Noir The Virgin Islands Way

Bruce Von Stiers

Akashic Books has this terrific anthology book series that spotlights noir stories. What is especially cool about this series is that each book is for a specific geographic area or city. Those cities include Atlanta, Kansas City and Palm Springs. The geographic areas covered are varied, including locations like Lagos, Haiti and Cape Cod.

One of the latest books in the noir series is Virgin Islands Noir. The stories in this anthology feature locations in the Virgin Islands such as Norman Island, St. Croix, Tortola and St. Thomas.

The book has three parts and a total of fifteen stories. There is also an introduction from the editors of the book. And at the end, there are brief biographies of each of the authors who provided stories for the book. It has three-hundred twenty pages and is soft covered.

The introduction was written by Tiphanie Yanique and Richard Gorges, both of whom wrote stories included in the book.

The first part of the book is titled Force Ripe. It contains the first five stories.

Eos and the Copper Coast features a young woman who takes extreme measures against someone who is a lover, an antagonist and a menace to the Copper Coast area. It Is the first story in the anthology and was written by Johanna Gibson. Besides writing stories, Gibson is also a poet and has read her poetry alongside the London Philharmonic.

Miles is a police detective investigating a murder that has ties to another, unsolved murder. Rich, influential people and secrets thought long buried are elements of this story, titled. An Untimely Death. This is the type of story that I like in police detective noir fiction. Even though the ending was kind of hinted at, it still was unexpected. Eugenia O'Neal wrote this story. Having held various governmental positions, she was trained as a journalist and writes both fiction and nonfiction.

Pass Through Mangrove pits one woman against another in kind of a strange way where mangroves present a person with special healing powers. The story was almost a bit too strange for me. Celeste Rita Baker is the author of this story. She writes speculative and fantasy fiction and won the 2021 World Fantasy Award for one of her stories.

In the story, Jellyfish, Arti is a young woman who has an okay job at a hotel. But everyone thinks that she's something other than who she really is. Tourists want to know her origin story and her peers think she's a spoiled little rich girl. It is an interesting story that cumulates in a possible rekindling of an old relationship by way of a long ago promise. A marketing professional in Mumbai, India, this is the first published work of fiction for Nisha Khiani Savara.

In the story, Romancing the Fish Trap, Genevieve has great plans to go to college and have a career. To get away from the fishing legacy of her family. But things take a turn or two that Genevieve never counted on. The author of this interesting but sad story is Sophia Aubin. She is a copywriter whose work covers various online, print and video material. This is her first published short story.

The second part of the book is titled Passing Through The Window. It contains the second set of five noir stories.

The Vanishing at Neltjeberg concerns the disappearance of several people. But did they disappear due to nefarious criminal elements, or some kind of otherworldly creature? The story mainly concerns one person, Lonnie Fredricks, but he isn't the only person to disappear from that beach area of Neltjeberg. Cadwell Turnball wrote this story. His novel, No Gods No Monsters, won the Lambda Literary Award for Speculitive Fiction.

A Guide to Grape Music is a tale of two sisters, Sade and Shantell, who are at odds after Sade comes back home. Their father had died and Sade didn't make it back for the funeral. Resentment abounds from Shantell, who had to care for their father while Sade was supposedly enjoying life in the U.S. This resentment escalates into a bizarre incident that is as much human drama as noir. This is from Rea Vaterpool and is her first published short story.

In the story Mine Own, Dez returns from college in Louisiana to attend his aunt Ernestine's funeral. But he soon learns that there's no money for him to go back to school. But somehow a scholarship is made available to him. But there are strings attached. As the story unfolds, there are betrayals and information unveiled that change Dez's life forever. Vince Omni wrote this story. He's a visiting professor at Lake Forest College and had stories published in several anthologies and quarterly publications.

Beach is a kind of strange story that centers around a girl who plays the steel pan drum. Her mom is a librarian and her brother is in prison. And she plays the steel pan like it is a part of her essence. I kind of got the story, but not all the way. Tiphanie Yanique is the author of this story. She teaches creative writing in the Caribbean and the U.S. Her writings have won numerous awards, including the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.

While it might not seem like it at first, American Bully is definitely a great noir tale. Janelle finally has had enough of her manipulative and abusive husband. His attempt to possibly make amends comes to a decidedly different conclusion than one might expect. This delicious tale is from Traci O'Dea, who writes poetry and is a senior lecturer at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in the British Virgin Islands.

The final part of the book is titled Hard Head and has the last five stories.

Roo might have been a spy, or something like that, at one time. Now he kind of does a few things here and there. One of his connections, Kappy, brings him a Nazi coin. This sets of a whole chain of events for the story, Off the Rock It is kind of a cool tale that has schemes within schemes and a bit of a double cross. The story is from Tobias S. Buckell, who aside from writing noir tales, has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award for his science fiction and fantasy books and stories.

What Dread Hand deals with two young sisters, whose parents disappeared during a hurricane. It is an interesting story of how the two girls, Mira and Luna, survived the aftermath of the storm, without parents guiding them. Richard Georges, the author of this story, has two highly acclaimed novels, Make Us All Islands and Giant.

The Last Sail is a tale of two lost souls, who just want to get away. Rob is an old drunk sailor with a boat almost beyond repair and such a sordid work record that no one really wants to hire him. Dorinda is a bartender at the bar that Rob frequents. A haughty glance or two, a few words here and there implying something could happen and Rob is ready to take Dorinda away with him. But life is never easy, or simple. This is a great story from Gillian Royes, whose book, Third Act Dating, has garnered a lot of praise and even spawned a popular play based on it.

Mary Magdalene Thomas sees the spirit of her great grandmother and grandfather. Mary Magdalene is an activist, and the spirit tries to give advice that's not heeded. But things aren't always what they seem, and danger and drama is around every turn. A community real estate development would displace a cemetery and this is at the heart of the story, which is titled, Interment. While not quite a ghost story, it provides some interesting interaction between Mary Magdalene and the spirit of her great grandmother. Hadiya Sewer, the author of this story, is the president of a land's rights organization, which fits right in with this story.

Bush Cat is the story that closes out this collection. Felix works at a restaurant, has a mother who's a cop, and a best friend who's coming back home. Felix also has this sexual relationship with a young woman, whose father wants her to go and stay in New York. The story builds on a set of circumstances that erupt in a final act of violence. The story is a great way to close things out as you don't know the direction of Felix's thoughts and actions until the very end. The author of the story is Raven Phillips. She has edited an poetry anthology and her writings have appeared in numerous publications.

Virgin Islands Noir is another great addition to Akashic Noir Series. Vivid locations, characters whose lives are far from normal and story lines that are never straight and narrow make this noir collection well worth reading.

Virgin Islands Noir is available now from Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Bookshop. You can also order it directly from Akashic Books at https://www.akashicbooks.com/

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© 2026 Bruce E Von Stiers