Following Akashic's success with Moscow Noir , this new volumes explore the dark beating heart of Russia's cultural mecca. “The Russian soul is well suited to a style defined by dark, hard-edged moodiness in underground settings . . . For all sophisticated crime fiction readers.” ― Library Journal 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: Lena Eltang, Sergei Nosov, Alexander Kudriavstev, Andrei Kivinov, Julia Belomlinsky, Natalia Kurchatova, Ksenia Venglinskaya, Eugene Kogan, Anton Chizh, Vladimir Berezin, Andrei Rubanov, and others. From the introduction by Julia Goumen & Natalia Smirnova: “When you think of the most noir city in Russia, the name that springs to mind is St. Petersburg. This link between the place, its character, and the genre has become quite paradoxically the biggest challenge for the authors in this anthology, who must balance their work with the city’s rich noir tradition and at the same time transform daily criminal headlines into a literary experience. Indeed, the tradition of noir writing in St. Petersburg features the greatest names of Russian literature. Most obviously, one thinks of the nineteenth century: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Pushkin, and Nikolai Gogol . . . The origins of this rich noir tradition come from the city’s history, its urban landscape, and even the weather, as Petersburg’s climate undoubtedly affects local character . . . St. Petersburg is famous for its canals, rivers, embankments, and bridges. This romantic landscape offers poetic comparisons to Venice in Italy, but also implies fluctuation, unsteadiness, fluidity that diffuses the local character and its morals . . . The city’s inescapable anguish will seize every reader, resonating to the maddening clopping sound of the Bronze Horseman.” "Fourteen uniformly strong stories in this outstanding noir anthology devoted to Russia’s second city, St. Petersburg. With its rich if often tragic history, deep literary traditions, inspiring landscape, famous architecture, and an aging population stuffed into overcrowded ‘kommunalkas’ amid a post-Soviet decline and soaring crime rate, the city provides an ideal backdrop for crime fiction . . . The diversity of these skillfully crafted tales testifies to the vigor of contemporary Russian writing." ― Publishers Weekly NATALIA SMIRNOVA was born in 1978 in Moscow. In 2006, she cofounded the Goumen & Smirnova Literary Agency with Julia Goumen, representing Russian authors worldwide. She and Goumen coedited both  Moscow Noir  and  St. Petersburg Noir. St. Petersburg Noir Akashic Books Copyright © 2012 Akashic Books All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61775-101-1 Contents PART I: GANGSTERS, SOLDIERS & PATRIOTS....................................................15Andrei Kivinov Kupchino Training Day....................................................47Sergei Nosov Moskovsky Prospect The Sixth of June.......................................67Vadim Levental New Holland Wake Up, You're a Dead Man Now...............................91PART II: A WATERY GRAVE...................................................................105Natalia Kurchatova & Ksenia Venglinskaya Rybatskoye Peau de Chagrin.....................117Lena Eltang Drunk Harbor Drunk Harbor...................................................145Andrei Rubanov Liteyny Avenue Barely a Drop.............................................165Anna Solovey Kolomna Swift Current......................................................186PART III: CHASING GHOSTS..................................................................215Anton Chizh Haymarket Square The Nutcracker.............................................240Mikhail Lialin Lake Dolgoe Paranoia.....................................................264Pavel Krusanov Moika Embankment, 48 The Hairy Sutra.....................................292Eugene Kogan Kunstkamera A Cabinet of Curiosities.......................................305Vladimir Berezin Hotel Angleterre Hotel Angleterre......................................316 Introduction Inescapable Anguish When you think of the most noir city in Russia, the name that springs to mind is St. Petersburg. This link between the place, its character, and the genre has become quite paradoxically the biggest challenge for the authors in this anthology, who must balance their work with the city's rich noir tradition and at the same time transform daily criminal headlines into a literary experience. Indeed, the tradition of noir writing in St. Petersburg features the greatest names of Russian literature. Most obviously, one thinks of the nineteenth century: Fyodor Dostoevsky (you can hardly find a more obvious noir spirit than in Crime and Punishment 's Kolomna settings, where Raskolnikov kills an old lady with an ax), Alexander Pu