Tampa Bay Noir
“At last, the popular Akashic Noir series has adopted the Tampa Bay area. The notion of elevating place to the status of a character in a story…works to maximum effect.”
Tampa Bay Times
A Crime Reads Pick of Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2021
Tampa Bay joins Miami in representing the (alleged) Sunshine State in the Noir Series arena.
Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographic area of the book.
Included here are brand-new stories by Michael Connelly, Lori Roy, Ace Atkins, Karen Brown, Tim Dorsey, Lisa Unger, Sterling Watson, Luis Castillo, Sarah Gerard, Danny López, Ladee Hubbard, Gale Massey, Yuly Restrepo Garcés, Eliot Schrefer, and Colette Bancroft.
Colette Bancroft's short story "The Bite" won the 2021 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award, presented by the Mystery Writers of America.
"Wings Beating" by Eliot Schrefer has been selected for inclusion in the anthology Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021.
From the introduction by Colette Bancroft:
Ask most people what the Tampa Bay area is famous for, and they might mention sparkling beaches and sleek urban centers and contented retirees strolling the golf courses year round. But it's always had a dark side. Just look at its signature event: a giant pirate parade. Not only does Gasparilla honor the buccaneer traditions of theft, debauchery, and violence; its namesake pirate captain, José Gaspar, is a fake who probably never existed. And if there's any variety of crime baked into Florida's history, it's fraud. From the indigenous residents who supposedly conned Spanish explorers seeking the "Fountain of Youth" through the rolling cycles of real-estate scams that have shaped the Sunshine State for the last century or so, the place is a grifter's native habitat.
Praise