Tampa Bay Noir (Akashic Noir)

I am a big fan of this series, and decided to try the Tampa Bay selection while I was actually in Tampa Bay for a writing conference. It was a great read, with almost every story a great read. I even got to see some of the locations I was reading about, too.

I don't typically like short stories, but I gave this book a shot after hearing about it and from most of its authors at the recent Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading (online 2020). This selection of 15 short stories intrigued me. I live in the Tampa region & enjoyed that each story used a local venue as its backdrop. However, you don't need to live in this area or in Florida to enjoy the twists and turns in these stories. Some are predictable, some surprising, all contain an element (or two) of noir.

I read all these stories in one day, wallowing in the darkness and somehow feeling lighter for it. I grew up in the Tampa Bay area and have returned to it years later, so I know some of the places where the stories take place. For the others, I'm looking forward to exploring them. I loved nearly all the stories and will look forward to picking up the novels from the authors.

A great addition to the Noir series of books. It brings various parts of Tampa to life that might have stayed dead otherwise.

Terrible. Didn’t enjoy it at all. Thought all of the stories end way too abruptly. Not very enjoyable and I live in the Tampa Bay Area! The stories I thought were enjoyable at first all ended badly (or didn’t end at all). Would not recommend.

Loved this collection of great local fiction!

Great to carry with you short stories by excellent authorsv

What crap. A couple of gems, relative to the rest, but mostly crap. You’d almost think the writers were asked to provide a 1-sentence summary— “a guy wants to punish the guys who bullied his cousin” or “a woman and her husband live in a house where bad stuff happened”—and the members of some book club fleshed them out -badly- to meet word/page count. Long on details short on substance. If this had been free would have deleted it.