Phoenix Noir
This collection is comprised of works of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Akashic Books
©2009 Akashic Books
Series concept by Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple
Phoenix map by Sohrab Habibion
ePub ISBN-13: 978-1-936-07041-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-85-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009922933
All rights reserved
Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
A
LSO
A
KASHIC
N
OIRS
S
ERIES
:
Baltimore Noir
, edited by Laura Lippman
Boston Noir
, edited by Dennis Lehane
Bronx Noir
, edited by S.J. Rozan
Brooklyn Noir
, edited by Tim McLoughlin
Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics
, edited by Tim McLoughlin
Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing but the Truth
edited by Tim McLoughlin & Thomas Adcock
Chicago Noir
, edited by Neal Pollack
D.C. Noir
, edited by George Pelecanos
D.C. Noir 2: The Classics
, edited by George Pelecanos
Delhi Noir
(India), edited by Hirsh Sawhney
Detroit Noir
, edited by E.J. Olsen & John C. Hocking
Dublin Noir
(Ireland), edited by Ken Bruen
Havana Noir
(Cuba), edited by Achy Obejas
Istanbul Noir
(Turkey), edited by Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler
Las Vegas Noir
, edited by Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce
London Noir
(England), edited by Cathi Unsworth
Los Angeles Noir
, edited by Denise Hamilton
Manhattan Noir
, edited by Lawrence Block
Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics
, edited by Lawrence Block
Mexico City Noir
(Mexico), edited by Paco I. Taibo II
Miami Noir
, edited by Les Standiford
New Orleans Noir
, edited by Julie Smith
Paris Noir
(France), edited by Aurélien Masson
Portland Noir
, edited by Kevin Sampsell
Queens Noir
, edited by Robert Knightly
Rome Noir
(Italy), edited by Chiara Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski
San Francisco Noir
, edited by Peter Maravelis
San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics
, edited by Peter Maravelis
Seattle Noir
, edited by Curt Colbert
Toronto Noir
(Canada), edited by Janine Armin & Nathaniel G. Moore
Trinidad Noir
, Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason
Twin Cities Noir
, edited by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz
Wall Street Noir
, edited by Peter Spiegelman
F
ORTHCOMING
:
Barcelona Noir
(Spain), edited by Adriana Lopez & Carmen Ospina
Copenhagen Noir
(Denmark), edited by Bo Tao Michaelis
Haiti Noir
, edited by Edwidge Danticat
Indian Country Noir
, edited by Liz Martínez & Sarah Cortez
Lagos Noir
(Nigeria), edited by Chris Abani
Lone Star Noir
, edited by Bobby Byrd & John Byrd
Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics
, edited by Denise Hamilton
Moscow Noir
(Russia), edited by Natalia Smirnova & Julia Goumen
Mumbai Noir
(India), edited by Altaf Tyrewala
Orange County Noir
, edited by Gary Phillips
Philadelphia Noir
, edited by Carlin Romano
Richmond Noir
, edited by Andrew Blossom,
Brian Castleberry & Tom De Haven
T
ABLE OF
C
ONTENTS
C
HARLES
K
ELLY
Hassayampa Valley
The Eighth Deadly Sin
D
IANA
G
ABALDON
Desert Botanical Garden
Dirty Scottsdale
R
OBERT
A
NGLEN
Apache Junction
Growing Back
PART II: WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
L
UIS
A
LBERTO
U
RREA
Paradise Valley
Amapola
L
EE
C
HILD
Chandler
Public Transportation
P
ATRICK
M
ILLIKIN
Tovrea Castle
Devil Doll
L
AURA
T
OHE
Indian School Road
Tom Snag
J
AMES
S
ALLIS
Glendale
Others of My Kind
K
URT
R
EICHENBAUGH
Grand Avenue
Valerie
G
ARY
P
HILLIPS
South Phoenix
Blazin’ on Broadway
M
EGAN
A
BBOTT
Scottsdale
It’s Like a Whisper
D
AVID
C
ORBETT
Tempe
Dead by Christmas
D
ON
W
INSLOW
Van Buren Strip
Whiteout on Van Buren
D
OGO
B
ARRY
G
RAHAM
Christown
By the Time He Got to Phoenix
S
TELLA
P
OPE
D
UARTE
Harmon Park
Confession
P
hoenix is a young city, even by Arizona standards. The desert metropolis, easily the largest in the Southwest today, wasn’t established until 1867, much later than Tucson, Prescott, and other Arizona towns. As the legend goes, fortune-seeker and former Confederate soldier Jack Swilling noticed the ruins of the extensive Hohokam canal system while passing through the Salt River Valley and recognized the economic potential in getting the irrigation ditches up and running again. Centuries earlier, the Hohokam Indians had disappeared, no one really knows why, but the elaborate canal system they left behind provided the foundation upon which a new city would arise. Swilling battled alcoholism and opiate addiction and would later die in Yuma Territorial Prison under suspicion of highway robbery (he was posthumously cleared of the charge).
Although historians debate whether Swilling or fellow pioneer Darrell Duppa first named the town “Phoenix,” the idea it evoked, a new civilization rising out of the ashes of a previous culture, is revealing. It implied new beginnings, a place where hard-working young families from the East could start over anew. Of course, it wasn’t always such a great deal for the nearby Pima and Maricopa Indians.
Early boosters promoted Phoenix as a desert paradise, a lush resort town where health-seekers could enjoy the benefits of clean dry air and warm winter weather. The burgeoning city was quickly so infested with “lungers”—people suffering from tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments—that alarmed citizens pressured advertisers to downplay the palliative effects of the environment. Magazine ads from the ’40s and ’50s show squeaky clean white families enjoying the “relaxed pace” of desert living: children playing in the sunshine, Dad practicing his golf swing or sipping a highball by the swimming pool.