Brand-new stories by: Dennis Lehane, Stewart O'Nan, Patricia Powell, John Dufresne, Lynne Heitman, Don Lee, Russ Aborn, Itabari Njeri, Jim Fusilli, Brendan DuBois, and Dana Cameron. Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, The Given Day) has proven himself to be a master of both crime fiction and literary fiction. Here, he extends his literary prowess to that of master curator. In keeping with the Akashic Noir series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city—the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor, and all stops in between. Lehane’s own contribution—the longest story in the volume—is set in his beloved home neighborhood of Dorchester and showcases his phenomenal ability to grip the heart, soul, and throat of the reader. In 2003, Lehane’s novel Mystic River was adapted into film and quickly garnered six Academy Award nominations (with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins each winning Academy Awards). Boston Noir launches in November 2009 just as Shutter Island, the film based on Lehane’s best-selling 2003 novel of the same title, hits the big screen. Dennis Lehane is the author of The New York Times bestseller Mystic River (also an Academy Award–winning major motion picture); Prayers for Rain; Gone, Baby, Gone (also a major motion picture); Sacred; Darkness, Take My Hand; A Drink Before the War, which won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel; and, most recently, The Given Day. A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, he splits his time between the Boston area and Florida. PART I: FEAR & LOATHING LYNNE HEITMAN Exit Interview Financial District DENNIS LEHANE Animal Rescue Dorchester JIM FUSILLI The Place Where He Belongs Beacon Hill PATRICIA POWELL Dark Waters Watertown PART II: SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET DANA CAMERON Femme Sole North End BRENDAN DUBOIS The Dark Island Boston Harbor STEWART O'NAN The Reward Brookline JOHN DUFRESNE The Cross-Eyed Bear Southie PART III: VEILS OF DECEIT DON LEE The Oriental Hair Poets Cambridge ITABARI NJERI The Collar Roxbury RUSS ABORN Turn Speed North Quincy

Macavity Award Nominations 2012, Best Mystery Short Story. "It took Anna Hoyt two days before she left her small room at the Southwark inn. She had not been ill a single day during her voyage, despite the late season and roughness of the seas, while some passengers had never left their cabins. Nor was it the distressing contents of the letter she kept in her Bible that paralyzed her. It was the sheer size of London, looming beyond her window, shrouded by icy fog. Even her life near the Boston wharves hadn’t prepared her for the tumult she encountered by the waterfront, slippery with briny mud. She was nearly run down twice before she found a carter willing to take her and her luggage. The driver incomprehensibly cursed her when she asked him a third time to repeat his price; at length she understood he was speaking English, but with the thickest Welsh accent she’d ever heard. He urged his horses into the gloom, muttering to himself as Anna clung to her seat, miserable and shivering in the frigid January rain."

With wind in its sails and a salty sea breeze, our June issue cruises in with a great crew of crime writers whose fictional sleuths are strong on teamwork... Start with the "The Chatelaine Bag," a Carpenter-Quincannon case from MWA Grand Masters Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, in which the 1890s P.I.s must ferret out the thief who ruined San Francisco's society event of the season; then check out Clark Howard's "Crystal Death," in which two DEA agents race the clock to find a Chicago drug dealer and end a rash of fatal overdoses. And you won't want to miss Eric Cline's "Two Dwarves and Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs," a chilling take on Poe's "Hop-Frog," in our Department of First Stories, in which the relationship between the jester Hopp-Frosch and the lovely Tripetta takes center stage. We've got tales of loners, too, and of partnerships broken. Boston innkeeper Anna Hoyt travels to England, equally wary of being double-crossed by her patron and the enemy he sends her to spy on, in Dana Cameron's "Disarming" (sequel to her Edgar-nominated historical "Femme Sole"); and an English retiree becomes suspicious of his neighbors in a quaint seaside town in Caroline Benton's "A Game of Patience." In Maynard Allington's psychological thriller "The Appointment," a psychiatrist struggles to help her patient, who suffers from PTSD and finds the lines of reality and hallucination have blurred; and in Randall Silvis' "Snap," a man finds his trust is misplaced when an old friend returns to town—with a new woman in tow. Finally, for some classic Hollywood-style suspense, see Robert Levinson's "The Killing of Stacey Janes" and Luis Adrián Betancourt's "Indiscreet Window" (Passport to Crime): In the former, a precocious fan club president has an ulterior motive: getting her revenge on the actress who killed her mother; and in the latter, a tribute to Rear Window, a man develops a one-sided relationship with the woman in a neighboring window. CONTENTS: Fiction: CRYSTAL DEATH by Clark Howard Reviews: THE JURY BOX by Steve Steinbock Fiction: DISARMING by Dana Cameron Fiction: THE APPOINTMENT by Maynard Allington Fiction: THE CHATELAINE BAG by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini Passport to Crime: INDISCREET WINDOW by Luis Adrian Betancourt Fiction: THE KILLING OF STACEY JANES by Robert S. Levinson Fiction: A GAME OF PATIENCE by Caroline Benton Reviews: BLOG BYTES by Bill Crider Fiction: SNAP by Randall Silvis Department of First Stories: TWO DWARVES AND EIGHT CHAINED OURANG-OUTANGS by Eric Cline Special Feature: EQMM WELCOMES A NEW BOOK REVIEWER