Rome Noir edited by Chiara Stangalino, a literary and arts festival organizer, & British sfnal author Maxim Jakubowski (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia), is an Italy-set installment in the Akashic Noir series of excellent location-themed mystery anthologies, this one filled with stories by native Italian and foreign writers telling mystery & suspense tales set throughout history in the eponymous city, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Akashic Books, who are generously running a holiday advent calendar promotion.
If you happen to like this one and wish to read more (the entire series is well worth it, and I've been slowly collecting them during the sporadic price-drops), Akashic Books are couponable at Kobo if you want to put them on your wishlist in anticipation of future holiday sales.
Currently free until midnight December 8th directly @
the publisher's promotional blogpost (DRM-free ePub & Mobi available worldwide), and you can read more about the book on its
regular catalogue page, where you can see the full list of contributors and their stories.
Description
Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.
Brand-new stories by: Antonio Scurati, Carlo Lucarelli, Gianrico Carofiglio, Diego De Silva, Giuseppe Genna, Marcello Fois, C.D. Formetta, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, Francesca Mazzucato, Maxim Jakubowski, Evelina Santangelo, Nicola Lagioia, Tommaso Pincio, Antonio Pascale, and Nicoletta Vallorani.
From the introduction by Chiara Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski:
“According to the legend, Rome owes its origins to a murder—when one brother killed another in order to grab the crown. Since then, there has been a dark tapestry of misdeeds, plots, and assassinations alongside some of the cruelest crimes in the history of mankind, beginning with Nero and Caligula, all through myriad bloody Vatican intrigues, wars by the handful, urban terrorism, and the arcane modern collusions between politics and the Mafia . . .
Next time you are visiting Italy, enjoy your tourist pursuits but on occasion pause for a moment and try to see what lies beyond the corner of the alley or street you are walking down, or attempt to imagine what might be happening behind those closed curtains you are passing. But until then, let your imagination take a dip into Rome Noir, and travel the city from its trunk roads to its highways, past the notorious Stazione Termini and the shadow of the iconic Colosseum, and through both the fashionable and sometimes undesirable areas that have inspired our writers.“