Brand new stories by: G. M. Ford, Skye Moody, R. Barri Flowers,
Thomas P. Hopp, Patricia Harrington, Bharti Kirchner, Kathleen Alcala,
Simon Wood, Brian Thornton, Lou Kemp, Curt Colbert, Robert Lopresti,
Paul S. Piper, and Stephan Magcosta.
Early Seattle was a
hardscrabble seaport filled with merchant sailors, longshoremen,
lumberjacks, rowdy saloons, and a rough-and-tumble police force not
immune to corruption and graft. By the mid-50s, the town had added
Boeing to its claim to fame, but was still a mostly blue-collar burg
that was infamously described as "a cultural dustbin" by the Seattle
Symphony's first conductor. Present-day Seattle has become a pricey,
cosmopolitan center, home to Microsoft and Starbucks. The city is
famous as the birthplace of grunge music, and possesses a flourishing
art, theatre, and club scene that many would have thought improbable
just a few decades ago. But some things never change--crime being one
of them. Seattle's evolution to high-finance and high-tech has simply
provided even greater opportunity and reward to those who might be
ethically, morally, or economically challenged (crooks, in other
words). But most crooks are just ordinary people, not professional
thieves or crime bosses--they might be your pleasant neighbor, your
wife or lover, your grocer or hairdresser, your minister or banker or
lifelong friend--yet even the most upright and honest of them sometimes
fall to temptation.
Within the stories of Seattle Noir, you
will find: a wealthy couple whose marriage is filled with not-so-quiet
desperation; a credit card scam that goes over-limit; femmes fatales
and hommes fatales; a delicatessen owner whose case is less than
kosher; a famous midget actor whose movie roles begin to shrink when he
starts growing taller; an ex-cop who learns too much; a group of
mystery writers whose fiction causes friction; a Native American shaman
caught in a web of secrets and tribal allegiances; sex, lies, and
slippery slopes . . . and a cast of characters that always want more,
not less . . . unless . . .
Curt Colbert is the author of the
Jake Rossiter & Miss Jenkins mysteries, a series of hard-boiled,
private detective novels set in 1940s Seattle. The first book, Rat
City, was nominated for a Shamus Award in 2001. A Seattle native,
Colbert still resides in his hometown.
