Known for their very good bimonthly
magazine of crime fiction (often very dark and twisted), the Thuglit folks put
together their first themed holiday collection. Thuglit Presents Cruel Yule
is an anthology of 11 twisted stories set during the holiday season. If
you are have ever considered the idea that Santa Claus was a peeping tom
pervert who stalked people long before the NSA decided to track everyone, this
is the book for you.
After a very brief introduction from
Editor Todd Robinson it is on to the stories. “The Santa Con” by Rob Hart gets
things going by way of having some Santas in full costume rob a bank. The
robbery has been timed to coincide with SantaCon in New York City where
hundreds of folks show up dressed like Saint Nick. A perfect plan destined to
fail because this is a Thuglit production. The real question is how
spectacularly wrong will it go?
Sometimes one can get nitrous oxide outside
of going to the dentist and needing a procedure. If you were lucky and at a
certain concert out west--- usually some sort of hippie jam or electronic dance
festival---- you might have come across a certain van. Led by a normal seeming
guy by the name of Chris who was clearly psycho the more time you spent around
him he had connections that would get the nitrous. The group would sell the
balloon hits that would give you a buzz. In “Christmas Morning Coming Down” by
Jordan Harper things were okay until Jimmy got stabbed and everything went
wrong out in the desert that Christmas.
Sexual harassment is the backdrop to
“Mistletoe” by Hilary Davidson. The holiday party is just an excuse for Ian Wainwright
to go after Sadie. She knew almost from her first day of work what kind of guy
he was and had managed to avoid things until now. With few options and no help
by way of HR Sadie is a millennial that will have to learn a new life skill.
A child of divorce learns mad
skills. Some of those skills in negotiation can make one a very good
arbitrator. Such a job can be lucrative as noted early on in “Letters to Santa”
by Thomas Puck. There are also consequences in a story that has a touch of the
Halloween season in it.
It is Christmas day in 1837 as
“Okeechobee” by Ed Kurtz begins. In a swamp of the same name, the 4th
infantry regiment of a 1000 men has come to quell the Creek and Seminole. While
most of the men have the killing of Indians on their mind, a soldier by the
name of Parker Getts has a more personal target in mind. Finally, after eleven
long years, Parker Getts is going to get payback. His annual Christmas Day
prayer has apparently finally been answered.
Discovered by Johnny Shaw, “Feliz
Navidead” by Brace Godfrey tells the tale of the world’s deadliest
Mexican. He is also the world’s greatest Mexican lover and a few other
things. His name is Chingón and men who go up against him die the most gruesome
deaths. He loves grenades. Women love him and can’t keep their hands off
of him. A former member of an elite team known as the Explosioners that had
battled and defeated numerous foes including Dr. Pervert’s mutant army of sex
ogres, Chingón has determined that it is time to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to
see the old gang again. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for Chingón, sex
and death are on the menu at the reunion.
The usual poker game is in play as
“The Brass Coin” by Justin Porter begins. Dre, a writer, is having a hard time
of things. His money situation is not helpful to the goal of buying a nice
present for his son. Desperate times call for desperate measures including
giving up a very special coin.
When a bodyguard by the name of “Krampus”
is driving somebody by the name of “Krissy Kringle” around in her Geo Tracker
as a story starts, you know things are going to be weird. In “A Very Blacky
Christmas” by Angel Luis Colón, Krissy wants a guy named Black Jaguar
dead. Christmas, Florida is her small town and Blacky must die. The
problem is he is crazier than she is. The town is going to be a war zone when
everything is said, burned, fried, blown up, dead, and done.
For the children of Joseph Ketler a
hard life is made worse by an abusive father. Kids playing around just before
dinner has consequences in “Fork” by Jan Conley. For some of us, this very well
done story brings back some hard memories.
No one will hear Roger Cobb sing “O
Holy Night” on Christmas morning in “Unholy Night” by Terrence McCauley. There
is no one for miles around the abandoned resort deep in the jungle. That also
means nobody is around to hear his prisoner scream. It is time for negations to
begin.
The cellar was supposed to
have a band for Christmas Eve. But, there is no music and the man known to all
as “Boo” is not a happy man. He is less happy when Caleb shows up with a lady Boo
vaguely knows. Her name is Darla and she should have way better taste in men.
Things are about to get messy in “’Twas The Night Before….” by editor and
contributor Todd Robinson.
The 11 tales included in Thuglit
Presents Cruel Yule are all dark ones that have virtually nothing in common
with the idea of goodwill to all men. Instead, bad will to all is often the
theme though there are occasional moments of humor. Dark and twisted as one
would expect from Thuglit with some mighty good noir style holiday tales.
Hopefully, this is not the last of
the themed holiday collections. After all, Valentine’s Day is coming up which
is good for a massacre or two. Then after that somebody has to slaughter all
those rabbits for Easter. Not to mention the fact that the Fourth of July
demands somebody to take an explosive firework up the rear. Heck of a way to
rob a bank. There is a lot of dark potential in holidays for Thuglit to mine.
Thuglit Presents Cruel Yule
Editor Todd Robinson
Thuglit Publishing
November 2015
ASIN: B0189UMF4G
E-Book (Paperback also available)
173 Pages
$3.99
Kevin R. Tipple ©2015
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