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Publisher Description
Sixteen tales that combine the otherworldly with hardboiled crime fiction—from Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Paul G. Tremblay, Melanie Tem, and others.
Here are the femme fatales, the tough guys, the down-on-their-luck detectives—but with a twist. Collected by Hugo and Bram Stoker Award–winning editor Ellen Datlow, these stories of the murderous and macabre will take you onto the dark streets of worlds unlike our own, where the monstrous stalk their prey.
At the behest of a beautiful blonde client, a small-town East Texas private eye is drawn into a case of grave robbing by someone—or something—with an unholy interest in “Dead Sister” by Joe R. Lansdale. Elizabeth Bear’s “The Romance” takes partygoers on a wild ride when the centerpiece of a birthday celebration turns out to be a haunted merry-go-round. After robbing a pawnshop, a group of small-time crooks get their shocking comeuppance as they flee the scene in “The Getaway” by Paul G. Tremblay. “Little Shit” by Melanie Tem follows a college student with a very unique skill set as she makes money on the side taking down criminals.
Supernatural Noir also includes bone-chilling tales from Lucius Shepard, Laird Barron, Brian Evenson, Gregory Frost, Richard Bowes, Jeffrey Ford, Lee Thomas, Tom Piccirilli, Nate Southard, Nick Mamatas, and John Langan.
“This anthology has some of the most exciting fiction published in 2011. This is fiction that will make you uncomfortable, that will haunt you, that will show up in your dreams. . . . Horrifyingly wonderful.” —Fantasy Literature
Here are the femme fatales, the tough guys, the down-on-their-luck detectives—but with a twist. Collected by Hugo and Bram Stoker Award–winning editor Ellen Datlow, these stories of the murderous and macabre will take you onto the dark streets of worlds unlike our own, where the monstrous stalk their prey.
At the behest of a beautiful blonde client, a small-town East Texas private eye is drawn into a case of grave robbing by someone—or something—with an unholy interest in “Dead Sister” by Joe R. Lansdale. Elizabeth Bear’s “The Romance” takes partygoers on a wild ride when the centerpiece of a birthday celebration turns out to be a haunted merry-go-round. After robbing a pawnshop, a group of small-time crooks get their shocking comeuppance as they flee the scene in “The Getaway” by Paul G. Tremblay. “Little Shit” by Melanie Tem follows a college student with a very unique skill set as she makes money on the side taking down criminals.
Supernatural Noir also includes bone-chilling tales from Lucius Shepard, Laird Barron, Brian Evenson, Gregory Frost, Richard Bowes, Jeffrey Ford, Lee Thomas, Tom Piccirilli, Nate Southard, Nick Mamatas, and John Langan.
“This anthology has some of the most exciting fiction published in 2011. This is fiction that will make you uncomfortable, that will haunt you, that will show up in your dreams. . . . Horrifyingly wonderful.” —Fantasy Literature
6 Reviews
3.5
Horror DNA
Created over 4 years agoShare
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“Tales of the supernatural and those of noir share many of the same traits. Both often feature a down-on-his-luck protagonist with many things working against him. Both showcase the darker side of the world. And both often leave the main character in a situation that's often worse than where he started. So with all these similarities, why not put the two genres together? That's just what Dark Horse set out to do with this collection of short stories. Although they're primarily a comic book publisher, this book consists solely of the written word with no art aside from the creepy bird on the cover.
You can read James' full review at Horror DNA by https://www.horrordna.com/books/supernatural-noir-book-review .”
Rachel Drenning
Created about 5 years agoShare
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MirandaHonfleur
Created about 9 years agoShare
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Sam C
Created about 9 years agoShare
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“Three that I thought stood out: The Dingus, The Getaway, and Little Shit. I find that the most interesting stories are right at the very beginning of these anthologies by Ellen Datlow.”
Tarl H.
Created about 10 years agoShare
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“I picked this anthology up because I have heard good things about Datlow's editor work. I hadn't read anything she's put together before, so I decided to pick it up.
Supernatural Noir is an amazing collection of stories that contain excellent examples of stories that breach both of these genres. Each tale in this collection does a good job providing us stories of characters that are thankfully not all detectives. As stated in the introduction, Noir isn't a genre that is just about detectives down on their luck. In this anthology we see everything from sex case workers to strung out drug addicts with noble hearts.
The stories that affected me the most were the following:
The Carrion Gods In Their Heaven by Laird Barron - I have read this story before in Barron's collected works released last year, and it was a pleasure to read this story again. The man has a way with words that is both haunting and beautiful. Well worth reading and one of the best stories in this collection.
The Blisters on My Heart by Nate Southard - This story had me setting the book down for awhile as it touched too close to home in some of my past experiences. The story itself is beautiful and very much concentrates on many of the elements in the Noir genre. The characters were wonderful, the situation painfully written, and everything touched me. This story might not affect others like it affected me, but to me this was a wonderfully painful story.
Comfortable in Her Skin by Lee Thomas - Slow going at first, the supernatural aspect was possibly the creepiest one in this entire collection, and the image alone will probably stick with me for many years to come. Overall the story was handled really well and the twists were unexpected.
The Last Triangle by Jeffery Ford - An interesting story with subtle supernatural elements that culminate to a nice climax when the final pieces come together. The main character is very human in his flaws, and his keeper is as mysterious as she is intelligent. The twists in this one are handled with a deft hand and the characters were both engaging and interesting.
All in all, this is an anthology worth picking up if you enjoy either the supernatural or the noir genres. The mix is nice and each story is different enough that the reader won't be left bored with any of the stories. It also brings a refreshing breath of air to the stereotyped noir stories with their down and out detectives, with their dames, guns and such. Very much worth picking up.”
About Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow, an acclaimed science fiction and fantasy editor, was born and raised in New York City. She has been a short story and book editor for more than thirty years and has edited or coedited several critically acclaimed anthologies of speculative fiction, including the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror series and Black Thorn, White Rose (1994) with Terri Windling. Datlow has received numerous honors, including multiple Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, Hugo, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards, and Life Achievement Awards from the Horror Writers Association and the World Fantasy Association, to name just a few. She resides in New York.
Other books by Ellen Datlow
Richard Bowes
Richard Bowes has, over the last thirty-five years, published several novels, four short story collections, and eighty-plus stories. He has won two World Fantasy Awards and the Lambda, Million Writers, and International Horror Guild Awards for his work.
Other books by Richard Bowes
Melanie Tem
Melanie Tem, British Fantasy and World Fantasy Award–winning author, passed away in 2015. The most important of her short stories are collected in Singularity and Other Stories. Tem’s other works include her last novel, The Yellow Wood, and a recent collection of her plays and poetry, Fry Day Plays & Poems.
Other books by Melanie Tem
Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, grew up in Daytona, Florida, and lived the last years of his life in Portland, Oregon. His short fiction won the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the National Magazine Award, the Locus Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He died in 2014.
Other books by Lucius Shepard
Jeffrey Ford
Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels Vanitas, The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, and Crackpot Palace. Ford has published over one hundred short stories, which have appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and anthologies, from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction to The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy Award, the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Edgar Award, France’s Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, and Japan’s Hayakawa’s SF Magazine Reader’s Award.
Ford’s fiction has been translated into twenty languages. In addition to writing, he has been a professor of literature and writing for thirty years and has been a guest lecturer at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, the Stone Coast MFA in Creative Writing Program, Richard Hugo House in Seattle, and the Antioch Writers’ Workshop. Ford lives in Ohio and currently teaches at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Ford’s fiction has been translated into twenty languages. In addition to writing, he has been a professor of literature and writing for thirty years and has been a guest lecturer at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, the Stone Coast MFA in Creative Writing Program, Richard Hugo House in Seattle, and the Antioch Writers’ Workshop. Ford lives in Ohio and currently teaches at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Other books by Jeffrey Ford
Laird Barron
Laird Barron spent his early years in Alaska. He is the author of several books, including The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Swift to Chase, and The Wind Began to Howl. His work has also appeared in many magazines and anthologies. Barron currently resides in the Rondout Valley writing stories about the evil that men do.
Other books by Laird Barron
Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial, Locus, and Astounding Award–winning author of dozens of novels and over a hundred short stories. She has spoken on futurism at Google, MIT, DARPA’s 100 Year Starship Project, and the White House, among others. Find her at www.elizabethbear.com.
Other books by Elizabeth Bear
Joe R. Lansdale
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of fifty novels and hundreds of shorter works, including stories and essays. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Edgar Award, ten Bram Stoker Awards, the Spur Award, the British Fantasy Award, and others. His work has been published all over the world, and turned into films, TV shows, and animation. He lives with his wife and pitbull, Rudy, in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Other books by Joe R. Lansdale
Lee Thomas
Lee Thomas is the Bram Stoker and two-time Lambda Award–winning author of the books Stained, The Dust of Wonderland, The German, Parish Damned, Like Light for Flies, Down on Your Knees, and Distortion. His work has been translated and optioned for film. Lee lives in Austin, Texas, with his husband, John.
Caitlín R. Kiernan
Caitlín R. Kiernan is a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award. Their novels include The Red Tree and The Drowning Girl, and their prolific short fiction has been collected in numerous volumes, including The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories, The Dinosaur Tourist, and Houses Under the Sea. Kiernan is also a vertebrate paleontologist and currently a research associate at the Alabama Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa.
Other books by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Nick Mamatas
Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including The Last Weekend and I Am Providence. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, and many other anthologies and magazines. Nick’s previous anthologies include the Bram Stoker Award-winner Haunted Legends (co-edited with Ellen Datlow) and The Locus Award nominees The Future is Japanese and Hanzai Japan (both co-edited with Masumi Washington). Nick’s editorial work has also been nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy awards. He resides in the California Bay Area.
Other books by Nick Mamatas
John Langan
John Langan is the author of two novels and five collections of stories. For his work, he has received the Bram Stoker and This Is Horror Awards. He is one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his family and certainly not too many books.
Other books by John Langan
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