"Palm Springs Noir, edited by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, has it all – the pastel-coloured pool floaties, the gigantic Marilyn Monroe, the Mojave Desert, some lush, and louche, living, and a bunch of great contributors."
—CrimeReads
"About as Palm Springs as Palm Springs gets."
—Coachella Valley Independent, a Best of Coachella Valley pick for 2021
"The latest noir anthology from Akashic Books gathers 14 new stories set in the Coachella Valley. Featuring work by Tod Goldberg, Alex Espinoza, and Kelly Shire, the collection offers a more complicated set of takes on the Southern California desert, revealing its hidden, sinister qualities."
—Alta Magazine
"These mysteries will captivate the imagination and draw the reader into the darkest corners of the human heart, while reflecting the wicked, the saintly, and the everyday elements daily life of Palm Springs. A treasure for connoisseurs of the genre, Palm Springs Noir is packed with hidden surprises and is highly recommended."
—Midwest Book Review
"The anthology is a travelogue, of sorts, although one filled with deadly characters and people who make one bad choice after another. If you enjoy noir, this latest by Akashic Books is a worthwhile read."
—Reviewing the Evidence
"A nice window into a pretty bizarre...place, Palm Springs."
—Point Blank
"There's a great deal of writing talent here and no two tales are alike."
—Sunny Harbor Publishing
"All [the stories] are very, very well written...Lovers of crime and people who enjoy good writing will enjoy them no matter what."
—Queer Writers of Crime
"Palm Springs Noir brings together SoCal writers in a dark and dangerous anthology."
—Southern California News Group's Bookish
"This time around all the action takes place in Palm Springs itself or in places like Joshua Tree National Park, the Coachella Valley Preserve, or Desert Hot Springs which are all nearby. And, as usual, the stories will not disappoint fans of the genre."
—BookChase
"As the 14 stories in DeMarco-Barrett’s fine noir anthology set in Palm Springs, Calif., and vicinity show, swimming pools are meant for more than leisurely dips, and Frank Sinatra songs are an ever-present soundtrack to the desert landscape of abandoned dreams and broken hearts...It’s rare to find a group of stories without a bad one, but DeMarco-Barrett has chosen well and there’s not a dud in the bunch."
—Publishers Weekly
"Palm Springs Noir features 14 stories by a powerhouse group of writers. Each story has its own unique flavor and voice as reflected by the diversity and talent of the contributing writers...Although Palm Springs serves as the shining centerpiece to the collection, the richness of the surrounding desert is reflected in stories that travel in all directions—west to Anza, east to Indio, north to Joshua Tree, and south to the Salton Sea."
—Stu's News Newport
"As editor DeMarco-Barrett points out, it’s hard to think 'noir' in a landscape that offers 300 days of sunshine a year. But unrelenting heat and light can do funny things to your brain...An engaging mix of the good, the bad, and the off-kilter."
—Kirkus Reviews
Included in Publishers Weekly's Adult 2021 Announcements (Mysteries & Thrillers)
2021-04-14
Fourteen tales of dark doings in sunny Palm Springs.
As editor DeMarco-Barrett points out, it’s hard to think “noir” in a landscape that offers 300 days of sunshine a year. But unrelenting heat and light can do funny things to your brain. What else could explain why a longtime karaoke DJ heads south with a trunk full of his partner’s body parts in Tod Goldberg’s “A Career Spent Disappointing People”? Or how a runaway from the Betty Ford Clinic becomes a cat burglar in Eduardo Santiago’s “The Ankle of Anza”? Or how two vacationing college grads get hopelessly lost on a road three miles from the Joshua Tree parking lot in Ken Layne’s “The Loop Trail”? Of course the desert has always been a magnet for the extremes in human behavior. Where else would a group of religious renegades set up camp, as they do in Alex Espinoza’s “The Salt Calls Us Back”? Where else would the CIA conduct the bizarre mind-control experiments Rob Roberge chronicles in “The Expendables”? But even in the extreme Palm Springs climate, the tried-and-true noir motives still stand. There’s money, as in Janet Fitch’s “Sunrise.” There’s the love that goes wrong in Chris J. Bahnsen’s “Octagon Girl” and Kelly Shire’s “A Cold Girl.” There’s the fear that sprouts in J.D. Horn’s “The Stand-In.” And sometimes all three can produce a toxic mix, as they do in DeMarco-Barrett’s “The Water Holds You Still."
An engaging mix of the good, the bad, and the off-kilter.
