Queens Noir
by Megan Abbott, Tori Carrington, Denis Hamill, Jennifer Estep, Malachy McCourt

All-new stories by: Denis Hamill, Maggie Estep, Megan Abbott, Robert Knightly, Liz Martinez, Jill Eisenstadt, Mary Byrne, Tori Carrington, Shailly P. Agnihotri, K.J.A. Wishnia, Victoria Eng, Alan Gordon, Beverly Farley, Joe Guglielmelli, and Glenville Lovell.

Queens used to be dismissed as the "bedroom of Manhattan"—daily disgorging its sons and daughters by elevated rail and the Queensboro Bridge to their jobs in "New York" (as Manhattan was known to us in the outer boroughs). By 2007, Queens had become the borough of immigrants—2.2 million residents, forty-eight percent of whom are foreign-born, the vast majority of them Asian. In fifty-plus distinct neighborhoods, speaking 140 different languages, reside: Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Guyanese, Jamaicans, Haitians, Trinidadians, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Dominicans, Mexicans, Filipinos, not to mention Greeks.

Queens county is the largest borough accommodating two beaches, two airports, Aqueduct Racetrack, three elevated train structures, and Shea Stadium. Queens Noir has set twenty original crime stories in the neighborhoods and at the "Big A," Shea Stadium, JFK Airport, Rockaway Beach, and aboard the elevated Flushing 7 subway line.

Robert Knightly relocated from Manhattan to Jackson Heights, Queens in 1994 (marriage and a bigger apartment). He spent his first forty-four years in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, just a hop, skip, and a jump over the Pulaski Bridge spanning Newtown Creek between Greenpoint and Long Island City, Queens. He works as a criminal trial lawyer for the Legal Aid Society in the Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens. Once upon a time, he was a New York City policeman, but that was in big, bad Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Queens on the Fly: By Sea, Horse, Train, Plane, and Silver Screen
"Alice Fantastic" by Maggie Estep (Aqueduct Racetrack)
"Under the Throgs Neck Bridge" by Denis Hamill (Bayside)
"Golden Venture" by Jill Eisenstadt (The Rockaways)
"Buckner's Error" by Joseph Guglielmelli (Shea Stadium)
"Baggage Claim" by Patricia King (JFK Airport)
"Arrivederci, Aldo" by Kim Sykes (Long Island City)

Part II: Old Queens
"Hollywood Lanes" by Megan Abbott (Forest HIlls)
"Only the Strong Survive" by Mary Byrne (Astoria)
"First Calvary" by Robert Knightly (Blissville)
"Bottom of the Sixth" by Alan Gordon (Rego Park)
"The Flower of Flushing" by Victoria Eng (Flushing)
"Crazy Jill Saves the Slinky" by Stephen Solomita (College Point)
"Last Stop, Ditmars" by Tori Carrington (Ditmars)v

Part III: Foreign Shores
"Avoid Agony" by Shailly Agnihotri (Jackson Heights)
"Viernes Loco" by K.j.a. Wishnia (Corona)
"Out of Body" by Glenville Lovell (South Jamaica)
"Lights Out for Frankie" by Liz Martinez (Woodside)
"Jihad Sucks: or, The Conversion of the Jews" by Jillian Abbott (Richmond Hill)
"The Investigation" by Belinda Farley (Jamaica)

Megan Abbott's Bio

Photo: Joshua Gaylord