Karen Keskinen

A Mediterranean Noir Author

In her words:

“Noir is obsessed with moral confusion! And Mediterranean Noir in particular is charged with the endless task of unbraiding the burnished strands of evil and good, darkness and light.“

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“Reading Nordic Noir is a pleasure for many of us. The landscape colludes with the narrative. The frozen ground, low gray sky, and killing cold all moan of malevolence. Even the northern summers, delicate and tender, seem melancholy because they are so fleeting.

Meanwhile, here on the American Riviera, exuberance abounds.

If I stand on Arroyo Burro Beach and shade my eyes from the light, I might see dolphins cavorting in the surf. From my home perched high up on an ancient marine terrace, I can hear sea lions barking by day and coyotes singing at night.

So is corruption vanquished, as our tourist industry would have it? Take a closer look. At dusk, gangs of rats sip nectar from the giant Bird-of-paradise trees. Here in California, both beauty and corruption suffuse the sparkling air. One isn’t more real than the other.”

What We Did & Why

When Karen called, we had an instant rapport. Our conversation was wide-reaching and yet always easily circled back to her work and her website need. We decided together, that due to technical and hosting problems plaguing her site at the time that it would make the most sense to start fresh. And so that’s what we did.