Review: "Thuglit: Issue Nine" Edited by Todd Robinson

Thuglit: Issue Nine opens with “How to Make the Perfect New York Bagel” by Rob W. Hart. Mikey, like his father before him, makes bagels either plain or with salt. While the neighborhood on the Lower East Side is changing around him, he isn’t about to change the way he makes bagels or the way he handles his business. At his age he isn’t about to change in a story that is as much about the past as it is about the present. Sometimes old school is still the best way no matter how things are done now.

“Feeling Good” by Max Sheridan comes next featuring a guy who has his life and business all figured out. Unlike Mikey in the previous story, this guy is firmly in control professionally and personally and made calculated choices to get ahead in the world of publishing. He was able to do that because he has a clear idea what will sell in today’s market. He does what he has to do and that starts with drawing you in.

Romantic relationships that don’t work out well are a constant theme on daytime talk shows and, of course, in crime fiction.  That is certainly the case in the next two stories starting off with “Visitor at Copenhagen Street” by Jen Conley. She smells the hash as soon as she opens the door at her London apartment. Clearly, her boyfriend, Colin, has a guest and she knows the role she is expected to play. Colin has certain expectations and the 23 year old Amy knows to earn his love and good graces she best follow his expectations and plans as she is far from home.

Jason is sure his wife is cheating on him. He wants to hire a private detective in “The Bottom of My Heart” by Adam McFarlane. Natalie is the wife in question in a case full of pain and more questions than answers.

Dispensing justice is often necessary and one does not look to law enforcement to do it. You take care of your own and that is readily apparent in the next several stories which begin with “Redline” by Eddie McNamara. Tommy “Devs” Riordan runs the neighborhood his way building off a hard earned reputation. He wants his street team of young adolescents to do what he says that summer of 1989 during the bike wars.

Nathan Rhodes isn’t doing very well these days in “Catch and Release” by Harry St. John. While things have clearly taken a toll on him based on his physical appearance e, he still has not suffered enough for what he did. Others involved have not suffered enough either which results in a reunion of sorts.

“She Died With Grace” by Stuart Smith and Stephen Zippilli follows with a family on the run and looking for a specific isolated cabin. Like the characters in the proceeding story they can’t run from the threat or their shared past.

Selling weed in the summer of 1976 is what started things sideways in “Pimp Game ’76” by R. J. Martin Jr. Tony King got into the pimp game because of what he started learning that summer. One always has to respect the game no matter what it is, but especially the pimp game.

As always in each Thuglit edition, the tales presented here are solidly good ones featuring characters on the edge in so many ways. Some by deliberate choice, others by circumstance, the characters involved will not make you feel good about humanity in general. If you learn nothing else from reading this latest edition, understand that you can’t run from your past and you always better respect the game.

Thuglit: Issue Nine

Edited by Todd Robinson

Thuglit Publishing

http://www.thuglit.com

ISBN-10: 1494861399

December 2013

E-Book (also available in paperback)

151 pages

$0.99

Material was purchased to read/review using funds thankfully available to me via the Amazon Associate program.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014