Billed as The Women of Noir Special Issue, and
edited by Lisa Douglas who also contributed a poem, Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled
is packed with stories of no nonsense women doing what they need to do to
survive. Often, survival involves lethality and doing very bad things unto
others before bad things are done to them.
The short fiction begins with “Dishes,
Dishes, Dishes” by Cindy Rosmus. The last thing she ever wanted to do was wash
dishes. The dishwasher in the place is, of course, broken so her first night on
the job starts off bad and then gets way worse.
“Ring. Buzz.” by Ann Aptaker
follows with a grocery delivery that changed everything. That delivery and
the arrival of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
Kelsey isn’t about to easily give
up the password in “Concrete Blond” by Susan Kuchinskas. Tommy is what he is so
she knows he is doing all this because of her baby sister, Lisa. Game on as he
can be played.
While the three preceding stories were
in the “Quick & Dirty Flash” section, the next story is all by itself in
the ‘Micro Flash” section. “A Shot at Being Ordinary” by Susan Cornford. A tale
of less than fifty words, it defied being described. To do so, in any way,
would ruin a power tale.
The works of nine authors make up
the following “Sharp & Deadly Fiction” section that opens with a tale by
Tawny Pike. Her story, “Death Dance in Jacksonino County” features a couple of sleaze
ball cops of the lowest order, drugs, and a mom who is doing her best to keep
her and her kids surviving. Good thing she always has her knife on the leather thong
around her neck. Just part of her plan.
She should have been left alone at
her elderly age. Left to live in pace as she was not real threat to anyone. If
somebody was going to mess with her, that person should have picked a better
tool. In “Strong- armed and Dangerous” by Charlotte Platt, somebody sent
the wrong guy to kill Ida Brown. She knew how to handle the young punk because
she had a lifetime of experience. Now somebody in charge has become a problem
and it is time to track the problem back to where it started.
Not everything the woman wears to
entertain the kids is fake. In “Priscilla, the Amazing Dancing Pig” by Sarah
Jilek, the paying gig was supposed to be the typical kids birthday party. Then the
father of the birthday girl took things way too far as the man wanted a
souvenir. Now she wants one, maybe more, as well.
Mom is not going to make the same
mistakes with her youngest daughter. In “Influencers” by Sarah M. Chen, Mom
is still mourning the loss of Lil Bei-Bei who was gunned down at the
Hollywood Palladium on Sunset. The hip hop game is a tough one, but Mom is working
on getting her seven year old daughter, Bhad Mei, ready now. She is going to be
an even bigger, brighter star than her deceased older sister.
Paige Kaneko knows exactly what her
brother is and has frequently saved him from a crisis. In “Mayhem & Mahalo”
by Bethany Maines he needs her help again. And this time it is bad enough she
is going to have to put on a bra. She does not like doing that one damn bit.
Blood, dead guys, and a living guy tied up in a bathtub is just some of what is
going on thanks to Benjiro latest crisis.
She isn’t going to make it through
the night if she can’t outwit the loan shark, Slater. She would not be
playing cards for her life in the old hotel casino in Vegas if the other card
game a few days earlier had gone right for her and her boyfriend, Carl. It
didn’t and now she has a bad hand in more ways than one in “Crazy Eights” by
Serena Jayne.
“A Sinner in the Hands of an Angry
God” by Carmen Jaramillo follows with a tale where the past has come back to haunt
her via a blackmail/extortion attempt. The woman a few folks knew as ‘Freya” isn’t
the same person she was twenty-five years ago. Because of the man who goes by
the name “Gespenst” and her own personal pain, she did things back then that
must never see the light of day. Her new life would be destroyed and a lawyer
sending a cease and desist letter is not going to solve her problem.
Ashton Talley is working hard,
sexually speaking, and getting nowhere in "Mouthbreather” by E. F. Sweetman. He
isn’t any better as a businessman or a boss and Kristi knows it. She just had
no idea how little he thought of her until she stayed late one night and he and
his buddies came back after a night of heavy drinking. She knows the insurance
business and the company will go under if she does not take charge and fix the
problem.
She goes by various names and she
knows she should have gotten rid of the phone after the last job. She only kept
it because Fred Mikes said he might have another job for her. Instead of
working for him again, he went and told Cynthia Samson about her. Samson is
willing to pay very well in order to have something of hers taken back from her
soon to be ex-husband. A dangerous man that she is in hiding from and wants her
help in “Hardball” by Lissa Marie Redmond. This story also brings the fiction
to a close.
Published last November, the thirteen
tales included in Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled are occasionally graphic in terms
of dialogue and scene descriptions as one would expect from a crime
fiction noir read. In every case women are doing what they need to do to
survive in either a world they created or one that was thrust upon them. Consequences of failure are often lethal as are the consequences of freedom.
Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled is certainly not for everyone. If you prefer your violence off
page, prefer women to drink tea and solve murders while possibly knitting or
running small bookshops, this is not the read for you. If you like violence and
alcohol and getting even, regardless of your gender, this is the read for you.
Just remember that plans, no matter how good they are, often don’t work out. Or
maybe they do as none of us really have any control over anything.
Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled
Editor Lisa Douglass
Caledonia Press
November 2018
ISBN# 0998765082
eBook (also available in paperback
format)
174 Pages
$2.99
Material was purchased to read and
review last November.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2019
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