Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir . Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Brand new stories by: Jerome Charyn, Lawrence Block, Suzanne Chazin, Terrence Cheng, Pat Picciarelli, Abraham Rodriguez, Kevin Baker, S.J. Rozan, Steven Torres, and others. From the introduction by S.J. Rozan: You can’t pack so much yearning, so many people, such a range of everything—income, ethnicity, occupation, land use—into a single borough, even one as big as the Bronx, and not force the kind of friction that slices and sparks. The Bronx has been the home to big-time gangsters—from the Jewish organized crime of Murder Inc. and the Italian Cosa Nostra to the equally organized drug-dealing gangstas of today. The Third Avenue El was a Hopperesque symbol of urban hopelessness; it’s been demolished, but trains on other lines still rumble through the roofscapes of the borough. Prosperity is increasing and drug use is decreasing, but the public housing projects in the Bronx are some of the nation’s largest and remain some of its toughest. Many places in the Bronx seem hidden in shadows, just as the Bronx itself is in Manhattan’s shadow. And dark stories develop best in shadows . . . S.J. ROZAN was born and raised in the Bronx and is a life-long New Yorker. She’s the author of eight novels in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, the stand-alones  Absent Friends  and  In This Rain , and is the editor of  Bronx Noir . Her book  Winter and Night  won the Edgar, Nero, and Macavity Awards for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Shamus, Anthony, and Barry Awards. Two of her previous books have won the Shamus for Best Novel and another won the Anthony for Best Novel. Her most recent novel is The Mayors of New York. Bronx Noir Akashic Books Copyright © 2007 Akashic Books All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-933354-25-5 Contents IntroductionPART I: BRING IT ON HOME...............................................................19Jerome Charyn White Trash Claremont/Concourse........................................26Terrence Cheng Gold Mountain Lehman College..........................................52Joanne Dobson Hey, Girlie Sedgwick Avenue............................................66Rita Lakin The Woman Who Hated the Bronx Elder AvenuePART II: IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT.....................................................87Lawrence Block Rude Awakening Riverdale..............................................97Suzanne Chazin Burnout Jerome Avenue.................................................114Kevin Baker The Cheers Like Waves Yankee Stadium.....................................136Abraham Rodriguez, Jr. Jaguar South BronxPART III: ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT.......................................................153Steven Torres Early Fall..............................................................177S.J. Rozan Hothouse Botanical Garden.................................................191Thomas Bentil Lost and Found Rikers Island...........................................206Marlon James Look What Love Is Doing to Me WilliamsbridgePART IV: THE WANDERER..................................................................221Sandra Kitt Home Sweet Home City Island..............................................242Robert J. Hughes A Visit to St. Nick's Fordham Road..................................273Miles Marshall Lewis Numbers Up Baychester...........................................289Joseph Wallace The Big Five Bronx ZooPART V: ALL SHOOK UP...................................................................313Ed Dee Ernie K.'s Gelding Van Cortlandt Park.........................................328Patrick W. Picciarelli The Prince of Arthur Avenue Arthur Avenue.....................342Thomas Adcock You Want I Should Whack Monkey Boy? Courthouse..........................362About the Contributors Introduction Welcome to Da Bronx The Bronx is a wonderful place. "Wonderful" in the literal sense: full of wonders. Wonders everyone's heard of, like the Bronx Zoo and Yankee Stadium; wonders that make presidents cry, as Jimmy Carter famously did in 1977, standing in the rubble of the South Bronx; and wonders only we Bronxites seem to know about, like Wave Hill, City Island, and Arthur Avenue. People are always discovering the Bronx. Native Americans, of course, discovered it first, fishing and hunting in its woods and streams long before Europe discovered the New World. The first European to settle north of the Harlem River was one Jonas Bronck, in 1639. Jonas and his family worked part of his huge swath of land and leased the rest to other farmers. Everyone in the area gave their address as "the Broncks' farm," giving rise to the "the" and eventually the "x." (There-we're giving you not only great stories, but a party trick fact.) And development and industrialization, sparked by the railroad in the ear