Seattle Noir »

Curt Colbert is the author of the Jake Rossiter & Miss Jenkins mysteries, a series of hardboiled, private detective novels set in 1940s Seattle. The first book, Rat City, was nominated for a Shamus Award in 2001. A Seattle native, Colbert is currently finishing the fourth book in the series, Nowhere Town, as well as working on a present-day novel.

Seattle's evolution to high-finance and high-tech has provided greater opportunity to those with sinister intent.

Publishers Weekly

If the 14 entries in Akashic's rainy city noir volume were school compositions, a teacher would likely assign mostly As and Bs and nothing below a C. Colbert has assembled stories that reflect Seattle's ethnic diversity (Native American, East Indian, Chinese, Latino, etc.) as well as tales from its rough past to its glory days of Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft. Notable selections include Colbert's "Till Death Do Us...," featuring 1940s PI Jake Rossiter, and G.M. Ford's wry "Food for Thought," but two of the best come from nonmystery writers, Bharti Kirchner's disturbing "Promised Tulips" and Kathleen Alcalá's stark "Blue Sunday." Brian Thornton's "Paper Son" provides a seamy look at corruption and vice in Seattle's Chinatown in the late 1800s. Patricia Harrington's "What Price Retribution?" demonstrates that people may be homeless, but they aren't necessarily helpless. Other contributors include Robert Lopresti, Skye Moody, Simon Wood and R. Barri Flowers. (June)

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Contents

Introduction....................17
Thomas P. Hopp Blood Tide Duwamish....................38
Bharti Kirchner Promised Tulips Wallingford....................63
Stephan Magcosta Golden Gardens Ballard....................70
Robert Lopresti The Center of the Universe Fremont....................95
Kathleen Alcalá Blue Sunday Central District....................113
Simon Wood The Taskmasters Downtown....................137
Patricia Harrington What Price Retribution? Capitol Hill....................157
Curt Colbert Till Death Do Us ... Belltown....................176
Paul S. Piper The Best View in Town Leschi....................187
R. Barri Flowers The Wrong End of a Gun South Lake Union....................203
Brian Thornton Paper Son Chinatown....................224
Skye Moody The Magnolia Bluff Magnolia....................246
Lou Kemp Sherlock's Opera Waterfront....................261
G.M. Ford Food for Thought Pioneer Square....................270