Kansas City Noir

Kansas City, famous for its jazz, its barbecue, and its shady history, provides the venue for this solid addition to Akashic’s acclaimed noir anthology series. Strong entries from some well-known names include John Lutz’s “Thelma and Laverne,” a play on the Thelma and Louise saga that offers both chills and laughs; Nancy Pickard’s “Lightbulb,” in which a guilt-stricken elderly woman, who failed as a girl to make more of an effort to report a child molester back in the ’50s, finally takes action years later; and Daniel Woodrell’s “Come Murder Me Next, Babe,” which captures a marriage with one line: “She was eighteen, said she was twenty, and had every appetite, none of which he could satisfy.” Also notable are Kevin Prufer’s “Cat in a Box,” about a cop nearing the end of the line who tries to crack a serial murder case any way he can, and Mitch Brian’s “Last Night at the Rialto,” in which bittersweet memories haunt the elderly projectionist of an old movie theater that the owner has decided to close down. (Oct.)