Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir) [Paperback]

Denise Hamilton (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Akashic Noir | Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Brand-new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Hector Tobar, Patt Morrison, Robert Ferrigno, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, Scott Phillips, Diana Wagman, Lienna Silver, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Denise Hamilton.

Denise Hamilton writes the Eve Diamond series. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony, and Willa Cather awards. The Los Angeles Times named Last Lullaby a Best Book of 2004, and it was also a USA Today Summer Pick and a finalist for a Southern California Booksellers Association 2004 award. Her fourth Eve Diamond novel, Savage Garden, is a Los Angeles Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Southern California Booksellers Association award for Best Mystery of 2005.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Akashic's city-themed noir series (New Orleans Noir, etc.) finally reaches L.A., a prime locale for this subgenre. Of the 17 contributors, bestseller Michael Connelly is most likely to be familiar to a wide audience. Connelly's "Mulholland Drive," a nice tribute to the classic noir film Double Indemnity, is representative of the quality writing that followers of previous volumes have come to expect. The movie industry, both latter-day and the present, offers a rich background for tight tales of trapped men and women whose passions or desperate circumstances lead them to violent ends, such as the book's stand-out, Janet Fitch's "The Method." Another highpoint is the collection's concluding story, Diana Wagman's "What You See," a depressing but compelling tale of a tragic obsession. (May)
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About the Author

Denise Hamilton writes the Eve Diamond series. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony and Willa Cather awards. The Los Angeles Times named 'Last Lullaby' a 'Best Book of 2004' and it was also a USA Today Summer Pick and a finalist for a Southern California Booksellers Association 2004 award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933354224
• ISBN-13: 978-1933354224
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Denise Hamilton writes crime novels and is editor of Los Angeles Noir, an anthology of new writing that spent two months on bestseller lists, won the Edgar Award for "Best Short Story" and the Southern California Independent Booksellers' award for "Best Mystery of the Year."

Denise also edited Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics, with stories by Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Walter Mosley, James Ellroy, Chester Himes, Ross Macdonald, Margaret Millar and others.

Denise's new novel, Damage Control, will be published by Scribner on September 6, 2011 and has already received raves from Kirkus (In a novel that marries celebrity culture, surf noir and the bonds of friendship, Hamilton is at the top of her game) and James Ellroy (A superb psychological thriller). She has five books in the Eve Diamond series and her standalone book "The Last Embrace," set in 1949 Hollywood, was compared to Raymond Chandler.

Denise's books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony and Willa Cather awards. Her debut "The Jasmine Trade" was a finalist for the prestigious Creasey Dagger Award given by the UK Crime Writers Assn. Hamilton's books have been BookSense 76 picks, USA Today Summer Picks and "Best Books of the Year" by the Los Angeles Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Toronto Globe & Mail.

Prior to writing novels, Hamilton was a Los Angeles Times staff writer. Her award-winning stories have also appeared in Wired, Cosmopolitan, Der Spiegel and New Times. She covered the collapse of Communism and was a Fulbright Scholar in Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War. Hamilton lives in the Los Angeles suburbs with her husband and two boys.

She also writes a perfume column for the Los Angeles Times

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Takes the good people of the world out of their safe little lives..., April 22, 2007

By 

K. B. Brown "Renaissance woman" (Sierra Madre, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)

... and gives a glimpse of the seamy underbelly. As a native, it's always fun to read about the places I know and love; as a reader, I'm impressed with the breadth of writers covered in this anthology (and it's a pleasure to recognize one of them as a high school acquaintance of mine!) Some of the stories are better written then others, but all of them bring the different parts of Los Angeles to life. This is part of a series of "Noir" collections; I will definitely be searching out other volumes in the series.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's mixed, and there's more bad than good, June 7, 2007

By 

syrion - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)

It's just about what I was expecting--a collection of stories ranging from the good ("The Golden Gopher," "Kinship," "The Kidnapper Bell") to the horrible ("Mulholland Drive," "Midnight in Silicon Valley," "Number 19," "Once More, Lazarus"). Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good, as is always a risk with these multiple-author anthologies.

The definitively bad line is from "Midnight in Silicon Valley," where we are informed that the main character was wooing big companies "like Intel and Pentium." That's just careless writing and poor editorial control, and takes you right out of the story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the Noir, July 27, 2008

By 

Gayle Carline "maven in training" (The O.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)

I love anthologies, mysteries, and noir, so when you put them all together, I find it hard to resist. I took this book on a cruise with me and had a great time with it, because I could read a quick story before dashing off on some excursion. The tales are all well written, and each provided as many twists and turns as a ride down Mulholland. My favorites were Denise Hamilton's "Midnight in Silicone Valley" and "Roger Crumbler Considered His Shave" by Gary Phillilps, but I can honestly say I didn't hate any of them.