited sequel to 2006’s best-selling Miami Noir highlights an outstanding tradition of legendary writers exploring the dark side of paradise.
What people are saying…
“The 19 stories featured in the superb Miami Noir: The Classics are solidly entertaining and a thoughtful history about life, crime and punishment in South Florida.”
—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Miami hasn’t been around for long, as cities go—just a little over a century. But it’s been fertile ground for crime fiction almost from the beginning. The evidence is clear in Miami Noir: The Classics . . . [Standiford’s] choices for the 19 stories in this volume are fascinating.”
—Tampa Bay Times
“Miami Noir: The Classics dares readers to explore a geography that may be both unfamiliar and unsettling . . . [The setting] proves as tangible as if you were there, muggy air rising off every page.”
—Zyzzyva
“Miami has long trembled on a knife’s edge between paradise and underworld, retirement community and dark web, sunny metropolis and criminal clearinghouse. The 19 stories collected by local author Standiford in Miami Noir: The Classics speak to this singular dichotomy.”
—Boca Mag, recommended by Mitch Kaplan
“An exceptional treat for all dedicated fans of noir fiction.”
—Midwest Book Review
One of CrimeReads’s Best New Releases of the Week
“A collection that shows how far a city can come and still maintain a strong noir tradition.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The 19 selections in this welcome reprint anthology in Akashic’s noir series enshrine the dark side of Miami . . . This historical survey makes a fine case for Miami as a timeless setting for great crime fiction.”
—Publishers Weekly
“All these stories embedded within this historical survey make a fine case for Miami as a timeless setting for great crime fiction.”
—Exclusive Magazine
Critical praise for the original Miami Noir:
“For different reasons these stories cultivate a little something special, a radiance, a humanity, even a grace, in the midst of the noir gloom, and thereby set themselves apart. Variety, familiarity, mood and tone, and the occasional gem of a story make Miami Noir a collection to savor.”
—Miami Herald
“For such a sun-stoked place, Miami sure is shady. Shadowy, too. Even at highest noon. Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the humidity. And maybe, just maybe, it’s our destiny . . . With echoes of Charles Willeford’s Hoke Mosely series, the Miami books of Elmore Leonard, the quirk of Carl Hiaasen, who never met a shady character he didn’t wanna write, and Edna Buchanan, who seems to know all the shadows, this batch of dirty deep South Florida fiction might just send you packing . . . your own heat.”
—SunPost
“Sixteen new, diverse, and highly entertaining mystery stories pack Akashic’s latest city-by-city tour of modem noir . . . This volume is as solid as the coral rock lying beneath the Miami streets.”
—Publishers Weekly
Description
Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each volume comprises stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.
Featuring classic noir fiction from: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Elmore Leonard, Lester Dent, Zora Neale Hurston, Brett Halliday, Damon Runyon, Edna Buchanan, James Carlos Blake, Douglas Fairbairn, Charles Willeford, T.J. MacGregor, Lynne Barrett, Les Standiford, Preston L. Allen, John Dufresne, Vicki Hendricks, Christine Kling, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, and David Beaty.
From the introduction by Les Standiford:
Despite the fact that Miami has in the past decade-plus added a downtown performing arts complex to outdo all but the Kennedy Center in DC, a jaw-dropping art museum by the Biscayne Bay, an exemplary science museum, the establishment of the world-renowned Art Basel festival on Miami Beach, and so much more . . . the operative literary form to portray Miami—the essential aria of the Magic City—is spun from threads of mystery and yearning and darkness . . .
When terrible things threaten in some ominous neighborhoods, in some tough cities, a reader of a story set in those locales might be forgiven for expecting the worst; but when calamity takes place against the backdrop of paradise, as we have here in Miami, the impact is all the greater.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Original Gangsters
“Pineland” by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Goulds, 1925)
“Luck” by Lester Dent (City Yacht Basin, 1936)
“Their Eyes Were Watching God (excerpt)” by Zora Neale Hurston (Belle Glade, 1937)
“A Job for the Macarone” by Damon Runyon (Miami River, 1937)
“A Taste for Cognac” by Brett Halliday (Homestead, 1944)
Part II: Perilous Streets, Lethal Causeways
“Street 8 (excerpt)” by Douglas Fairbairn (Little Havana, 1977)
“Saturday Night Special” by Charles Willeford (Kendall, 1988)
“The Works” by T.J. MacGregor (South Beach, 1990)
“Small Times” by James Carlos Blake (Flagler Dog Track, 1991)
“The Odyssey” by Elmore Leonard (Miami Beach, 1995)
Part III: Miami’s Vices
“To Go” by Lynne Barrett (Hialeah, 1996)
“Lemonade and Paris Buns” by John Dufresne (Aventura, 1996)
“The Red Shoes” by Edna Buchanan (Downtown, 1999)
“Tahiti Junk Shop” by Les Standiford (North Miami Beach, 1999)
“Ghosts” by David Beaty (South Miami, 1999)
Part IV: Gators & Ghouls
“Gators” by Vicki Hendricks (The Everglades, 2000)
“Washington Avenue” by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera (Washington Avenue, 2001)
“Superheroes” by Preston L. Allen (Opa-Locka, 2006)
“The Monkey’s Fist” by Christine Kling (Straits of Florida, 2006)
Read an excerpt from the introduction by Les Standiford at CrimeReads.
Listen to Books & Books’ store owner Mitchell Kaplan discuss Miami Noir: The Classics on The Literary Life.
Listen to an interview with Les Standiford at Welcome to Florida.
- Subjects: Literary Fiction, Mysteries & Crime, Noir Series
- Tags: Akashic Noir Series, Brett Halliday, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Charles Willeford, Christine Kling, crime, crime fiction, Damon Runyon, David Beaty, Douglas Fairbairn, Edna Buchanan, Elmore Leonard, Florida, James Carlos Blake, John Dufresne, Les Standiford, Lester Dent, Lynne Barrett, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Miami Noir, Miami Noir: The Classics, mystery, Noir Series, Preston L. Allen, T.J. MacGregor, Vicki Hendricks, Zora Neale Hurston
Book Details
Author
LES STANDIFORD, who edited 2006’s Miami Noir, is the author of twenty-four books and novels, including the award-winning John Deal thriller series and the works of narrative nonfiction Last Train to Paradise, the One Read choice of a dozen public library systems, and Bringing Adam Home, a Wall Street Journal number one true crime best seller. He is director of the MFA program in creative writing at Florida International University in Miami. His latest work is Miami Noir: The Classics.