“Kansas City Noir” — a close-to-home edition of the Akashic Books Noir Series of geographically specific anthologies — will be the focus of an upcoming reading and book-signing at the Raven, 6 E. Seventh St.

The event is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday with “Kansas City Noir” editor Steve Paul and contributors Grace Suh, Philip Stephens and Mitch Bria.

Publishers promise tales of grit, gore and betrayal while capturing the raw truths of the human condition as lived in the heartland city famous for its jazz, barbecue and shady history.

Other contributors include Daniel Woodrell, author of “Winter’s Bone” and the recent, lauded story collection “The Outlaw Album”; Matthew Eck, author of the war novel “The Farther Shore”; veteran short-fiction writer Catherine Browder; Edgar Award-winning mystery novelists Nancy Pickard and John Lutz; and J. Malcolm Garcia, whose reporting from the war in Afghanistan informs a disturbing tale of restless angst and dislocation.