Dark matters

San Juan Noir, edited by Mayra Santos-Febres, is Akashic Books’ latest noir anthology ($15.95). Janette Becerra’s “Death on the Scaffold” opens the collection, leaving behind the fantasy of blue oceans, sandy beaches and all-inclusive resorts. Travel through Puerto Rico’s capital city into its barrios, banking and colonial districts, and visit an island transformed by the 2008 financial crisis. Hato Rey, El Condado and Old San Juan are destinations. Immigrants, sex workers, hit men and children are the characters you’ll meet. The protagonists are often as guilty as the perpetrators as in Manuel A. Meléndez’s “A Killer Among Us.” These are not stories for the timid.