Akashic Noir books in order

Reading order

The Akashic Noir series started in 2002 with San Francisco Noir and has grown into one of the biggest anthology projects in crime fiction. Each volume focuses on a different city and collects original noir stories from writers who know that place well. A guest editor, typically a crime writer with roots in the featured location, picks the contributors and shapes each book’s tone.

The series has covered everywhere from Brooklyn to Baghdad, from Lagos to Sao Paulo. With 121 volumes and counting, it’s an enormous reading list, but each book stands alone. You can pick up Denver Noir or Havana Noir or whichever city catches your eye without reading anything else in the series. For crime fiction fans who like their stories grounded in real places, the Akashic Noir books are a reliable source of fresh short fiction from writers around the world.