Jihad and its Metaphors

by Eddie Vega, George Beck, Jonathan Sturak

The sword, the hood, the crimes that turn the sands of Abraham scarlet, and the weeping pain that circles the world 1,000 times before high noon, may seem to you like the video games you love to play in the dark, the kind played by self-sucking swine drunk on darkness. But look into my blue eyes and their pointy lashes and know my bullets are eternal. They shall sear like burning coal in your lower regions forever… All nine heavens shall laugh at you… I shall laugh at you… and your 72 virgins will be mine.

Noir Nation is the only mystery magazine in the world that joins international crime fiction and tattoos. Its content is often dark, hard-boiled, sometimes creepy, but because it embraces crime fiction in all its forms, readers can also enjoy the occasional humorous story and cozy mystery. Issue No. 5 explores the current conflict in Syria and Iraq from perspectives available only to fiction. It also includes interviews with former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik and exiled Iranian novelist Naïri Nahapétian, classic desert noir from Sax Rohmer, and an early detective story from Arabian Nights.

New fiction and nonfiction by George Beck, Bianca Bellová, Lauren Cahn, Doug Levy, Lindsay Moran, Andrew Scorah, Deborah Pintonelli, A.J. Sidransky, Sax Rohmer, Frank Sonderborg, Jonathan Sturak, Diane Vacca, Eddie Vega, and Barbie Wilde.

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2014

About the author

A former merchant seaman, Eddie Vega is a Cuban-born writer and journalist whose work has appeared in numerous news and literary venues, among them The Washington Post, The New York Law Journal, Parnassus, Little Havana Blues, and Cool Salsa. His poem "Translating My Grandfather's House" has become a standard reading assignment in many primary schools across the U.S. and is showcased on the Web site of the Philadelphia Historical Society. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College and Columbia University in English literature, creative writing, and journalism. He lives in New York City and currently serves as head editor of Noir Nation: International Journal of Crime Fiction.