New York's punchiest borough asserts its criminal legacy with all new stories from a magnificent set of today's best writers. Brooklyn Noir moves from Coney Island to Bedford-Stuyvesant to Bay Ridge to Red Hook to Bushwick to Sheepshead Bay to Park Slope and far deeper, into the heart of Brooklyn's historical and criminal largesse, with all of its dark splendor. Each contributor presents a brand new story set in a distinct neighborhood.

Brooklyn Noir mixes masters of the mystery genre with the best of New York's literary fiction community-and, of course, leaves room for new blood. These brilliant and chilling stories see crime striking in communities of Russians, Jamaicans, Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Irish and many other ethnicities-in the most diverse urban location on the planet.

Contributors include Pete Hamill, Nelson George, Sidney Offit, Arthur Nersesian, Pearl Abraham, Ellen Miller, Maggie Estep, Adam Mansbach, CJ Sullivan, Chris Niles, Norman Kelley, and many others.

Akashic Books announces Brooklyn novelist Tim McLoughlin as the editor of the anthology (in addition to his contributing a story). McLoughlin's respect on any Brooklyn street predates the publication of his debut novel Heart of the Old Country (Akashic, 2001), a selection of the Barnes &Noble Discover Great New Writers Program that was hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "an inspired cross between Richard Price and Ross McDonald."For years, McLoughlin has worked in the Kings County Supreme Court in downtown Brooklyn.

Praise for McLoughlin's Heart of the Old Country:

". . . cracks with the authenticity that only a writer with a perfect ear can accomplish."-Bob Leuci, author of Blaze

"McLoughlin writes about South Brooklyn with a fidelity to people and place reminiscent of James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan and George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London."-Sidney Offit, author of Memoir of the Bookie's Son

"In McLoughlin's entertaining if uneven anthology of 19 brand new hard-boiled and twisted tales, each set in a different Brooklyn neighborhood, the best way to get to know New York City's most diverse borough is either to be dead or to cause someone else to assume that state in as grisly a manner as possible. This might be achieved via the old school method — for instance, with a nickel-plated revolver and a heart full of malice, as in 'The Book Signing,' Pete Hamill's lyrical opener about a Park Slope 'ex-pat' writer who revisits his now-gentrified neighborhood only to step inadvertently into a past he'd long thought buried and forgotten. Or death might arrive in a new-fangled mode, with a scalpel and an Internet connection, as in Arthur Nersesian's compelling 'Hunter/ Trapper,' in which a Brooklyn Heights Web stalker makes the serious mistake of failing to secure his stalkee securely before ravishment. If a few weaker entries exploit the borough as an arbitrary setting for standard cops-and-robbers fare, the best stories concern people in the present coming to terms with the past. In McLoughlin's evocative 'When All This Was Bay Ridge,' a Sunset Park cop's son struggles with his dead father's secret history, while Maggie Estep's 'Triple Harrison,' depicting a squatter who tends a broken-down race horse in the abandoned wastes of East New York, takes the prize as the book's weirdest tale. (July) Forecast: Blurbs from the likes of Laura Lippman and Tim Cockey will help call attention to the book, while a contribution by Irish author Ken Bruen will have his fans wondering how Galway is connected to Brooklyn." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"From the sentimental to the hard-edged, a collection as varied and spirited as the characters and neighborhoods it celebrates."

-- Thomas H. Cook,author of The Chatham School Affair&Breakheart Hill

"For fans of noir, for fans of Brooklyn, for fans of just plain old great writing — this is the book for you, or, rather, I should say, you'se."

-- Jonathan Ames,author of What's Not to Love?&The Extra Man

New York's punchiest borough asserts its criminal legacy with all new stories from a magnificent set of today's best writers, each presenting a brand new story set in a distinct neighborhood.

New Yorks punchiest borough asserts its criminal legacy with all new stories from a magnificent set of todays best writers. Brooklyn Noir moves from Coney Island to Bedford-Stuyvesant to Bay Ridge to Red Hook to Bushwick to Sheepshead Bay to Park Slope and far deeper, into the heart of Brooklyns historical and criminal largesse, with all of its dark splendor. Each contributor presents a brand new story set in a distinct neighborhood.

Brooklyn Noirmixes masters of genre with the best of New York's literary fiction community — and, of course, leaving room for new blood. These brilliant and chilling stories see crime striking in communities of Russians, Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Irish, and many other ethnicities — in the most diverse urban location on the planet.

Tim McLoughlin was born and raised in Brooklyn. His debut novel, Heart of the Old Country (Akashic), was hailed as reminiscent of James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan and George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris. He was editor of Brooklyn Noir, first in the Akashic Noir Series, as well as Brooklyn Noir 2.

Introduction by Tim McLoughlin

Part I: Old School Brooklyn

Pete Hamill (Park Slope) "The Book Signing"

Pearl Abraham (Williamsburg) "Hasidic Noir"

Sidney Offit (Downtown) "No Time for Seniors"

Tim McLoughlin (Sunset Park) "When All This Was Bay Ridge"

Ellen Miller (Canarsie) "Practicing"

Part II: New School Brooklyn

Adam Mansbach (Crown Heights) "Crown Heist"

Arthur Nersesian (Brooklyn Heights) "Hunter/Trapper"

Nelson George (Brownsville) "New Lots Avenue"

Neal Pollack (Coney Island) "Scavenger Hunt"

Norman Kelley (Prospect Heights) "The Code"

Part III: Cops &Robbers

Thomas Morrissey (Bay Ridge) "Can't Catch Me"

Lou Manfredo (Bensonhurst) "Case Closed"

Luciano Guerriero (Red Hook) "Eating Italian"

Kenji Jasper (Bed-Stuy) "Thursday"

Robert Knightly (Greenpoint) "One More for the Road"

Part IV: Backwater Brooklyn

Maggie Estep (East New York) "Triple Harrison"

Ken Bruen (Galway, Ireland) "Fade to . . . Brooklyn"

C.J. Sullivan (Bushwick) "Slipping into Darkness"

Chris Niles (Brighton Beach) "Ladies' Man"

About the Contributors