Eric Heidle’s “Ace in the Hole” has been nominated for a 2018 Edgar Award for Best Short Story!

“These well-told tales offer an engrossing snapshot of Montana’s fabled literary landscape. Every one, a worthy read.”
—Lively Times

“What could be a more unlikely breeding ground for noir fiction than Montana, whose wide-open landscapes seem the polar opposite of the mean streets of Los Angeles? Yet certain noir standbys prove both malleable and fertile in these 14 new stories . . . If Montana has a dark side, is anywhere safe from noir?”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Terrific . . . Montana Noir is one of the high points in Akashic’s long-running and justly celebrated Noir series…Editors Grady and Graff’s selections…are all sharply attuned to their settings and to the ways those varying landscapes reflect the darkness within the people who walk the streets or drive the country roads.”
—Booklist

“Thirteen original stories plus a reprint by Thomas McGuane cover the Big Sky State in this thoroughly entertaining Akashic anthology, from desperate writing students in Missoula to a van of itinerant strippers working the Hi-Line paralleling the Canadian border.”
—Publishers Weekly

“14 stories set in Big Sky Country. Much like a travel map that divides Montana into regions, this volume is partitioned into four sections that reflect the geography of the state: Copper Power, The Hi-Line, Custer Country, and Rivers Run . . . Montana, and others live in the state; all the authors have strong emotional ties to the area’s particular lifestyle. The editors tout this book as the first-ever anthology of Montana-set noir short stories. Fans of the genre and regional fiction will be intrigued.”
—Library Journal XPress Reviews

“Montana may not have the back alleys so common to noir but it has western justice which can be quick, brutal and final and that is as satisfying as anything found in the urban streets that typically attract the dark beauty of the noir genre.”
—New York Journal of Books

“From Polson to Glendive, Shelby to downtown Billings, the book ties together many of the state’s best writers with stories from the seedier side of life.”
—Great Falls Tribune

“There’s no shortage of misbehavior in this book. But there’s also no shortage of excellent writing by some of Montana’s finest authors. The book includes work by Thomas McGuane, Jamie Ford, Walter Kirn, Debra Magpie Earling and eight others. They’re all Montanans, every one, and their subjects are as varied and unique as the state itself.”
—Montana Quarterly, Editor’s Pick

“Grady and Graff, both Montana natives, masterfully curate this collection of hard-edged Western tales.”
—Montana Magazine

“Grit is the best description of the collection of short stories compiled in Montana Noir because every single story has a thick skin of brutality, skeeviness, violence and just a dash of horror that makes the collection exceptionally good . . . An impressive set of works from a variety of writers that deserves to be read by many, especially those who want to lose themselves in the darkness of a Montana winter night.”
—Missoulan

“If Montana Noir—the new short fiction anthology from Akashic Books released Sept. 5—seeks to teach us anything, perhaps it’s that the Big Sky has always been home to its share of dirty deeds.”
—Missoula Independent

“Even though Montana’s beauty makes the idea of dark alleys and neon lights seem incongruous, noir also represents struggle, and doing the wrong thing for the right reasons . . . There can never be a happy ending in noir but there can be the possibility of redemption. It’s the little guy against big forces and as Montanans, we can all appreciate that fight.”
—Billings Gazette

“The stories represent Montana in all its variety: the people; the land; the weather and its physical and psychological effects; social, cultural, and political issues; sexism and racism; Native American vs. White conflicts; urban vs. rural concerns; and more . . . If the intent of the Akashic Noir series is to capture the uniquely dark spirit of a place, then Montana Noir certainly succeeds.”
—Popular Culture Association/Mystery & Detective Fiction

“Montana Noir reveals that even Big Sky Country works just fine as a landscape for downbeats and deadbeats, cynics and gamblers, posers and schemers. This is a diverse collection with many hits . . . Noir isn’t confined to a place. It’s a state of being. It follows humanity wherever humanity wanders. And Montana Noir gives the genre more definition.”
—Don’t Need a Diagram (Mark Stevens Blog)

“Who would have imagined that murder and mayhem could be so much fun? In Montana Noir a new collection of hardboiled short stories, 14 writers jump with evident joy into tales teeming with dead bodies, guns, strippers, booze, meth, weed and problematic stores of cash. And they take us to unexpected places, from the rough parts of Great Falls to a depressing corner of Billings Heights, from the loneliest stretches of the Hi-Line’s Highway 2 to the vomit-stained sidewalk in front of the Party Palace in Butte.”
—Last Best News

“If you enjoy noir at all, like short stories clustered around a central theme, or even if you just appreciate excellent storytelling, you can’t go wrong with Montana Noir.”
—Tails from the Dog-Side