INTRIGUING MYSTERY AND TIMELESS SUSPENSE
She survived a traumatic childhood, but that was only the beginning...
Delilah returns home to Venice, Kentucky, after separating herself from her family for years. Intent on rebuilding relationships, she's blindsided when she learns her abusive father is being released from prison—and heading back to Venice. Despite the emotional blow, she determines to stick it out for the sake of her grandmother.
Delilah's return has another purpose: digging into her difficult past and finding out the truth about her mother's disappearance. She never believed her father's story that Sloan Ramsey abandoned her family—leaving her children in a dangerous situation. Before she settles in or makes headway with the local sheriff about revisiting her mother’s unsolved case, Delilah becomes rattled by several encounters with people from her past. She begins to doubt that her homecoming was a good idea.
Her frustrations are compounded when her brother discourages her efforts to re-examine their mother’s case. The push-back from her family chips at her resolve, and unexpected revelations about her loved ones mount. Each new insight about her mother's life and disappearance forever changes Delilah's perceptions of the people she thought she knew.
As family ties become strained, she forges ahead—and risks her life to unearth her mother's horrifying fate. Ultimately, Delilah must decide if she will sacrifice the reputation and freedom of those she loves most to uncover the truth, because some people will do anything to keep long-buried secrets in their graves.
Not every secret can stay buried…
Kyle Reed's life as a pre-law college student gets muddled when a cold case investigator shows up to question her mom about an unsolved murder. In 1980, Marty Cox was killed in her home and the culprit was never identified. Kyle, only eight years old at the time, doesn't remember much about Marty—except her affair with Kyle's dad. Because of the affair, Gerald and Annette Reed were considered suspects. Twelve years have passed, but Kyle has rarely spoken to her mom, Annette, about Marty—or about her dad leaving the family—out of respect for Annette’s feelings. Kyle’s attempt to revisit and expand her patchwork of recollections gets no help—or encouragement—from her mother or brother. Driven by a need to make sense of her past, Kyle visits her dad's favorite old haunt, the Junkyard Lounge. The tangible reconnection with the place where her dad's affair began, prompts memories of abuse and abandonment to the surface for Kyle. As Marty's case gets revitalized—and Kyle discovers new information—suspicion around Annette intensifies. Gritty revelations threaten to destroy Kyle’s relationships, and pushing certain people too far puts Kyle’s life in jeopardy. When every little secret comes to light—including Kyle's own secrets—will she be able to live with the truth?
The state of Ohio could only escape the Akashic Noir Series for so long.
Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.
Brand-new stories by: Lee Martin, Robin Yocum, Kristen Lepionka, Craig McDonald, Chris Bournea, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Tom Barlow, Mercedes King, Daniel Best, Laura Bickle, Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Julia Keller, Khalid Moalim, and Nancy Zafris.
From the introduction by Andrew Welsh-Huggins:
Today, Columbus is an epicenter of the opioid epidemic, awash in heroin and the even deadlier fentanyl as dealers flood the city with their wares...The wealth gap in the city is growing, and Columbus is now one of the deadliest places in the state for babies trying to make it to their first birthday, even more so if their mothers are African American. These days, Columbus is a place forensic investigators are moving to. Overdoses, homicides, infant mortality: at long last, we're finally as lethal as any big American city.
In that light (and darkness) I'm pleased to present Columbus Noir, a collection of shadowy tales from the city's best storytellers set in neighborhoods across the metropolis. Sexual passion drives many of the stories, appropriate for a genre marked by protagonists striving for things out of their reach. Racism makes an appearance or two, as do those twin pillars of noir, greed and pride. Still, a deep appreciation of Columbus runs through the book as forcefully as the swath cut by the Olentangy after a couple of days of hard rain.