“The Happy Meal at The Seven Gables” by Bruce Krajewski
Vespers—a chronological designation unfamiliar to a Methodist town like Pacific Grove.
Category: Mondays Are Murder
Mondays Are Murder: Original Noir Fiction to Get Your Week off to a Dark Start
Launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir, our award-winning city-based Noir Series now has over 60 volumes in print, with many more to come. Each volume is overseen by an editor with intimate knowledge of the title city; each story is brand new from a local author, and each is set within a distinct neighborhood or location.
While we’ve been thrilled to publish the original works of over 800 authors in the series, we still long for more. And while we are constantly seeking homegrown editors with native knowledge of national and international cities not yet visited by the series, we’re eager to dig deeper.
Mondays Are Murder allows us to offer a glimpse of cities not yet seen, neighborhoods or hidden corners not yet explored in previous volumes, and, we hope, writers not yet exposed to our company. Contributions to the Akashic Noir Series are bound by mood: our authors are challenged to capture the sometimes intangible moods of “noir” and of “place”. The stories run the gamut from darkly-toned literary glimpses to straight-up crime fiction, while similarly capturing the unique aura of the story’s location.
Our web model for the series has one further dimension: A 750-word limit. Sound like murder? It is. But so are Mondays.
“Birds of Prey” by Brian Morse
David’s gloved hand slid over the frozen cable railing for balance, and Claire concentrated on her footing.
“The Brewery” by Jean Wolfersteig
We huddled around the card table last night, scheming about dusting outta this joint during the morning bus trip.
“A Day’s Work” by John Bosworth
“Thieves,” Officer Summers said, “are generally lazy.”
“The Fair Land” by Séamus Scanlon
Near dawn I wake. / The pale blue light cascades over me. / It drills and spills down through me…
“Triple Threat” by David Strickler
A bar of sunlight woke me up this morning and I told my husband that I wanted to watch one of those twenty-four-hour news channels.
“Cross Training” by Michael Loniewski
My elementary school invited me in for an assembly before I was set to leave. Kids made banners and gave me good luck cards.
“Karen” by Steven Horwitz
This guy had a scar on his cheek as dry as the Arroyo Taiban.