Brand-new stories by: Laura Lippman, Ruben Castaneda, George Pelecanos, James Grady, Kenji Jasper, Robert Wisdom, Jim Beane, James Patton, Norman Kelley, Jennifer Howard, Richard Currey, Lester Irby, Quintin Peterson, Robert Andrews, David Slater, and Jim Fusilli. Mystery sensation Pelecanos pens the lead story and edits this groundbreaking collection of stories detailing the seedy underside of the nation's capital. This is not an anthology of ill-conceived and inauthentic political thrillers. Instead, in D.C. Noir, pimps, whores, gangsters, and con-men run rampant in zones of this city that most never hear about

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of city-based noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with BROOKLYN NOIR. Each book is comprised of stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. The original D.C. NOIR, a groundbreaking collection of new fiction by sixteen different writers, displayed the curatorial prowess of best-selling author George Pelecanos. In D.C. NOIR 2: The Classics, Pelecanos once again assembles an enchanting array of dark and subversive stories, this time selecting the very best of Washington’s historical literary legacy

La obra maestra de pelecanos y la que le convirtió un Best-Séller en Estados Unidos. Cuando el cadáver de un adolescente aparece en un parque público de Washington, el detective Gus Ramone revive con intensidad una investigación en la que participó veinte años atrás. El asesino, a quien los mede víctimas los parques de la ciudad y salió impune. El nuevo crimen reunirá a los tres hombres que participaron en aquel caso y les dará la oportunidad de cerrarlo. Tal vez ahora consigan atrapar al Jardinero Nocturno…

Derek Strange is a rookie cop, the job he’s dreamed of since he was a boy. His brother, Dennis, has not been as fortunate; home from the service with a disability pension and zero prospects, he is man with good intentions but bad habits. Derek has always looked out for Dennis, but no amount of brotherly love can save him from the dangerous world of Alvin Jones, a local bottom-feeder, hustler, and stone killer who draws him into his web of violence. While the rookie cop navigates the rocky terrain of a city in turmoil, a family in crisis, and his love for a woman he has driven away, Frank Vaughn, a cop at the opposite end of his career, investigates the vicious hit and run of a young black man. Vaughn’s personal life is a shambles, but he’s good police; he pursues the killers with sharklike intent. Meanwhile, in Memphis, a prophet is murdered, igniting a volcanic chain of events that will leave the nation’s capital burned, divided, and decimated, forever changing the lives of its working-class inhabitants. Two cops struggling to do their jobs against the backdrop of a violent uprising: Their paths collide in the middle of a full-fury revolution, in an electrifying climax to the most powerful book yet from George Pelecanos, “the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world” (Esquire), who “writes with intelligence and complexity, as well as with a sober recognition of the evil at large in the world” (Washington Post)

Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, the team of private investigators who made their stunning debut in Right as Rain, are hired to find a 14-year-old white girl from the suburbs who’s run away from home and is now working as a prostitute in some dangerous neighborhoods. The two ex-cops think they know the dangers, but nothing in their experience has prepared them for Worldwide Wilson, the pimp whose territory they are intruding upon. The situation is compounded when one of the young stars of a community pee-wee football team – which Strange and Quinn spend their evenings coaching – is killed by a drug dealer while riding in a car with his uncle. Tracking down his killers becomes a point of honor for Strange and Quinn, and their off-the-Books investigation leads them back to Wilson. Soon, the two detectives are forced to sort through the pieces of evidence to put together the puzzle and solve the crime. Combining inimitable neighborhood flavor, action scenes that rank among the best in fiction, and a clear-eyed view of morality in a world with few rules, Hell to Pay is another Pelecanos masterpiece to be savored

King Suckerman is a sterling thriller that weaves the blaxploitation films, the drug deals, the soul music and the racial tensions that defined the seventies into a story of natural-born killers and two men who risk everything to bring them down. Wilton Cooper is at a drive-in movie when he notices the ugly white boy walk into the projection booth. Seconds later he hears a gun goes off, perfectly timed to coincide with the movie’s noisy climax. When the boy struts coolly out, blood sprayed on the front of his cheap print shirt, Cooper knows he’s found his partner. Dimitri Karras and Marcus Clay are old friends whose affection transcends the barriers of race. Clay is a Vietnam vet trying to make a go of his own small business, while Karras is drifting, playing pickup basketball and supporting himself with small-time drug dealing. When Karras takes Clay with him to make a buy from a new supplier, they cross paths with Wilton Cooper — and enter a world where merciless, unpredictable violence is the only certainty. Cooper cuts a swath of bloody mayhem that leads straight to Karras’s door, and Karras has the battle of a lifetime to keep his walk on the wild side from destroying his entire world. Set in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the Bicentennial, King Suckerman is an unforgettable novel of morality, friendship, and unexpected consequences. This powerful novel confirms George Pelecanos as one of the great original talents in crime fiction

What does it mean to be a father? What does it mean to be a son? What does it mean to be a man? In Men From Boys seventeen masters of crime fiction answer these questions in a multitude of ways. Here are worlds that are instantly recognisable and believable, yet set widely apart. From a deprived London housing estate to the trenches of the First World War, from the claustrophobic confines of a late-night back room poker game to a rundown jazz joint in Manhattan, the writers address just what it means to be a man. The characters who inhabit these stories strive to determine what is right, what will give them dignity, what will earn them self-respect. Some succeed, some fail: little is perfect. Gathered together in this anthology are some of the very best names in contemporary crime writing, introduced and edited by John Harvey

You’ve seen the headlines. On the court they brawl with opponents, fight with fans, and attack their own coach. Off the court they get drunk, grope women, and, sometimes, get tried for murder. Now these all-star bad boys from the ranks of today’s pro basketball provide easy layup material for the fictional imaginations of our finest contemporary mystery writers. Refereed by prizewinning editor Otto Penzler, this anthology collects fourteen dazzling, original tales of buzzer-beating suspense and postgame mayhem. In “Keller’s Double Dribble,” Lawrence Block tails a clueless hitman with courtside tickets to unplanned bloodshed… Jeffery Deaver’s power guard summons his formidable game instincts to thwart a pack of scammers in “Nothing but Net”… a flagrant foul and a cruel betrayal send a star player crashing in Mike Lupica’s “Mrs. Cash”… George Pelecanos’s “String Music” traces the dangerous escalation of a playground beef… and in “Galahad, Inc.,” by Joan H. Parker and Robert B. Parker, a college prodigy seeks unlikely defensive help against a sorority party sex rap. Other literary slam-dunk tales ask just how hard a former Olympic medalist will fight to get back his old glory… what hustle will win you the dunk-or-die prison matchup… and why the pride of the Knicks will never live to see the playoffs. You’ll find all the answers inside these pages from acclaimed storytellers Sue DeNymme, Brendan DuBois, Parnell Hall, Laurie R. King, Michael Malone, R. D. Rosen, S. J. Rozan, Justin Scott, and Stephen Solomita. There’s the whistle. Here’s the tip-off. Let these great clutch shot-makers put you in the zone

Derek Strange and Terry Quinn are ex cops turned private detectives in Washington, DC. Hired to investigate the death of an off duty black police officer at the hands of a white policeman, Strange and Quinn are faced with the institutionalised racism of the nation's most poorly trained and dangerous police force. As the two private detectives confront the degradation of the city's flourishing drug trade, they find themselves up against some of the most implacable, dead eyed killers ever to grace the pages of a novel. In Right As Rain George Pelecanos introduces a memorable new pair of characters into the grittily real Washington DC landscape which has led to him being acclaimed as 'A great writer' (The Times) who 'deserves to be listed among the best' (Observer)

En 1972, tres adolescentes blancos -Alex, Billy y Pete- decidieron meterse en un barrio marginal de Washington. Esa incursión cambió la vida de seis personas: a causa del enfrentamiento con tres chicos negros, Billy resultó muerto y Alex seriamente herido. En 2007, Alex llora la muerte de su hijo caído en Iraq. De pronto, uno de los chicos negros que sobrevivieron al incidente del 72 contacta con él, abriendo la puerta a la reconciliación al tiempo que otro superviviente sale de prisión con intención de extorsionarle…

Soul Circus starts with a rented gun and moves into the vacuum created by the imprisonment of a D.C. crime lord. Two young dealers are fighting for the now unclaimed territory, prestige, and millions of dollars in future profits. Now the kid brother of one of those dealers is going to escalate the friction into wholesale slaughter. Private investigators Derek Strange and Terry Quinn have found a woman whose testimony could prove the difference between a death sentence and a return to the streets for the crime lord. First they have to get her to talk. Then, they have to keep her alive

For many years, some of the most vital, creative, and exciting fiction published in America has been in the field of mystery, crime, and suspense. Now Robert B. Parker and Otto Penzler — both Edgar winners — have assembled the best that 1997 had to offer: twenty terrific, titillating tales from such masters of the genre as Elmore Leonard, Elizabeth George, James Crumley, Jonathan Kellerman, and Andrew Klavan, from newcomers like Brad Watson, and from well-known literary writers such as Joyce Carol Oates and Michael Malone

This seventh installment of the premier mystery anthology boasts pulse-quickening stories from all reaches of the genre, selected by the world-renowned mystery writer Michael Connelly. His choices include a Prohibition-era tale of a scorned lover’s revenge, a Sherlock Holmes inspired mystery solved by an actor playing the famous detective onstage, stories of a woman’s near-fatal search for self-discovery, a bar owner’s gutsy attempt to outwit the mob, and a showdown between double-crossing detectives, and a tale of murder by psychology. This year’s edition features mystery favorites as well as talented up-and-comers, for a diverse collection sure to thrill all readers

The job seems simple enough: retrieve the valuable painting — “The Double” — Grace Kinkaid’s ex-boyfriend stole from her. It’s the sort of thing Spero Lucas specializes in: finding what’s missing, and doing it quietly. But Grace wants more. She wants Lucas to find the man who humiliated her — a violent career criminal with a small gang of brutal thugs at his beck and call. Lucas is a man who knows how to get what he wants, whether it’s a thief on the run — or a married woman. In the midst of a steamy, passionate love affair that he knows can’t last, in pursuit of a dangerous man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, Lucas is forced to decide what kind of man he is — and how far he’ll go to get what he wants

Michael Hudson spends the long days in prison devouring books given to him by the prison’s librarian, a young woman named Anna who develops a soft spot for her best student. Anna keeps passing Michael books until one day he disappears, suddenly released after a private detective manipulated a witness in Michael’s trial. Outside, Michael encounters a Washington, D.C. that has changed a lot during his time locked up. Once shady storefronts are now trendy beer gardens and flower shops. But what hasn’t changed is the hard choice between the temptation of crime and doing what’s right. Trying to balance his new job, his love of reading, and the debt he owes to the man who got him released, Michael struggles to figure out his place in this new world before he loses control

Whether they’re cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos’ characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants. A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos’ most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella — which takes its name from... Hollywood slang for the last shot of the day, the one that comes before the liquor shots begin — we go behind the scenes of a television cop show, where a writer gets caught up in a drama more real than anything he could have conjured for a script. By turns heartbreaking and humane, brutal and funny, these finely constructed tales expose the violence and striving beneath the surface of any city and within any human heart. Tough, sexy, fast-paced, and crackling with energy, The Martini Shot is Pelecanos at his very best

They never found the killer. All they knew, back in the winter of 1985, was that someone was taking teenagers, killing them and leaving their abused bodies in public parks. Three victims in all, with no link between them except a oddity of their names. They read the same back-to-front – Otto, Ava and lastly Eve. A lot has happened in the twenty years since. Detectives Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday – two of the leads on the case – have pursued very different paths. Gus has climbed to the heights of Detective Sergeant and built himself a reputation as a very good cop, whilst Dan has been drummed out of the force – his sleaze finally getting too much for his superiors. However, their paths are about to cross again. A boy named Asa – a close friend of Gus's teenage son – has been found in the public park, his skull shattered by gunfire. Now it seems that both men are once again in the path of this disturbed serial killer. THE NIGHT GARDENER is George Pelecanos's stunning new crime thriller – the story of two very different men united by the maliciousness of a deadly attacker

Before you can thrive you have to survive. When cocaine hit Washington, D.C., in the mid-1980s, the city became nearly unlivable. Gun-carrying kids turned entire neighborhoods into war zones. Zombies walked the sidewalks on week-long binges. Many police officers and public officials, flush with drug money, looked away. Set amidst this chaos and danger, The Sweet Forever captures an unforgettable fight for survival as two men confront the most soul-chilling violence ever to visit the city. Marcus Clay is proud of his small chain of record stores, and proudest of his new store, right in the old neighborhood — now the epicenter of the drug trade. But a black man can’t get a break, even on his home turf, when the whole town is going crazy. Even his best friend, Dimitri Karras, who manages the store, is coming to work with his jaw wired tight from his newly acquired cocaine habit. A bad situation turns lethal when a car crashes in front of the store and Marcus sees someone grab a bag out of the backseat and run. The local drug lord wants what’s in that bag — and will do whatever it takes to prove that he is the law in this neighborhood. Nobody, certainly not a small-time businessman, is going to stand in his way. In searing confrontations, Marcus and Dimitri must defy the darkness close to home — fighting for their lives, their livelihoods, for the very soul of the city. Opening up the shadowy territory where private sin connects with larger, deadlier evils, George Pelecanos weaves familiar details from the recent past into a thriller of compelling menace and power. With characters as real as your own flesh and a relentless, dazzlingly original story, The Sweet Forever is a classic thriller from one of the most inspired writers at work today

The best USA-based stories in the Akashic noir series, compiled into one volume and edited by Johnny Temple!

Washington, D.C., 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank “Hound Dog” Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn’s turf, where a local drug addict’s been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment. Soon both men are on the trail of a ruthless killer: Red Fury, so called for his looks and the car his girlfriend drives, but a name that fits his personality all too well. Red Fury doesn’t have a retirement plan, as Vaughn points out — he doesn’t care who he has to cross, or kill, to get what he wants. As the violence escalates and the stakes get higher, Strange and Vaughn know the only way to catch their man is to do it their own way. Rich with details of place and time — the cars, the music, the clothes — and fueled by non-stop action, this is Pelecanos writing in the hard-boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans and placed him firmly in the ranks of the top crime writers in America

Шедевр на все времена, лучшая работа писателя! Таинственная смерть подростка по имени Аса, тело которого было найдено в городском саду, сеет панику в обществе. Обстоятельства трагедии наводят на предположение, что это не несчастный случай, а очередной кровавый штрих в серии зверских преступлений, потрясших город двадцать лет назад. Есть только трое, кто может расставить точки над «i». Когда-то они были одной командой, но жизнь развела их… Теперь им придется воскресить ужасные воспоминания, чтобы понять, что же это — поворот судьбы или кошмарное дежавю? Джордж Пелеканос создал роман, в котором есть все: отчаянное преследование, харизматичные персонажи и необратимый рок