Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing But the Truth

3.3/5 ( ratings)

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. This volume presents the first nonfiction collection in the series, curated by acclaimed novelists Tim McLoughlin and Thomas Adcock.

Brand-new stories by: Robert Leuci, Dennis Hawkins, Tim McLoughlin, Thomas Adcock, Errol Louis, Denise Buffa, Patricia Mulcahy, C.J. Sullivan, Reed Farrel Coleman, Aileen Gallagher, Christopher Musella, Kim Sykes, Robert Knightly, Jess Korman, Constance Casey, and Rosemarie Yu.

"There is a difference, as editor, between cheering the literary accomplishment of a fiction writer who has delivered a brilliant story about a serial killer or hit man, and reading the true account, however beautifully written, of a young woman raped, murdered, and forgotten. So this book, though it has its light moments , is for me the darkest of the Brooklyn Noir series. These pieces remind us that crime is personal. It happens to us and to our neighbors. Sometimes it happens because we do nothing to prevent it. Life does not always offer the moral arc we so desperately crave in fiction. If it did, we’d have no need for myths and fables, religion or miracles . . .

"Read this book. Enjoy it. Be horrified by it. Carry it with you always. And the next time you’re watching a particularly bizarre and salacious news item on the television set in your neighborhood pub, and the guy on the next stool says, “You can’t make this shit up,” smack him with it."
--Tim McLoughlin, from the introduction

A spring afternoon in the meadow, that "long, loud scream" / Constance Casey --
Sweet cherry: R.I.P. / Christopher Musella --
The ghetto never sleeps, mister policeman / Robert Leuci --
The morgue boys / Thomas Adcock --
Fun-time monsters / Errol Louis --
Getting to know mad dog / Robert Knightly --
True confessions / Dennis Hawkins --
The body in the doorway / Patricia Mulcahy --
Snapshots / Tim McLoughlin --
No roses for Bubbeh / Reed Farrel Coleman --
The Brooklyn bogeyman / C.J. Sullivan --
Slaves in Brooklyn / Kim Sykes --
The creamflake kid / Jess Korman --
Mommy wears a wire / Denise Buffa --
Beef kills / Rosemarie Yu --
Sesame Street for grown-ups / Aileen Gallagher