PEOPLE
BEHAVING BADLY: A Collection of Short Mystery Stories (2015)
by John D.
Ottini
The short stories in this collection all involve crimes and criminous
behavior, and can thus be subsumed under the mystery category in its broadest
sense, but they are not the kind of puzzle stories the term “mystery” implies.
That said, they’re a lot of fun.
He tells people who ask that his name is Joe, but the reader can’t be
certain this is true. Joe’s skill is looting mailboxes for checks and credit
card statements, which he sends on to associates who will use the information
thus gleaned to loot bank accounts and sell relevant data to identity thieves. After
pulling off such a theft in Unionville, he finds a note indicating he’s been found
out, and that the sender wants to meet with him. What seem to Joe “Easy
Pickings” remains to be determined.
Now living in a retirement community, Bill Sullivan has said hello to
fellow resident “Dumpster Rose,” prior to the arrival of the sanitation truck,
three times a week for the past two weeks. Today is like another, except that
now Bill invites her to breakfast, Rose’s acceptance of which leads to
excitement and revelations, including at least one of the latter Bill could do
without.
Marco Mancini knew from age thirteen that he wanted to become a priest,
much to the pleasure of his grandmother and the displeasure of his parents. But
heed the call he did, and now serves with Father Bryan at “St. Anne’s Church in
crime-riddled Belleview parish. All those years of study and sacrifice at the
seminary didn’t prepare him for the evil he’s witnessed over the last five
years.” When an upset and very frightened young woman confesses to Father
Marco, he surprises her with a “True Confession” of his own in a potent story
that might leave readers pondering matters moral and immoral.
In “A Shoulder to Die On,” Brian Watson frequently forgets to remove
the contents of the pockets in his jeans before tossing them into the hamper,
so wife Dina makes it a point to check them before they become part of a
laundry load. When she discovers a matchbook from “the Wild Horse Club, a
singles bar which is best described as a meat market for horny souls,” she
finds a seductive note penned inside its cover. She decides to let the
discovery pass without comment to Brian, certain he’s not a cheater. But two
weeks later she finds a note to him written on hotel stationery, resulting in
confrontations which lead to catastrophic outcomes.
Experienced bartender Ace Miller has developed, from general necessity
and the specific need to retain his job, a capacity “to listen, sympathize and
keep the drinks flowing. Never offer advice unless asked to do so and never
argue with a customer.” Between Mrs. Marsalina and, especially, the very
demanding—and frequently inebriated—Ben Summerfield, he’s kept extremely busy.
While he’s all too familiar with Summerfield’s story, neither he nor
Summerfield can foresee the “Killer Karma” that’s coming.
Storefront medium Madame Simone has her latest customer initially
tagged as both well-to do and well-educated until he opens his mouth and the grammatical
errors pour out. But since he’s willing to pay her sizable fee for a reading, she’s
willing to overlook the linguistic ineptitudes of the man who says his name is
Tony. The reading starts out reasonably well, Simone having had only one
dissatisfied customer in her five years working her grift, but it’s unfortunate
she really can’t see the future or she’d know what happens when “The Auditor
Cometh.”
“Jillian met Peter in the rooftop lounge on the 20th floor of the
Markham Hotel a year ago.” They developed an on-again/off-again relationship
“based on pure unadulterated lust, great sex and large quantities of alcohol.”
But now Jillian has asked Peter to join her at the hotel lounge for what,
unbeknownst to him, is her determination to make an irrevocable break. Their
discussion takes the kind of turn Jillian couldn’t have foreseen, and a more
radical turn when Will Denton shows up and demonstrates that “Falling is the
Hardest Part.”
The nameless, highly imaginative first-person narrator of “A Matter of
Disposal” learns that eavesdropping on neighbors Monica and Howard Swartz, who
live in the apartment above his in a building with paper-thin walls and
ceilings, can have very embarrassing consequences.
Another nameless narrator relates “A Deadly Act of Kindness.” A
bone-breaker for his boss Mr. Genovese, he’s watching the home of accountant
Daniel Davis because “apparently Dan’s stupid enough to think he can siphon
funds out of Mrs. Genovese’s and some of his other clients’ accounts and get
away with it.” Davis has denied the accusation but Mr. Genovese doesn’t believe
him, so our narrator has been dispatched to send a message via the Davises’
eight-year-old daughter Molly as soon as they leave for the evening and Molly
is home with a babysitter.
When he arrives at his office at the News-Tribune very early in the morning, crime reporter Jason
Garrett finds an envelope with his name on it which was postmarked three days
earlier. The letter is from a Mildred Cruickshank, and details aspects of her
personal downfall from an opulent lifestyle to a far less substantial one—and
why. Now living in a rundown apartment complex includes Mildred’s having “Hell
to Pay” to contend with vicious juvenile delinquent sixteen-year-old neighboring
twins Randy and Teddy in a particularly potent tale.
For Donald Roberts, “Sorrow Point” is simultaneously a state of place,
a state of mind, and a state of retribution as he recounts his dysfunctional
relationship with his parents, with his fifteen-year-older brother Thom, and
with Thom’s wife Greta.
Henry Foster tries to discourage his stay-at-home wife Andrea from
watching the evening newscasts because they’re always full of grim stories. But
she does so anyway while he’s at work at “The Butcher” shop he’s inherited from
his father and grandfather. On this particular evening there’s another story
about a mass murderer of women. Mostly, however, Andrea is angry at Henry for what
she saw on the news concerning him in
this darkly comic tale.
Paul Santini is in deep financial trouble—and with the wrong people. He
owes three thousand dollars to Romano Sambucco after losing to him in a game of
pool, and—worst still—thirty-seven thousand dollars (plus interest) to crime
boss Guido Genovese, owner of the “Lucky Thirteen” casino. In the case of the
latter, Paul is given a painful warning by Genovese’s man Tony (a.k.a. the
Auditor) Deluso that he’s up against a deadline. When a lawyer named Walter
Michaels comes into his life with a fortuitous proposition, Paul figures he has
it made—if he plays his cards right….
Readers who are fans of crime stories, some of which contain macabre
twists, are advised to check out this quick entertaining read from an author
whose prose is competently wrought and whose sense of characterization is strong
and commendable. The one nit I have to pick is the one I mentioned in my
review of James Patterson’s I, Alex Cross
regarding “surprise” twists and violations thereof. Mr. Ottini has a
predilection for surprise endings in a number of the stories in People Behaving Badly, not all of which
are properly prepared for but which are less egregious than Patterson’s—if only
because Ottini is working in the shorter form. Then again, in recent years I’ve
read quite a few published short stories which violate what I was taught about
planting suggestions and implications, so this might be one of those “new
normals” we keep hearing about nowadays.
© 2018 Barry Ergang
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