Orange County Noir (Akashic Noir) [Paperback]

Gary Phillips (Editor), T. Jefferson Parker (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Akashic Noir | Publication Date: April 1, 2010

Orange County, California, brings to mind the endless summer of sand and surf, McMansion housing tracts, a conservative stronghold, and tony shopping centers. It's a place where pilates classes are run like boot camps, real estate values are discussed at your weekly colonic, and ice cream parlors on Main Street, USA, exist side-by-side with pho shops and taquerias. Orange County Noir pulls back the veil to reveal what lurks behind the curtain.

Features brand-new stories by: Susan Straight, Robert S. Levinson, Rob Roberge, Nathan Walpow, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Dan Duling, Mary Castillo, Lawrence Maddox, Dick Lochte, Robert Ward, Gary Phillips, Gordon McAlpine, Martin J. Smith, and Patricia McFall.

Editor Gary Phillips is the author of many novels and short stories. He lives in Southern California.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. There's a dark side to most places, even California's sunny Orange County, Edgar-winner T. Jefferson Parker observes in his foreword to this outstanding entry in Akashic's noir series, one of the stronger of the all-original anthologies. The crisp, often seductive prose of the 14 contributors, most of them relatively unknown, is a tribute to the critical judgment of the editor, whose own assured story, The Performer, involves a heist at a dog food factory that ends with more than one surprise. Robert Ward, a writer-producer for such TV shows as Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice, offers some wicked twists in Black Star Canyon, in which a fictional alter ego gets bounced from the program he created. Gordon McAlpine uses his narrator's job as a security officer at Disneyland in The Happiest Place as an effective catalyst for a classic noir plot of betrayal. Other notable tales include Susan Straight's Bee Canyon and Dick Lochte's The Movie Game. (Apr.)
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About the Author

Gary Phillips is the author of several crime-fiction novels, including "Bangers" and "The Perpetrators." He writes in several other mediums -- from screenplays to comic books -- and remembers vividly the days of disco and the fever that coke, then crack, unleashed.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books; 1 edition (April 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1936070030
• ISBN-13: 978-1936070039
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rob Roberge is the author of the upcoming book of stories, WORKING BACKWARDS FROM THE WORST MOMENT OF MY LIFE (Red Hen, Fall, 2010) and the novels More Than They Could Chew (Perennial, Dark Alley/Harper Collins, February 2005) and Drive (Hollyridge Press, 2006). He teaches writing at the Antioch University Los Angeles, MFA in Creative Writing, UC-Riverside's Palm Desert MFA program and the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, where he received the Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing in 2003. His stories have been featured in ZYZZYVA, Chelsea, Other Voices, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Ten Writers Worth Knowing Issue of The Literary Review. His work has also been anthologized in Another City (City Lights, 2001), It's All Good (Manic D Press, 2004) and SANTI: Lives of the Modern Saints (Black Arrow Press, 2007). Newer work is scheduled to appear, or has appeared, in PENTHOUSE, BLACK CLOCK and OC Noir, part of the series that includes San Francisco Noir, LA Noir and Las Vegas Noir. He plays guitar and sings with several LA bands, including, among others, the punk pioneers, The Urinals. In his spare time, he restores and rebuilds vintage amplifiers and quack medical devices. For news and more info, visit & or email at either www.myspace.com/robroberge or www.robroberge.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Several stories here, some good and some not, October 22, 2010

By 

David Wilson (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Orange County Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)

Orange County Noir is a collection of short stories, some good and some not. A couple struck me as just flat out awful; they should have been rejected. Without playing up the distinction between "literary" and "popular" noir, readers should at least be aware that some of these stories read like treatments for movies or TV series episodes (Dick Lochte) while others are noirish as they remain more firmly rooted in the tradition of serious fiction (Susan Straight).

Readers with a serious noir addiction may be able to find something they can appreciate in every tale. Those who don't understand noir are likely to find nothing here that interests, but they woudln't take a run at this book anyway. OC residents will get some quick "Hey, there..." thrills ("Hey, I know that intersection!" or "Hey, I recognize the store he's describing!") but with rare exceptions the geography of these stories is pasted on, not central or integrated into the tale. In good geographical crime writing, the locale becomes another character. I can't say there is a lot of OC character on display here.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The dark side of sunny Orange County, May 13, 2010

By 

Fish mama "Zee bookworm" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orange County Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)

Superb stories that show that all is not "Real Housewives" cool. It's the dark side that you don't see in the glossy mags. I love this anthology, as I do many of the Akashic noir anthologies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Local Noir, April 13, 2010

By 

LDM "Dianne" (Orange County, Ca) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Orange County Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)

I am a fan of Akashic Noir series. This just as the rest of them have good and not so good stories. My opinion the good out weighs the not so good.