نوآر ستارهٔ تنها

From Publishers Weekly Divided into three sections (Gulf Coast, Back Roads, and Big City), Akashic's Texas noir volume offers mostly unknown names among its 14 contributors. Highlights include Joe R. Lansdale's darkly hilarious ''Six-Finger Jack,'' in which a greedy Texan tries to earn ,000 for killing a crook with more than the usual number of digits; James Crumley's sardonically funny ''Luck,'' in which obnoxious twins push a killer over the edge; and Dean James's ''Bottomed Out,'' about one man's twisted fight to keep his job. Solid reads by lesser known talents include Sarah Cortez's poignant Houston story, ''Montgomery Clift''; Jessica Power's gripping ''Preacher's Kid''; and Bobby Byrd's bone-chilling El Paso ode, ''The Dead Man's Wife,'' more horror than noir. Some will wonder why the editors missed genre writers known for their Texas settings such as Sandra Brown, Jon Land, Jan Grape, Scott Cupp, Bill Crider, Laurie Moore, Nic Pizzolatto, and Lewis Shiner. (Nov.) (c) Copyright © PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. From Booklist The Noir series has produced some 40 volumes since it was launched six years ago. The premise is simple: each book features crime stories with a hard edge set in a specific geographic area. This one traverses Texas, finding evidence of the hard boiled, sultry, and disreputable throughout the state, from the small towns through the Gulf Coast and the big cities. The contributors include some familiar writers—James Crumley and Joe R. Lansdale—but also some up-and-comers, including the extremely talented Milton T. Burton. Think of the book as a sort of criminal travelogue; like travelogues, the series is plagued by unevenness, but this is one of the better installments. --David Pitt "Sure to be of regional interest and to appeal to fans of noir or 'dark' fiction, this spicy black brew of sinister thrills is not for the squeamish or the easily offended." - Library Journal "Unsettling and shivery." - Kirkus Reviews "Crime, like politics, is local. The folks at Akashic Books understand this . . . "Lone Star Noir" is a solid collection. Heck, it better be -- the state's red clay looks like dried blood. Noir grows out of the ground here." - Austin American-Statesman "What makes Texas noir different from any other noir? Is it just that the gumshoes wear cowboy boots? . . . Akashic Books finally turns its attention to the biggest state in the Lower 48, but all that land just means more places to bury the bodies. As father-son editing partnership Bobby and Johnny Byrd observe in their introduction, this isn't J.R. Ewing's Lone Star State. This is the Texas of chicken shit bingo, Enron scamsters, and a feeling that what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico. [...] So what defines Texas noir? Who knows, but you better pray that blood doesn't stain your belt buckle." - Austin Chronicle Bobby Byrd is the co-publisher of Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso, Texas. As a poet, Byrd is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship awarded by the University of New Mexico, and an International Residency Fellowship.John Byrd, co-publisher of Cinco Puntos Press, is co-editor (with Bobby Byrd) of the anthology Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots & Graffiti from La Frontera. He is also a Spanish-to-English translator and a freelance essayist.