Scorched Noir: A Collection Of
Southwestern Crime Tales
features eight previously published tales by Yuma, Arizona native Garnett
Elliott. That harsh desert landscape with limited opportunities is the setting
for these tales. These short stories are set in Yuma, Arizona or towns like it contain
a couple of consistent themes that become clear as one reads through the book.
It opens with “Trailer de Fuegeo.”
Corrections Officers need somewhere to go to blow off some steam after work.
They tend to go out to a certain spot in the nearby desert to drink, smoke, and
trade stories. One guard stands out in the battle to keep the inmates in line.
His name is Tench and he has done fifteen years of guard duty in a lot of bad
places from Texas to Arizona. He has always done what needed to be done and
tonight will be no exception.
“Somerton Sangre” features a man
named Jesus Vega. Known to do some questionable things when necessary, Mrs.
Sandoval wants him to find out who killed her brother. Her brother was killed
and dismembered just after he illegally crossed the border. While the way he
was killed would indicate drug runners, his sister is sure he was not into
that. She has the money to pay for Vega
to look into things and find out who killed him. To do that Vega is going to have
to cross into Mexico and try to find the people who transported her brother
across.
Jesus Vega is also very much
involved in the next story titled “Jesus Contra las Brujas Plasticas” or “Jesus
Versus the Plastic Witches. “ While working for a witch lady, Dona Cruz, he is
assigned the task of checking out a new and nearby competitor. He needs the
money and is used to doing dirty deed for her. Not because of her supposed
powers, but the fact that he needs the money she is willing to spend. He does
not fear the alleged power of those who claim to see the future, cast spells,
and the like. Maybe he should.
The landscape and everything on and
in it cooks under the summer sun in Arizona. That certainly is true of those
storage places scattered around the area. It was brutally hot when Motorcycle
Officer Ray Satoshi and Robert Opp wheeled into a storage lot run by Joe
Pender. They are looking for a guy who shot and killed a bouncer at the nearby
gentleman’s club before getting away with forty three grand.
People are going out into the desert
to commit suicide at a certain rock landmark .Why they are doing that and
whether they can be stopped are just two of the issues Shari faces in “Bad Night
at Burning Rock.”
In “Snowflake” he has been waiting
for the stripper to show up for food at the IHOP when she got off work down the
street. Dwayne knows by the way she dances just how class Lisa is. He also
figures he can do something to help her career as he is a social media
specialist.
“The Greatest Generation” are the
targets of Vonda and her partner. They pose as home health care workers and
steal everything they can to fund their travel and drugs. They figure it is
their right because the seniors took everything with no though to the future. With
their next score in sight it is time for Vonda and her partner to to clean up
as fast as they can and do what needs to be done to claim their latest prize.
The three women, all with the first
name of Debbie, work the ER at the local hospital. “The Darkest of the Debbies”
works the job to do what has to be done to keep home together. Way easier said
than done.
The eight short stories of Scorched
Noir: A Collection Of Southwestern Crime Tales feature complicated reads
of multifaceted characters often doing what has to be done to survive. Nothing
is right or wrong when one is doing what has to be done to survive. Drugs and
crime, like the sun and the desert, are always present in these tales of people
coping with what they have and what they can do each day. Scorched Noir: A Collection Of
Southwestern Crime Tales by Garnett Elliott may not make you feel
better about yourself, but it might make you feel more appreciative of your
working air conditioning as well as some of the life choices you had to make
along the way.
Scorched Noir: A Collection Of
Southwestern Crime Tales
Garnett Elliott
Beat To A Pulp Press
June 2015
ASIN:
B00ZNZP7FA
E-Book
90
Pages
$1.99
Material
supplied by the publisher in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2015
Posts
2 comments:
That's a very complete write-up for Scorched, Kevin. Thanks muchas. And yes, I am damn grateful for air conditioning in the Southwest, especially with August coming!
I would have been dead long ago if not for AC. Enjoyed the book.
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