Staten Island Noir, Edited by Patricia Smith
Staten Island Noir, Edited by Patricia Smith
There's crime here. Good crime. Mystery. Dark, scary stuff. Big crime. The noir kind, without a good guy in sight. Just scan the headlines: "Skeleton in State Island Basement Points to Unsolved Murder"; "Staten Island Man Commits Murder after Victim Had Spit in Wife's Face." Then there's the haunted Kreischer mansion on Arthur Kill Road. Mob Wifes, for Chrissakes, with all that squalling, hair-pulling, and Botox. A recent spate of hate crimes against blacks, Mexicans, and Muslims. Mist-shrouded abandoned psychiatric hospitals. Guys named Eddie. Underground caverns. Willowbrook. The ghostly ship graveyard. The legend of Cropsey. That rolling landfill and all those secrets buried beneath it. Even the one move that was named after the borough got it exactly right. Here's the synopsis: A Staten Island mob boss Parmie is robbed by septic tank cleaner Sully who has a pal Jasper, a deaf deli employee moonlighting as a corpse chopper..... That's a damned sunshiny day on the island.
I'm not sure why Staten Island is the borough bringing up the rear in Akashic Books' Noir Series, but here we are, as rotten, vengeful, unforgiving, and badass as any one of its quartet of brothers.
Patricia Smith, from the Introduction
Akashic Books, Softcover, 2012
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.