I have read several books in this Akashic Noir series, and this book is compilation of stories from each of the American cities. I would recommend reading this book rather than the whole series as this one is the cream of the crop. You can't go wrong with a book that starts off with Dennis Lehane and George Pelacanos. ( )

A perfectly delightful collection of dark tales. I had to read this over time, a steady diet of these noir stories is just too much! Love the series, will look forward to new editions.

I'm not sure what I expected when I requested this book. Actually - I do know...I had the idea that anything with "noir" would be some kind of Sam Spade detective collection. That led me to question why I was requesting it- I'm not a big detective novel fan.

Fortunately, my understanding of noir was a little off. The stories, each with its own dark twists and turns for the most part, didn't deal with detectives. The handful that did were still enjoyable. The talent was pretty much level throughout, making the collection a nice read. I'd recommend this collection and based on the strength of the talent here, even though it's a "best of the best" situation, I'd probably pick up the collections from the different regions - or at least areas I know personally. ( )

This is the first of Akashic's noir series that I read, but I have been looking at them for a long time, trying to choose which locale to go for - this one solves part of that issue, since it gathers the best of the American collections into one. And, the editor has done very well indeed - there's quite a wide spread, topic-wise, but most fit into the noir genre in their own distinct way. I've heard of the other collections that they tend to have a few great stories, a few good, and quite a lot of mediocre, but this one is the other way around; most of these stories are extremely evocative and only three of them I didn't care for at all (one of them I couldn't tell you what it was about if you paid me). Now I just have to figure which of the international collections to go for next. ( )

I have read three volumes in the Akashic Noir series and found each one (from Baltimore to Richmond to Venice) simply disappointing, with little to offer beyond crime story novelty and geographical curiosity. Book after book seemed to be built from a collection of available writers; anyone with a few professional credits and a "yeah, I bet I can do that" attitude was getting in.
This best-of collection has the benefit of finally exposing the handful of diamonds this endeavor has produced. Quickly scan the contributors' bios and it is clear why. This is a large set of stories by experienced novelists and short story writers, many heavily awarded in the mystery and crime fiction field. The journalists dabbling in fiction and colorful local characters' contributions are left in the place-bound souvenirs where they belong. This book is what you've wanted out of Akashic Noir ever since you learned it existed.
This is one small downside worth mentioning, although easy to take given the size of this book: Some of the stories by the bigger selling writers don't belong. Michael Connelly's seems not more than an excuse to use research discarded from a higher profile project. T. Jefferson Parker's "Vic Primeval" is puzzlingly awful. ( )