• Make salt scrubs to wash away patriarchal bullshit
• Mix potions to run abusive liars out of town
• Use their bare hands and feet to vanquish bro culture
• Conjure dead relatives to help smash the system

Lee Child recruits Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Ames, Cara Black, and others to reveal nicotine's scintillating alter egos.

"Typically for Akashic--publisher of the terrific Noir series--the stories approach the subject matter from an impressive number of angles...Akashic has yet to produce a dull anthology, and this one is especially good."
--Booklist

"Sixteen tributes to America's guiltiest pleasure...Even confirmed anti-smokers will find something to savor."
--Kirkus Reviews

"The most successful entries delve bone-deep into addiction, as characters smoke to smother physical pain, loneliness, and their days...These writers capture the mental gymnastics behind the characters' bad decisions, and the joy such bad decisions can bring."
--Publishers Weekly

In recent years, nicotine has become as verboten as many hard drugs. The literary styles in this volume are as varied as the moral quandaries herein, and the authors have successfully unleashed their incandescent imaginations on the subject matter, fashioning an immensely addictive collection.

Featuring brand-new stories by: Lee Child, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Ames, Eric Bogosian, Achy Obejas, Michael Imperioli, Hannah Tinti, Ariel Gore, Bernice L. McFadden, Cara Black, Christopher Sorrentino, David L. Ulin, Jerry Stahl, Lauren Sanders, Peter Kimani, and Robert Arellano.

From the introduction by Lee Child:

Food scientists have discovered a complex compound naturally present in, among other things, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. The compound offers us a number of benefits: it improves our fine motor skills; it increases our attention spans; it improves our cognitive abilities; it improves our long- and short-term memories; it lessens depression...In and of itself, it has no real downside. It's called nicotine. We should all get some.

The problem is the delivery system...The most efficient way is to burn dried tobacco leaves and inhale the smoke. Ten seconds later, the compound is in your brain, doing good in all its various ways. Unfortunately, the rest of the smoke doesn't do good. And therein lies a great mystery of human behavior. To get the good, we risk the bad. Or we prohibit ourselves the good, for fear of the bad. Which approach makes more sense?

Santa Fe joins Phoenix as a riveting Southwest US installment in the Akashic Noir Series.

"There is a real charm to the local specificity of Santa Fe Noir, and it's a pleasure to discover how different imaginations can channel the chiaroscuro energy of well-known places."
--Santa Fe Reporter

"Because each story is identified by the neighborhood or specific location in which it takes place, Santa Fe Noir is a veritable road map of the city and surrounding area. It stretches from El Dorado to the Southside, Casa Solana and Cerrillos Road to the Santa Fe National Forest. The protagonists of the stories are psychotherapists, vagrants, teenagers, and gig workers. They drink and smoke. They drop acid and have sex. And more than a few are guilty of murder (or at least of justifiable homicide)."
--Pasatiempo

"If you picture Santa Fe, New Mexico, only as a sunny, vibrant, colorful Southwest arts mecca, this anthology will shred that image with feral claws."
--Roundup Magazine

"Readers, if you like noir and you like Santa Fe, this is a must-read!"
--Eldorado Living Magazine

"[Gore's] assembly of writers are varied and bring to the book a wide spectrum of perspectives and styles. Santa Fe Noir could have easily gone wrong with a lesser editor veering down the well-trod road of commodified Native and Hispanic stories, but Gore finds us stories about people we know, or think we know, reflected in the shady, more complex moments in Santa Fe. For locals and visitors alike, Santa Fe Noir is a tour guide through the darker side of town."
--Weekly Alibi

"The book's diverse group of writers will provide readers with unexpected perspectives on this centuries-old city and its people."
--Publishers Weekly

"Readers will never look at hand-thrown pottery, heirloom tomatoes, or spectacular sunsets the same way again."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Pure entertainment by a collection of impressively skilled storytellers, Santa Fe Noir is especially and unreservedly recommended."
--Midwest Book Review

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

Brand-new stories by: Ana Castillo, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Byron F. Aspaas, Barbara Robidoux, Elizabeth Lee, Ana June, Israel Francisco Haros Lopez, Ariel Gore, Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, Candace Walsh, Hida Viloria, Cornelia Read, Miriam Sagan, James Reich, Kevin Atkinson, Katie Johnson, and Tomas Moniz.

From the introduction by Ariel Gore:

The stories in this collection reflect a fundamental truth about this city: history depends on who's telling it. Too often the story of Santa Fe has been told only by the conquerors and the tourism PR firms. In Santa Fe Noir, you will hear the voices of the others: locals and Native people, unemployed veterans and queer transplants, the homeless and the paroled-to-here.