<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>A rich volume of Southern urban noir exploring sides of Memphis that only the locals know, but often don't reveal.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>A remarkable picture of contemporary Memphis emerges in this Akashic noir volume...Something for everyone.<br>--<b><i>Publishers Weekly</i></b> <p/><i>Memphis Noir</i> covers train cars and Beale Street, hoodoo and segregation, Nathan Bedford Forrest and, of course, Graceland, and even includes a graphic novella.<br>--<b><i>Memphis Flyer</i></b> <p/>A collection of stories celebrating the underbelly of the city, its ghosts, and the characters that give Memphis its rich patina of blues.<br>--<b><i>Memphis Flyer</i></b>, Event feature <p/><i>Memphis Noir</i>, edited by Laureen P. Cantwell and Leonard Gill, captures the subtlety of the Memphis ethos, where blacks and whites, rich and poor, are intimately entwined. The collection--fifteen stories by some of the city's finest writers--bleeds the blues and calls down the dark powers that permeate this capital of the Delta.<br>--<b><i>The Commercial Appeal</i></b> <p/>The new anthology <i>Memphis Noir</i> is replete with murders, ghosts, gangsters, a sharp-toothed baby, Boss Crump, and high water on the bluff.<br>--<b><i>Memphis Magazine</i></b> <p/>Stories by some of the city's finest writers....This new collection is a boon for readers who love a good ghost story and a shiver in the night....The skill of the fifteen writers represented here is evident on every page of <i>Memphis Noir</i>, a testament to the cultural richness of the Bluff City.<br>--<b>Chapter 16</b> <p/>Jealousy, lust and murder are common themes...there's not a bad [story] in the bunch.<br>--<b>Underrated Reads</b> <p/>Voodoo, ghosts, guns, hatred, jealousy and greed play their part here. There is no place for weakness here.<br>--<b>Journey of a Bookseller</b> <p/>Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with <i>Brooklyn Noir</i>. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. <p/><b>Featuring brand-new stories by</b>: Richard J. Alley, David Wesley Williams, Dwight Fryer, Jamey Hatley, Adam Shaw, Penny Register-Shaw, Kaye George, Arthur Flowers, Suzanne Berube Rorhus, Ehi Ike, Lee Martin, Stephen Clements, Cary Holladay, John Bensko, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Troy L. Wiggins. <p/>From the introduction by <b>Laureen P. Cantwell & Leonard Gill</b>: <p/><i>A city equal parts darkness and hope. A scarred city. An often violent one. But a resilient city too. <p/>That's our Memphis. <p/>Like many cities, we have a namesake--in Egypt, Men-nefer became Menfe became Memphis, enduring and beautiful, on the banks of the Nile. Centuries later, another continent, another people, another river: Memphis, Tennessee, the soul of the Mississippi Delta, was formed. We are a place born of history, inhabited as much by memory as by the living--the past and present inextricably and inescapably linked....Memphis is marvels and misfits--two-faced and unabashedly so. <p/>We are Memphis, and this is our </i>noir<i>.</i><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Laureen P. Cantwell</b> grew up in eastern Long Island and eventually found her way to Memphis--the rock 'n' roll side of Tennessee. She lived in Midtown for two years while working as a librarian at the University of Memphis and grew to love the darkness of the city--and Elvis. <p/><b>Leonard Gill</b> was born and raised in Memphis. He writes a book column and blog for the <i>Memphis Flyer</i>, the city's alternative newsweekly, and spotlights local writers for a monthly book feature in <i>Memphis</i> magazine.