“Luck’s Refrain” by Meagan J. Meehan

Fast Freddy died slow. He’d been on his way out for damn near two decades. In most respects he’d died with Lucky . . .

“Lazy Gangsters” by Jen Kitses

Officer Leon James slipped out the back door of the Quayside Oil Company, where he worked part-time as a security guard on the overnight shift. In his hand was a paper bag containing the cold meatball sub that he brought from home but had forgotten to eat. Instead, he’d spent his break dozing in an office chair, his chin nodding toward his chest . . .

“Relief” by Adeola Adeniyi

On a humid mid-July Thursday evening, a young woman in a cream-colored Macy’s pantsuit went into the small bodega on Nostrand and Lexington Avenue (by the twenty-four-hour Laundromat) and walked to the back refrigerator . . .

“Taking the Cyclone” by Howard Gimple

Kelleher ran towards Nathan’s, Coney Island’s legendary wiener wonderland. The Ukrainian’s final fetid breath was still stinging his nostrils . . .

USA Noir – The Mysterious Bookshop, New York, NY

Date: October, 29 2013

USA Noir launch event featuring Johnny Temple, Tim McLoughlin, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jerome Charyn, Elyssa East, and others TBA. Beer lovingly provided by Brooklyn Brewery!

“One Wolf, Three Sheep,” by Eddie Joyce

Matty stared out the front window of the Emerald Club, muttering curses into his coffee. On the corner opposite the bar, the Africans huddled, laughter spilling out in front of them in long, frigid plumes.

Only three this morning. The little guy was missing. Sleeping in maybe.

A low rumbling startled him. Declan had left his cell phone on the bar when he went upstairs and the goddam thing was vibrating every few minutes, skittering across the bar like a deranged metallic cricket. He glared at the phone, which soon fell silent.

“The Killing Type,” by Maggie Estep

The sun wasn’t thinking about rising yet. Neither was Lincoln, the guy I had come to Cancun with.

I’d really like to take you to Cancun, baby, he’d said two weeks earlier, on our third date.

I laughed.

“What’s funny about that?”

I pictured high-rise resort buildings choking coastline. Portly Americans choking resort buildings. Me choking Lincoln.

“Nothing,” I said.

Spotlight on FotoKonbit

To celebrate the release of Haiti Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Edwidge Danticat, Akashic will be spotlighting Haitian organizations on our website. Today, we’re pleased to feature FotoKonbit, a nonprofit organization to which a portion of the profits from Haiti Noir 2 will be donated. We invited FotoKonbit to tell us about their work and to share some of the photography produced by their students.