Lesa's Book Critiques: A Hard Ticket Home by David Housewright

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Hard Ticket Home by David Housewright

In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange

In Reference to Murder: The winners of the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards (fo...: The winners of the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards (fondly known as the Lammys), established in 1989 to garner national visibility for LGBTQ bo...

Publisher Shutdown: Down & Out Books

 For those not on social media or have not seen the news that started spreading late yesterday...

For 15 remarkable years, Down & Out Books proudly published nearly 1,000 titles, collaborated with over 500 talented authors, and earned more than 50 prestigious awards. Today, however, we must announce the closure of our operations.

 

We extend our deepest gratitude to the gifted authors who entrusted us with their stories and to our loyal readers who brought those stories to life through their passion and support.

 

Regrettably, a sharp decline in sales since 2020 has made continued financial investment unsustainable. As a result, no further payments will be issued. In the coming weeks, all titles will be withdrawn from distribution channels, and rights will revert to their respective authors and editors in accordance with their contracts.

 

Your unwavering dedication has been the heart of our journey, and we are profoundly grateful for every moment. Thank you for being part of the Down & Out family.

Sincerely,

---E

Eric E. Campbell

Publisher, Down & Out Books

FFB Review: Charlie-316 by Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro

 

From the archive and the first book in a very good series…

 

Officer Tyler Garrett is on routine patrol on a Sunday night in East Central Spokane as Charlie-316 begins. A diverse area with an increasingly significant Russian immigrant presence, it is a quiet, but hot August night. Officer Garrett rolls along with his windows open so that he can hear the neighborhood and is looking forward to an upcoming break. Everything is as it should be until a Chrysler 300 with front end damage shoots out of a street in front of him, whips into a turn cutting off another driver, and takes off. With nearby citizens watching, Officer Tyler Garrett has no choice but to forget about his planned break and begin pursuit.

 

The pursuit is a short one as the driver soon pulls over and then quickly gets out of his car.  He begins to aggressively confront Officer Garrett before seemingly to go for a weapon. At the same time, Officer Garret’s his car window shatters and he realizes he faces a second threat from the nearby vacant house.

 

Officer Garrett has been ambushed and he reacts by firing back at both targets. He takes down the driver and then focuses his attention on the house. Despite his SWAT training and the fact he should wait for the coming backup, he charges the house fully prepared to deal with the second threat.

 

A threat he can’t find. The house is vacant with no sign of any shooter or shooters. Not only can he not find whoever was firing from the house, as backup arrives, he can’t find any sign of a weapon on or near the deceased driver. A driver that it appears was also shot in the back.

 

Any officer would know that such a situation, at best, is a career disaster. As happens in the real world all the time, in the fictional world of Charlie-316 written by Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro, such an event is a powder keg for a city and a disaster for the officer involved. In this case, an African American officer shot and killed an apparently unarmed white civilian. A public relations disaster for the police department, the mayor, and numerous others unfolds as an investigation commences into what exactly happened that night.

 

Part police procedural and part thriller, Charlie-316 by Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro is an intense read. While it clearly has a “ripped from the headlines” style to it, there are plenty of twists and turns that elevate the book far above the usual such fare. Complex with gritty multi-dimensional characters in a tale where nearly everyone has a secret agenda, Charlie-316 is one heck of a good read. 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41upYAv

 

 

 

Mr. Zafiro provided a digital ARC with no expectation of my reading it or a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019, 2025 

Guest Post: Writing “A Sign of the Times” by Tom Milani

 

Please welcome back author Tom Milani to the bog today…

 

Writing “A Sign of the Times”

by Tom Milani

Michael Bracken’s invitation to contribute to Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun: Private Eyes in the Materialistic Eighties, set the tone for the anthology: “Stories can be funny or humorous or just light-hearted. The cases probably won’t be earth-shattering.” When he asked which historical event I wanted to include in my story, I said the 1984 presidential election. Like a lot of people, I like to root for underdogs, and there were few underdogs bigger than Walter Mondale that election. For the case itself, I decided that the crime would be stolen campaign signs.

My setup was classic: Melody Murphy, a pretty young woman, walks into Steve Kahler’s office, asking for the PI’s help. At the same time, I wanted to play with the tropes. Rather than being a femme fatale, Melody is an earnest volunteer, still trying to decide when to take a stand. Rather than being a cynical PI with a bottle in the desk drawer, Kahler has been on the job barely a year, his office rent subsidized by Nunzio Vitale, his best friend and mentor.

Once I’d established the characters and the circumstances, I knew that the mystery contained two questions: Who was stealing the signs? Why were they being stolen? For Kahler, finding out who was stealing the signs was relatively straightforward. Answering the question of why required some research on my part. I read articles on the campaign and on the issues of the day.

Reagan’s reelection campaign was marked by the president’s optimism—“Morning in America” was the theme of one of his campaign ads. In contrast, Mondale promised to raise taxes. That was something to draw from, but it wasn’t enough. So, I turned to controversy, specifically the Reagan administration’s response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. In this case, the personal turned out to be political.

I hope you enjoy the story, and thanks again to Michael Bracken for the opportunity to be part of this amazing anthology.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4i10lgL

 

Tom Milani ©2025 

Tom Milani (www.tommilani.com) has published short fiction in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, Illicit Motions, Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Aerosmith, and Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir vol. 5, among other places. “Barracuda Backfire” was published in 2024 as Book 4 of Michael Bracken’s Chop Shop series of novellas. His first novel, Places That Are Gone, will be published on May 13, 2025, by Unnerving. 

Guest Post: It Don’t Come Easy by Tom Milani

 

Please welcome back author Tom Milani to the bog today…

 

It Don’t Come Easy

 

When Adam Meyer invited me to contribute to In Too Deep: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of Genesis, I was thrilled because (a) he’s a good friend and (b) he let me have the song “Misunderstanding.” The official video for that song is perfect noir: man waits by a payphone in the rain for his girlfriend to answer, eventually gives up and drives to her place, where he sees another guy emerging.

Seems like the story should write itself, right? Then how did Little Bijou enter the picture? More on that in a moment.

In my first draft, I had the woman be a high school crush of my protagonist’s, who’s back in town to solicit his help in getting rid of her husband. Never mind that this is well-trod territory (hello, James M. Cain), I pushed on. I had a couple of different endings, the only variations being who died (husband in one; protagonist and husband in the other). The murder was arranged to look like an accident. The protagonist sabotaged a stairway leading to his crush’s basement. Unfortunately, my wife (first reader with a degree in interior design) pointed out to me that stairways aren’t constructed the way I’d envisioned.

In my second draft, I decided to pursue a comic route. This time, my protagonist and the woman planned to kidnap the husband’s dog (Little Bijou), offering to trade the dog in exchange for the husband’s agreeing to walk away from their marriage. At some point, my protagonist changed his mind, deciding to keep the dog and leave the girl. Even I couldn’t stomach it.

Which led to the third draft. Here, everything changed. The high school crush became an ex-girlfriend. The protagonist had unresolved trauma of his own. I took the pain of his apparent betrayal (one misunderstanding) and his ex-girlfriend’s indifference (another misunderstanding) and increased the stakes for all the parties involved. My own misunderstanding of how easy the story would be to write led, finally, to something truer to the theme of the song, if far darker.

 Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/42htE9d

 

Tom Milani ©2025

Tom Milani (www.tommilani.com) has published short fiction in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, Illicit Motions, Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Aerosmith, and Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir vol. 5, among other places. “Barracuda Backfire” was published in 2024 as Book 4 of Michael Bracken’s Chop Shop series of novellas. His first novel, Places That Are Gone, will be published on May 13, 2025, by Unnerving.

Little Big Crimes: Burned, by Hugh Lessig

Little Big Crimes: Burned, by Hugh Lessig:  "Burned," by Hugh Lessig, in Mickey Finn 5 , edited by Michael Bracken,  Down & Out Books, 2025. This is Lessig's second ...

Short Story Wednesday Review: Mickey Finn Vol. 1: 21st Century Noir Editor Michael Bracken

With the 5^th volume in the series releasing earlier this week, it seemed to be a good time to dip into the massive archive and remind you of the read that started it all.

 

Mickey Finn Vol. 1: 21st Century Noir, edited by Michael Bracken, is a dark read as one would expect. After all, as the title makes abundantly clear, this is an anthology of noir style short stories so one does not expect sweetness and light with sunshine and flowers with flying unicorns and rainbow kisses. That being said, some of these stories are very dark and disturbing. The kind of tales where you finish the story and you need to take a break for awhile before getting back to the read.

 

After a very short introduction by Editor Michael Bracken, Ben Vincent opens things up with “Reflections of the Past.” Greg is out of jail and back in his childhood home. The house is paid for and it makes sense for Greg to live there with his mom spending her last days in a nursing home. Being back in the house is a testimony to his failures as well as a chance for a fresh start. It also made it easy for Monica Hicks to find him. It also makes it easy for the local cops.

 

Next up is “Getting Violated” by David Haggerty where Rolls Royce has yet to make it out of his cell and that has caused issues. The assembly line system to feed the inmates is going to need to find a new cog as Ritchie, aka Rolls Royce, is very much dead in his cell. Not only is there a mess to clean up, his fellow trustee, Andrew Viggoth, is an easy fall guy for the murder.

 

He's on the hunt for a scumbag that is known as “Little Johnny.” It is professional as well as deeply personal. The hunt has led him to a really bad motel in a very bad place. More than one horror lurks in the shadows outside and as well as inside the building in “Motel at the End of the World: 3 a.m.” by Trey A. Barker.

 

The job had some question marks, but Mathew was desperate. So, the ex-con took the gig in “One Way or the Other” by J. L. Abramo. Simon and Amanda had a fairly decent plan and the pay was decent. Not that those who are about to be homeless, which would result in an automatic return to prison, have very many options.

 

Somewhere a little north of Martinsville, he knew for sure they had a tail in “The Mailman” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins. The woman and her child were supposed to bring nothing personal with them. He already, knew they had blown that when the daughter brought a stuffed animal. He had checked her purse, but apparently Mom brought her cell phone. Now they have a tail and that creates multiple problems.

 

“Red Nocturne” by Anna Aptaker features a man facing a hard choice. Do his job as a cop and arrest her for murder or run away with her. He is head over heels in love with a killer.

 

Fleeing to the ledge on the outside of the building was not the brightest decision he ever made in “Better Not Look Down” by Josh Pachter. He panicked and now he is five floors above the street on a narrow ledge with cops closing in from the left and the right. How he got to this predicament is told by way of multiple flash backs.

 

Editor Michael Bracken is up next with his tale, “Final Reunion.” It has been quite a few years, but Mertz, Texas, looks pretty much the same to Gavin Wilcox as he rolls into town. Mom is less than thrilled to see him, but will feed him and let him sleep at the old house. He is in town to do a job and then he can be gone again. Mon is not the only one that wants him to go away.

 

When Connie loses it, as she has every so often since she was eight, the outcome for others is never good. In “Riptish Reds” by Joseph S. Walker, she is an adult, on parole, and doing her best not to unleash her rage on others when provoked. Some folks seem oblivious to her struggle and seem determined to flip her switch.

 

He knows how to shake money loose from folks in Lincoln City, Oregon. He can find you a high stakes companion for a fun time. He can hook you up with a serious card game for high stakes if you are interested. If you want the combo of the female companion and the card game, that is even better in “Sneaker Wave” by David H. Hendrickson.

 

Paula is drunk. That is a frequent occurrence and one of several frustrations for Davis. In 'Rough Justice” by Steve Rasnic Tem, Davis needs a break. Good thing his drug dealer is on the way as they have business to conduct.

 

A visit to the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville is never fun. It certainly is not in July 2018 in “Hard Luck Case” by James. A. Hearne. Seeing Robert Earl Stone, aka “Bobby,” on his birthday is always very hard. He made a promise to Alex Stone and he knows he failed his friend or his friend’s son would not be in prison.

 

Eddie has tracked down, Ray, his brother, as “Second Chance” by Barb Goffman begins. Separated in the foster care system many years ago, Eddie had a far better situation. Now he wants to make things better for Ray.

 

It has been a long time since Bobby Lyon was a Hollywood star. The former action hero is seen as a joke by many. He is seen as a target to rip off by others. That includes the two home invaders in “Clickbait” by Mark. R. Kehl.

 

Mick does not know the latest arrival at the club. But, he is sure the guy is trouble in “Kicks” by Steve Liskow. He isn't the only one concerned about the guy. The stranger also seems to have an unhealthy interest in the female dancer everyone knows as Baby Blue.

 

The sushi is always good and he likes the place in “Killer Sushi” by Stacy Woodson. He can vent and enjoy the food at the same time as can his military buddies. It is not like they have a lot of options in Fayetteville, North Caroline and the beer is good.

 

Being in a psychiatric place is not good in “Blood Brothers” by Mikal Trimm. Dr. Kerchoff is sort of like somebody’s Mom, but does not really understand where he is coming from on anything. At least Shane, his best friend, comes by on a fairly regular schedule. So too does one of the orderlies, but that late night visit is not one anyone wants.

 

Hope Hall is a crummy place, but it is a free place to live in “Rent Due” by Alan Orloff. The landlady, Lana Coreen, lets him live there rent free in exchange for doing an occasional odd job. Arno Woodley has a less than stellar background so Lana is sure he can do the job no problem.

He did the job and now Mr. Berry wants him to hide out at a certain place. He does so in “Last Exit Before Toll” by Hugh Lessig. Hiding out works great if no one knows where you are. Mr. Berry knows and he isn't the only one.

 

The family is on the run and the little girl is growing up too fast in “We Live Here” by Jarrett Kaufman. They are on the run for a very good reason. Now they have been found. This story has an ending I never saw coming and packs a powerful punch. It also the final story in this well-done anthology.

 

Author bios and then short previews of Rattlesnake Rodeo by Nick Kolakowski, Don't Shoot the Drummer by Jonathan Brown, and Below the Line by Steve Jankowski complete the eBook.

 

A dark and occasionally disturbing read, Mickey Finn Vol. 1: 21st Century Noir, edited by Michael Bracken, is not for all readers. These tales are very dark ones, as expected, and feature characters that are living on the edge in many different ways. A good read that showcases a number of talented crime fiction writers, it leaves the reader shaken and stirred.

 

 

Amazon Associates Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41AL81J

 

I picked this up back in December 2020 using funds in my Amazon Associate account. Since then, I have also done that for Volumes 2, 3,4, and 5 in the series. They, and many other books, are hanging out in my TBR and seriously eyeballing each other as I am way behind in my reading. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2021, 2024

Guest Post: Writing “Barstow” by Tom Milani

Please welcome SMFS list member Tom Milani to the blog today as he explains the background of his short story in the new anthology, Mickey Finn Vol. 5: 21st Century Noir. Published by Down & Out Books, the book is edited by SMFS list member Michael Bracken.

  

Writing “Barstow”

For me, the germ of a story often comes from small things. A crying waitress, an encounter with a cop. Events that in the retelling strike the listener as odd but not necessarily interesting. On a cross-country road trip with a friend, we stayed overnight in Barstow. That night, we had dinner at the hotel bar, and the next morning, we ate breakfast in the adjoining restaurant. Our waitress was having a hard time communicating with a table of customers wearing matching shirts and speaking Spanish. It wasn’t clear from where we sat what had upset her, but before long she was in tears.

Over the years, I’ve been served by a lot of waitresses, but I’d never seen one come close to crying. That memory stuck with me, so much so that when Michael Bracken issued a call for stories for volume 5 of Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, I decided to infuse mine with details from that road trip.

The waitress is there, of course, but this time, her tears are the result of a fight with her boyfriend. In my story, recently laid-off Spencer heads west from Virginia, his trip cut short when his car breaks down in Barstow. While he waits for it to be repaired, he hooks up with Emily, the crying waitress, and begins to contemplate a future with her, not realizing that her motivation for being with him is more complicated than he thinks.

There’s more. Remember the encounter with the cop I alluded to earlier? That happened to me in Indiana, and it becomes part of Spencer’s story as well. But to read about that, you’ll have to wait till next year, when volume 6 is released. 

Tom Milani ©2024

Tom Milani’s short fiction has appeared in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, Illicit Motions, and Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Aerosmith, among other places. “Barracuda Backfire” was published earlier this year as Book 4 of Michael Bracken’s Chop Shop series of novellas. His novel Places That Are Gone will be published next year by Unnerving. 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Crimes Against Nature, Editor Robert Lopresti

With an unprecedented hurricane in the Appalachian Mountains that no one could have expected and wildfires in the West and rampant deforestation in many states, no one can say that the environment and the damage caused by humans does not affect our lives. Robert Lopresti has collected and edited a set of 15 short stories all about human impact on nature. Sometimes thoughtless, sometimes deliberate, the impact of the destruction is the same.

The authors in Crimes Against Nature (Down & Out Books, 2024) are well known and recognized for their skill in crime fiction, which shows to great advantage in this assortment of mayhem. Instead of offenses against people, the misdeeds here are against the earth. Michael Bracken, Susan Breen, Sarah M. Chen, Barb Goffman, Karen Harrington, Janice Law, R.T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti, Jon McGoran, Josh Pachter, Gary Phillips, S.J. Rozan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark Stevens, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden have each contributed a story. They also have selected a conservation nonprofit to receive half of the royalties. Their chosen charity is described at the end of each story; I was glad to learn about a few groups unfamiliar to me.

The stories are as varied as the charities that will benefit from them. Some of the protagonists use their native guile to defend the environment, others are not above committing a felony for the same reason. One protagonist continued to battle for the earth’s welfare beyond the grave.

I am charmed by the number of devious old ladies here. In Chin Yong-Yun Plants a Seed, a grandmother saves her grandchildren’s school plot of carefully selected native plants and arranges for a nearby factory to be brought to account for its illegal emissions in one fell swoop. We have all had dreadful neighbors but Emily Kitchener takes drastic steps to deal with those who destroy an established native species garden in Heavenly Bamboo. Annabelle addresses the problem of the marijuana-smoking neighbors who create a second-hand smoke hazard for the nearby residents, including a cat, in Gone to Pot. A committed recycler goes to great effort to see that her apartment complex complies with the reprocessing sorting rules in The Trouble with Saving the World.

Then there are the destructive tourists who in their desire to see nature in its pristine state destroy it as they explore. Eruptions discusses a tour group scaling an active volcano in defiance of the police in beautiful Costa Rica, where the fragile habitat is being wrecked by excessive tourism. A social media darling, an influencer who films everything he does, is the subject of The Gift. This particular influencer trespasses on private beaches and encourages his followers to do the same, leaving a tsunami of trash as they go. A man bent on revenge goes after several media influencers who damage delicate ecosystems and invade protected reserves in Bad Influence.

Virgil Wounded Horse of the acclaimed novel Winter Counts is still looking out for the people on the Rose Bud reservation in Wind Spirits. When an activist comes in, agitating for trouble over the wind turbines set up on the land, Virgil steps in.

The Smart One focuses on the worst possible consequences of careless disposal of toxic materials. Scrap Heap is set in a metals recycling plant that ignored federal regulations for decades; the protagonist here is the most original I have seen in a long time. Illegal dumping of used oil is the environmental crime in Todd’s Fault, Todd is a dog for anyone who needs a dog in their reading, and Stinkwater Lake addresses the dangers of emptied oil wells left unremediated.

Firestorm describes an enterprising felon’s creation of a storage unit to preserve artwork and other valuables from the wildfires that are endemic in the West these days.

An earnest do-gooder decides to single-handedly reduce the number of meth labs polluting the groundwater, wells, and rivers in Lenny and the Lab. This is the funniest entry in the book.

Body Parts and Bathtub Rings deals with the drought in the Southwest and the people who refuse to accept that the need to conserve water is past urgent.

This is a fascinating collection of stories with as diverse a set of protagonists and plots as I can remember seeing. The annual major gift-giving season is upon us and this book would be welcomed by any crime fiction reader who also champions ecological causes. I found it informative and entertaining, and I expect they would too. Recommended.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Down & Out Books (October 6, 2024)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎294 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1643963805

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1643963808

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4i2Ud9g

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

SleuthSayers: Crimes Against Nature: Round Robin

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SleuthSayers: Happiness is a Beatles Anthology

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SleuthSayers: Daddy, Where Do Anthologies Come From?

SleuthSayers: Daddy, Where Do Anthologies Come From?: “Daddy, where do anthologies come from?” “Did you ask Mommy?” “She told me to ask you.” “Sigh. I knew you would ask this question someday, ...

Little Big Crimes: Shamu, World's Greatest Detective, by Richie Narvaez

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The First Two Pages: “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” by Kate Ellis

 The First Two Pages: “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” by Kate Ellis

Short Story Wednesday Review: Down To The River Editor Tim O’Mara

From the massive archive….

 

Down to the River, edited by Tim O’Mara, is recently released anthology from Down & Out Books. The authors in this anthology donated their stories to raise funds for “American Rivers” which is a group that helps maintain and protect the nation’s rivers and waterways. As is made clear on the cover, each story is supposed to be a crime fiction.

 

After a short introduction by Hank Phillips Ryan and a foreword by Editor Tim O’Mara, it is time for the stories. Jessie Chandler leads things off with “A Rocky Road at Interstate Park.” It is autumn in the St. Croix River Valley in Minnesota and a small group of friends arrives at Interstate Park. The state park is busy and before long the group splits up with various members going their various ways. Eventually, one of the group is alone when she witnesses things getting very heated between a couple. Unfortunately for Shay, the male of the couple has been a problem for her before and is going to be again.

 

He is a long way from Montana and is the newest member of the Tree County Sheriff’s Department. A Sergeant in the Cape Harbor Marine Unit, and stationed on the Caloosahatchee River, he is new and a target of constant criticism by his partner, Deputy Sutphin. The cold couldn’t follow him to Fort Myers, Florida, but a murderer might have done so in “A Tale of Two Rivers” by John Keyse- Walker.

 

“Blue Song, Edged in Woe” by Patricia Smith and her husband, Bruce DeSilvia, comes next with more than a hint of the paranormal. The river has been around for a very long time and knows the girl is special. The river will do what it needs to in her time of need.

 

Readers move on from the Black Stone River to another famous river in the “Bronx River Elegey” by Scott Adlerberg. The river cuts through the zoo and a certain spot holds memories all these years later. What happens in your childhood carries far forward in time to when you are a parent. It is time for one final trip to a certain spot to say hello and goodbye.

 

When you are homeless and need a secluded place to stay, the shoreline of the Agnes P. Wotherwill estate in Connecticut makes for a great spot. One does have to be careful and share it with a few other people who have also found their way here. The “Grouchy Witch” is a person to be avoided if at all possible. He does so until he can’t in “Catch and Release” by Chris Knopf.

 

It is August 2014 in Gallagher, Virginia, as “Eel’s Blood” by Frankie Y. Bailey begins. Dr. Stuart has plenty to do and that was before Ashely Pollard brought a cold case to his attention. The case dates back to 1954 and the time factor is just one of many complications.

 

Chucky should have stuck to the deal. He didn’t because he got stupid and greedy. Now he is dead in “Fifty-Fifty” by Tim O’Mara and that creates a new problem for Turkey have to deal with at the end of an already long day in Jefferson City, Missouri.

 

Eric Beetner is up next with “Fish Belly White.” Denver’s capsized boat has washed ashore. Denver, legendary for his catfishing, is missing and has been for a week now. Not only is he missing, so is his stepdaughter.

 

As the only female officer in the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Mountain Squad, Sheriff Deputy Haley Davidson has her hands full with a little 12-year-old girl who has suddenly become parentless. Her extra training on the Victim Response Team is not helping her as the little girl won’t leave her “Inheritance.” This tale by Eric Gardner packs quite a punch.

 

Charles Salzberg and “NO Good Deed” is up next and takes readers to the East River and Winter. Ralph needed a favor done and against his better judgement, the narrator agreed. Now he is out at ten at night in the freezing cold trying to pass on an envelope to somebody he has never met before at a place he has never been.

 

Next it is off to Runyon Lake in Southern Colorado by way of “Optimize Us” by Maria Kelson. Imagine a story of Fit Bit type deal on steroids and this is what you have here as technology seeks to improve relationships and remove obstacles. People can be a problem.

 

When they were kids, they hung out at the river in “Requiem for Dirty Water” by Clea Simon. You could do that back then before things got crazy. It all changed around Fenway and this is a story of the past and the way things were back then.  

 

“Tarentum Bridge” by Dana King features Ben “Doc” Dougherty eating lunch alone at a Long John Slivers and all was fine until the sirens started. He is going to have to go over and see if he can get the jumper off the bridge before he tries to take his own life.

 

You make choices in life and those choices have consequences. Those consequences often are outside our legal system. Justice can come in many forms as John B. Wren’s short story, “The Chair in The River” points out. Like the “Inheritance” did, this story also packs quite the punch in a far different way.

 

It is 1986 and the young people are on a trip to Washington, D.C., in “The Great Emancipator” by Mike Veve. They see a lot as they make a much-needed beer run.

 

The mines abuse the heck out of the Dog Paige River. Not that it is really much of a river most of the year. In “The Righter Side” by Reed Farrel Coleman, Peter William Frame does what he needs to in order to survive. Just like everyone else on both sides of the river.

 

Kyle and the narrator are about a half hour outside of Cincinnati in “The River Freezes” by M. Wallace Herron. They are there to do as TV interview with an elderly gentleman by the name of Lem Dixon. For the second time in the last sixty years, the Ohio River is about to freeze over. Lem was there before when it did that in 1917 and they want Lem to talk about how it was back then. That isn’t all he will talk about.

 

When they moved to Wichita, Kansas, they knew things would be way different. They did not know there was a serial killer at work and one that had killed at least eight times before the family moved to their new place. There was a serial killer at work and that fact and more is explained in “The Riverfest” by Julia McDermott.

 

Somebody tried to drown her in the river and, somehow, she is still alive. The water is cold and she is in real trouble in “Tonight Wasn’t Her Night to Die” by Marcie Rendon.

 

After the funeral, a walk with her friend Amy is what the narrator has in her mind. The deaths have come, one after another and each one has rocked her world. She feels so very lonely. That walk leads to a bar along the Hudson and more in “Waves” by Christina Chiu.

 

Carlos thought he had pulled it off in “Where Are the Boats?” by Puja Guha. Everything had gone to plan the last several days outside Arches National Park and no one was the wiser. Everything was fine. Then the rains set in as did the complications.

 

Elizabeth is back in Natchez on a case in “Wrath, Chapter 61” by Tom Lowe. The past haunts her as it does the current case. The Mississippi River has seen much history and will do so again.

 

Also included in the eBook version of the anthology are previews of other books from this publisher. The first two chapters of Silent Remains by Jerry Kennealy are followed by the first chapter of It’s Not My Cult! A. X. Kalinchuk and the first chapter of The Pyongyang Option by A. C. Frieden.

 

A mix of crime fiction and stories that I would classify as more literary type tales that are not crime fiction per se, Down to the River is an interesting anthology. All the stories share a common theme of the importance of a river in each tale. In some, a river or waterway, is a major character and has a distinct life of its own. In other tales, a river is more of a secondary character and is always present and in the background. In all cases, the tale is a good one and well worth your time.

 

I purchased the eBook version of this book by way of funds in my Amazon Associate account in order to read and review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019, 2023

Hawaiian Noir: COVER REVEAL: SPLINTERED LOYALTY

 Hawaiian Noir: COVER REVEAL: SPLINTERED LOYALTY

The First Two Pages: “Patterns” by Edwin Hill

 The First Two Pages: “Patterns” by Edwin Hill

Guest Post: The Idea of Cuba in Heir Apparent by Neil S. Plakcy

Please welcome back author Neil S. Plakcy to the blog today. When he was last here back in late January, he discussed how his story, "Cabbage Key," came to be in the anthology, Cupid Shot Me: Valentine Tales of Love, Mystery & Suspense. Mr. Plakcy is back today to explain the background of his tale in the Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties anthology. Edited by Mr. Michael Bracken and published by Down & Out Books, Mr. Plakcy is the sixth author in the read to appear here regarding this book.

 

The Idea of Cuba in Heir Apparent

 

When I moved to Miami in 1986, Miami Vice was in the middle of its run. I was working on the construction of a new festival marketplace in downtown Miami, and nearly every day I saw something that reminded me of the show—whether it was a taping going on as I drove past, or the iconic Brickell Avenue building with the hole carved out, or an evening out on the decaying deco streets of the beach.

I quickly learned about the Cuban flavor of Miami. Our receptionist had been born on the island and raised in Miami, and she kept us up to date on all the current telenovelas (whether we wanted to know or not.) One of our construction managers was a Juban. His grandparents were Ashkenazi Jews who hadn’t been able to emigrate to the US, so had settled for Cuba instead. He’d been born there, but his family left the island soon after Castro’s rise.

We ate lunch at a Cuban café we nicknamed “Carbon monoxide and flies,” because it was open to the street. Sometimes we got dinner at Versailles, pronounced ver-SIGH-ez, a Cuban icon in Little Havana with crystal chandeliers and a diner menu. When we were off site, we stopped at ventanas, walk-up windows serving tiny cups of strong Cuban coffee.

I learned about the Cubans who had left the island as soon as Batista fell, to preserve their wealth. Much of what we call South Beach, south of Fifth Street, consisted of decaying buildings holding those who fled the island through the port of Mariel in 1980. Then there were regular reports of rafts washing up on the shores of Miami Beach, islanders so desperate to escape that they trusted their lives to flimsy boats and homemade constructions of used automobile tires and a sheet for a sail.

So when Michael Bracken asked if I’d be interested in contributing to an anthology of stories about private eyes in the swinging sixties, I immediately thought of the Cubans I’d met and how varied their stories were.

My friend Elisa’s doctor father was an early anti-Castro activist, and he barely escaped by traveling to a medical conference in Florida in 1960. When his pregnant nineteen-year-old wife returned to their apartment after seeing him off, carrying my one-year-old friend in her arms, she discovered the apartment had been sealed off by the Cuban police. Her mother’s escape was an amazing story involving the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and a stopover in the Bahamas.

My grad school classmate Richard Blanco, the inaugural poet, says that he was conceived in Spain, born in Cuba, and raised in the US. I met people who had lost great wealth to Castro, and those who had sold everything to pay smugglers for a way out of the country.

Lincoln Road Mall (1960)

There were so many stories—which one resonated with me? I had spent time on the streets of South Beach while they were still locked in the sixties, so I felt that I knew the area. But which one could I tell? Who would my private eye be?

I wanted to understand what it was like to be gay in the middle of the 1960s counterculture. 1968 was a year of great sexual freedom and national change, from the Tet Offensive in Vietnam to the landmark Civil Rights act.

I’d heard so many stories about Miami Beach that I had to put George Clay there, in an office with a malfunctioning air conditioner, over a Chinese restaurant. I knew that as a straight-appearing Navy veteran, he’d be disdainful of an over-the-top client who looked and dressed like Liberace. But he was starved for clients, so he overcame that feeling to determine if the older man’s boyfriend was cheating on him.

That led me into the city’s Cuban connections, and a noirish plot involving wealthy emigres and a nascent plot to overthrow Castro. If you’re interested to see how it all works out, I hope you’ll read “Heir Apparent” in Groovy Gumshoes.

(And yes, the title of this essay is a nod to Wallace Stevens and “The Idea of Order at Key West.”)

 

 

Neil S. Plakcy ©2022

Neil S. Plakcy is the author of over fifty mystery and romance novels, including the best-selling golden retriever mysteries and the highly acclaimed Mahu series, a four-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. A Lefty winner, his stories have been featured in the Bouchercon anthology Florida Happens, Malice Domestic’s Murder Most Conventional and the 2022 MWA anthology Crime Hits Home and others.He is a professor of English at Broward College in South Florida, where he lives with his husband and their rambunctious golden retrievers. His website is www.mahubooks.com.