About This Book
Brand-new stories by: Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, Gary Earl Ross, Kim Chinquee, Tom Fontana, Lissa Marie Redmond, S.J. Rozan, John Wray, Christina Milletti, Peter J. Ramos, Dimitri Anastasopoulos, Connie Rose Porter, and others.
Buffalo, New York, is still the second-largest metropolis in the state, but in recent years its designation as the Queen City has been elbowed aside by a name that's pure noir: "The City of No Illusions." Presidents came from here; and in 1901, a president was killed here while visiting the Pan-American Exposition by a man who checked into a hotel under a name that translates as "Nobody."
As Buffalo saw its prosperity wane, those on the outside could only see harsh winters and Rust Belt grit, chicken wings and sports teams that came agonizingly close. (Vincent Gallo's "Buffalo 66" is less the doomed quest of a would-be assassin than the collective fever dream of every Bills fan.)
In "Buffalo Noir," a posse of brilliant local writers such as Lissa Redmond (an honest-to-God cold-case detective), Edgar winner Gary Earl Ross, and "NOON" mainstay Kim Chinquee give us the City of No Illusions in all its shadowy complexity. In a bravura move, legendary mystery writer Lawrence Block, creator of the classic Matthew Scudder series (and Buffalo native), takes one of his most devilish characters, the unorthodox lawyer Ehrengraf, and for the first time explicitly locates his base of operations in the city.
Other noted expats contributing to "Buffalo Noir" include Joyce Carol Oates, "Oz" creator Tom Fontana, Connie Rose Porter ("All-Bright Court" and the Addy Walker YA books), and John Wray ("Lowboy"). And it turns out that Noir series mainstay S.J. Rozan, author of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, went to architecture grad school in Buffalo (home of buildings by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright); she's here too. "Buffalo Noir," put together by "A Public Space" editor Brigid Hughes and novelist Ed Park, is a feast of crime narrative and a major literary treatment of a fascinating place.
