Big Monty and the Lunatic Lunch Lady
by Matt Maxx

Meet fifth-grader Merlin Montgomery, AKA Big Monty. Merlin navigates between his love of astronomy and his desire to be accepted by A’lo Jenkins, the school champion of yo’ mama jokes. In Big Monty and the Lunatic Lunch Lady, Merlin discovers that Mrs. Findlehorner has created a monster out of the leftover lasagna and fish sticks to attack the ungrateful students. He and his clever, polka-dot-wearing sister, Josephine, have to figure out how to stop her! Complete with science activities and vocabulary building fun, Big Monty is sure to please any developing reader.

Included in Publishers Weekly’s Mysteries & Thrillers Adult Announcements for Spring 2020 and African-American Interest Adult Titles, 2019-2020!

"Racial, religious, and class divides are acutely observed in the 14 new stories from Kenyan writers…Crime fiction fans will find much to savor."
—Publishers Weekly

"The teeming diversity of Nairobi, a metropolis of more than 3 million people, is reflected in this anthology, illustrated by a map of the city that shows a different neighborhood location for each story, the neighborhood’s name mischievously overlaying the white silhouette of a corpse. The highlights are as diverse as the city itself."
—Kirkus Reviews

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: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Stanley Gazemba, Ngumi Kibera, Peter Kimani, Winfred Kiunga, Kinyanjui Kombani, Caroline Mose, Kevin Mwachiro, Wanjikũ wa Ngũgĩ, Faith Oneya, Makena Onjerika, Troy Onyango, J.E. Sibi-Okumu, and Rasna Warah.

From the introduction by Peter Kimani:

Nairobi Noir is an act of excavation, rediscovering the city’s ossified past and infusing life to preserve it for future generations. It is also an act of celebration, reminding readers of the brilliance of the best-known writers to emerge from this part of the world, and heralding the birth of new writers whose gifts, we can safely predict, will shine brightly in the years ahead.

The oldest writer in this anthology is eighty-one, the youngest is only twenty-four; if there is any inference one can draw from this demographic it is that this anthology offers an entire spectrum of Kenyan writing: the past, present, and future. If we can allow one extravagant claim, a collection of this nature is unprecedented in Kenya’s literary history.

Although the range of issues explored in Nairobi Noir is as diverse as its contributors, it all gestures toward a common theme. In this concrete jungle, the hunters and herders live on. As do the hunted…