Recensori in anteprimaMercedes King

The state of Ohio could only escape the Akashic Noir Series for so long . . . and now Andrew Welsh-Huggins leads the charge to reveal the city’s underbelly. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Brand-new stories by: Lee Martin, Robin Yocum, Kristen Lepionka, Craig McDonald, Chris Bournea, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Tom Barlow, Mercedes King, Daniel Best, Laura Bickle, Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Julia Keller, Khalid Moalim, and Nancy Zafris. From the introduction by Andrew Welsh-Huggins: Today, Columbus is an epicenter of the opioid epidemic, awash in heroin and the even deadlier fentanyl as dealers flood the city with their wares. More than five hundred people died of fatal overdoses in central Ohio in 2017, a nearly 50 percent increase from the year before. On the streets, homicide rates have soared, with 143 deaths in 2017, surpassing a record set in 1991—old Columbus, remember?—at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. The wealth gap in the city is growing, and Columbus is now one of the deadliest places in the state for babies trying to make it to their first birthday, even more so if their mothers are African American. These days, Columbus is a place forensic investigators are moving to. Overdoses, homicides, infant mortality: it took awhile, but we’re finally as lethal as any big American city. In that light (and darkness) I’m pleased to present Columbus Noir, a collection of shadowy tales from the city’s best storytellers set in neighborhoods across the metropolis. Sexual passion drives many of the stories, appropriate for a genre marked by protagonists striving for things out of their reach. Racism makes an appearance or two, as do those twin pillars of noir, greed and pride. Still, a deep appreciation of Columbus runs through the book as forcefully as the swath cut by the Olentangy after a couple of days of hard rain.