I was right to not have high expectations for this book. Some of the stories are ok but the only thing I actually enjoyed about this book was reading the descriptions of the various Orange County cities. Having lived in the OC for a few years, I recognized many of the locations. All in all, the book was quite unmemorable.

This was so bad, I’m kind of embarrassed I read it. This is the 3rd book from this series that I’ve read, and it was shockingly “trashier” than the prior two (Boston, Philadelphia). It was just trashy and of poor taste throughout. Some of the stories I ended up skimming the second half of, just to get through. This book frankly makes me wonder about authors from southern CA...

Orange County, California, brings to mind the endless summer of sand and surf, McMansion housing tracts, a conservative stronghold, and tony shopping centers. It's a place where pilates classes are run like boot camps, real estate values are discussed at your weekly colonic, and ice cream parlors on Main Street, USA, exist side-by-side with pho shops and taquerias. Orange County Noir pulls back the veil to reveal what lurks behind the curtain. Features brand-new stories by: Susan Straight, Rober...

Catching up on all the fabulous stories by my fellow contributors. It's chock full of femme fatales, sad sacks, villains and heroes.

Akashic Noir has published a series of "noir" anthologies. Each anthology is named for a geographical place and contains short fiction centering around that geographic location. This one centers on Orange County California and anyone familiar with the locations can certainly recognize them from these tales. Although I wouldn't necessarily classify all of these stories as noir or even neo-noir, I found them all to be highly readable and entertaining. Stories range from tales about the ghosts that...

My introduction to each author featured in this collection is Orange County Noir. Published in 2010, the volume is a part of the Akashic Noir Series that travels from Baltimore Noir to Toronto Noir and dozens of cities in between. I was a little dubious that anything deadly or seductive could materialize in the shadow of Disneyland, South Coast Plaza or sushi joints, but attending a panel on art of the short story at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, I was impressed by Susan Straight and interes...

Mostly terrible.

Excellent stories (besides my own)!

Except for the typical shortcomings of short stories, this was a good collection

I actively hate this. Crap stories about crap people with no craft, no human insight, and hardly any mystery or worthwhile plotting. Sadly, the best story I read was Susan Straight's and she just continued her appropriating ways thru 2010 at least.Avoid.

Noir in LA LA Land? What's not to love?!I wonder if they picked the stories or if they picked the authors and challenged them with the theme.Either or Orange County Noir is a great collection of shorts from a wide group of authors.It's a good flip of the script to read the Noir Subject Matter in a landscape we don't often associate with it. Perhaps even antipodes to it.The book is broken into stories set in the different cities of Orange County so you get a good imprint of the city as well as th...

Expertly edited by Gary Phillips and includes some amazing genre fiction from Dick Lochte, Patricia McFall and Robert Ward as well as Phillips himself.

Orange County Noir is a collection of 14 short stories all taking place within the geographical area of Orange County California. The stories all contain some disturbing edgy plots of murder and mayhem. What was great was that many collections of short stories have a few duds, but I loved all these stories.

It was interesting reading about places I'm familiar with, some right around the corner, but overall, this was a dud. I guess I was expecting a bit more from my hometown.

These stories were entertaining and imaginative. Some of the writing was pretty bad and read like map quest directions on how to get around the neighborhood in question. My favorite was the story about Disneyland. The juxtaposition of the Happiest place on earth and the security detail after the age of terror was really fun. The ending wasn't good, though. The collection didn't include the Asian communities and hooked a little too much into the LA show business themes (although I liked most of t...

I traveled to Orange County, California, with my sweetheart a few months ago, visiting her family and her hometown. I’d never been to Southern California so I was intrigued about exploring this strange, new culture! When I saw that a volume of the Akashic Noir anthologies was devoted to this strange and fascinating place, I was eager to check it out and return to the sunny coast. I find Noir to be one of the most flexible and intriguing genres, often indefinable and yet full of style, offering r...

Another great collection of short stories set in the OC. Lots of "you can see where they are going and then they twist" type plots. One memorable line in here is "Orange County, where Republicans go to die." We meet college professors, druggies, over the hill celebrities, trophy wives, taxi drivers,and even Disneyland security guards all twisting each other in these noir shorts.

I read this book as research for a short story I was asked to write for a similar anthology. I was hoping to come away with some different ideas of what Noir fiction is, what it can do, and what the genre encompasses; however, I was sorely dissapointed.Every story in Orange County Noir deals with murder in one form or another. The motivations for murder vary story to story, of course, but generally stick close to age-old stereotypes and plot devices. For the most part, I'd say the stories in thi...

About what you'd expect for noir: mostly down and dirty, murder and double-crosses. Each story is set in a different locale in Orange County, and if you're familiar with OC you'll probably get more out of it than someone who isn't. All the stories are short and you can get through the book quickly, making it perfect for leisure reading.

Orange County Noir is a collection of hard-boiled short stories set in contemporary Orange County, all by Southern California authors. The foreword by T. Jefferson Parker is a nostalgic look back to the days when orange groves dominated the county. Stories read in random order, as part of the 2014 Deal Me In! Short Story Reading Challenge (bibliophilica.wordpress.com/deal-me-i...).Part 1: Only the LonelyBee Canyon by Susan Straight is set in the Santa Ana Narrows. A CHP officer recalls an incide...