Richmond 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
©2010 Akashic Books
Series concept by Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple
Richmond map by Sohrab Habibion
ePUB ISBN 13: 978-1-936-07077-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-98-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009922934
All rights reserved
Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
A
LSO IN THE
A
KASHIC
N
OIR
S
ERIES
:
Baltimore Noir
, edited by Laura Lippman
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 AurèUen Masson
Phoenix Noir
, edited by Patrick Millikin
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
Boston Noir
, edited by Dennis Lehane
Copenhagen Noir
(Denmark), edited by Bo Tao Michaelis
Haiti Noir
, edited by Edwidge Danticat
Indian Country Noir
, edited by Liz Martinez & 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
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
P
IR
R
OTHENBERG
Museum District
The Rose Red Vial
D
AVID
L. R
OBBINS
East End
Homework
M
INA
B
EVERLY
Providence Park
Gaia
D
ENNIS
D
ANVERS
Texas Beach
Texas Beach
C
LAY
M
C
L
EOD
C
HAPMAN
Belle Isle
The Battle of Belle Isle
X.C. A
TKINS
Oregon Hill
A
Late-Night Fishing Trip
L
AURA
B
ROWDER
Church Hill
The Heart
Is
a Strange Muscle
D
EAN
K
ING
Shockoe Slip
The Fall Lines
T
OM
D
E
H
AVEN
Manchester
Playing with DaBlonde
A
NNE
T
HOMAS
S
OFFEE
Jefferson Davis Highway
Midnight at the Oasis
M
EAGAN
J. S
AUNDERS
Jackson Ward
Untitled
C
ONRAD
A
SHLEY
P
ERSONS
West End
Marco’s Broken English
H
OWARD
O
WEN
Monroe Park
The Thirteenth Floor
H
ERMINE
P
INSON
Devil’s Half Acre
Mr. Not
Just think of all the people not fortunate enough
to be bom in Richmond, Va
.
—Tom Wolfe
I
t may sound odd, but when I think of Richmond, Virginia—or, at least, when I look back on my years in that charming, antebellum, ostensibly conservative town—my thoughts turn frequently to alleys. And considering the images and moods that most people associate with those narrow, secluded, generally unlit and gritty little passageways, it should not then be totally unexpected that my memories of Richmond’s alleys tend to be colored with shades of
noir
. Which is to say, colored with seamy urban romance and suave big-city vice, the twin elements most responsible for the seductive throb at the murky heart of
noir
.
Presumably, alleys in other parts of Richmond are quite different in character, but the bohemian/bourgeois/badass Fan District, where I lived, boasts to this day alleyways that are simultaneously inviting and forbidding, elegant and squalid, ominous and suffused with grace. Old, cobblestoned (Stone Age marshmallows in the silver moonshine), lined with wisteria, rose bushes, and carriage houses (servant quarters become artist studios, stables become garages); perfumed by honeysuckle, motor oil, invisible kitchens, brown-bagged beverages, garbage cans, and history; resonant with dog-bark, woo-pitch, bottle-shatter, domestic squabbling, financial plotting (legitimate and otherwise), fervent intellectual discourse, and stray fragments of Southern rock and jazz; they become all the more interesting after nightfall, when secrets—some merely naughty, others more darkly hued—seep increasingly into them from shadowed crannies or the backrooms and walled gardens of abodes along the way.
On scores of hot, sticky, summer nights, with a restless city feeling like the interior of a napalmed watermelon, I walked the alleys of the Fan, sometimes until dawn; and having thus been privy to certain of the secrets they protected, having trusted them with a secret of my own (I was desperately in love with a married woman at the time and fully expecting her armed husband to leap out at me from every spooky nook), it doesn’t exactly surprise me that there is sufficient
noir
in Richmond—enough hidden larceny, lunacy, and lust—to fuel the fiction of the fine writers who enliven these pages.