“A Good Day for Redheads” by Patricia Abbott
She sat on the bench and watched the sun drip into the ocean. Barefoot couples stood on the beach and clicked their wine glasses in a toast to another beautiful day . . .
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.
“For the Birds” by Bruce Harris
The bell above the door jingled. Clark Tennyson looked up and smiled. “Hello Mrs. Hanniford, good to see you again. What’ll it be today?” he asked.
“Bricks and Mortar” by Ken Brosky
I brew a pot of coffee and try not to think of the corpse in the basement.
“The Salty Dog and the Sea Maiden” by Linda M. Scott
She sat on the bench and watched the sun drip into the ocean. Barefoot couples stood on the beach and clicked their wine glasses in a toast to another beautiful day . . .
“When Luck Runs Out” by Zane Castillo
I grit my teeth as I press my hand tighter against the hole in my stomach . . .
“Last Stop, Greystone Park” by SA Solomon
“Tickets! Tickets, please! Thanks, miss. Change at Long Branch.”
“The Butcher of Pensacola” by James Glass
Detective Mark Wheeler lay on the grass. The ground chilled his bones as the fog rolled in.
“Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down” by John Vercher
This smell was different. This smell was not like before.