Wednesday, September 01, 2021
Beneath the Stains of Time: Utter Death (1952) by John Hymers
Beneath the Stains of Time: Utter Death (1952) by John Hymers: I think every long-time mystery reader has one, or more, pet tropes and trappings that draw us in like moths to a flame. Some of you might h...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Blessings, Final Girl Support Group, Man Named Doll, Dude?
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Blessings, Final Girl Support Group, M...: Reported by Garry Blessings by Anna Quindlen was our first book reviewed this week. A baby is left at the doorstep of the estate of th...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Stories from Without a Hero by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Stories from Without a Hero...: Without a Hero is a short story collection by T. Coraghessan Boyle, published in 1994. I bought this book five years ago at the annual Plan...
Short Story Wednesday Review: Crooked Roads: Crime Stories by Alec Cizak
From the massive archive…
Published
in 2015 by All Due Respect Books, Crooked Roads: Crime Stories by Alec
Cizak features fifteen previously published short stories. Published in print
and online the tales reflect flawed characters, crimes of various types, and situations
where there are no easy answers.
“The
Space Between” starts readers off with a very short tale about the
relationship, as well as the lack of one, between the cashier and the customer.
She spoke in clichés, but for the narrator, his life is also full of clichés.
The
guy known as “Bump” had never seen somebody die until Kristos put the shotgun
deep into Hector’s mouth and pulled the trigger. Now it is supposed to be
Bump’s turn to kill in “Columbus Day.” All that was supposed to happen was the
three of them, if you counted in Sophia who is about as crazy as Kristos, were
to bust into a cook house, grab the latest batch, and go back home to watch The
Vikings on Monday Night Football. At least, that had been the plan just a
couple of hours ago.
Dad
always said to never underestimate just how stupid some folks can be and then
proved it himself. Living in a trailer park, Neptune Park, isn’t that great. He
knows his girlfriend’s dad, Mr. Vaughn, is not happy at all that he is intimate
with his daughter, Missy. Sure, she might be working out her issues, but Dwayne
likes her a lot and knows the score in “No Hard Feelings.”
It
is January and the rains have come to Wilshire Boulevard. For Rex Burris, who
relies on the generosity of others, the rains are a bad thing because folks
don’t give when it rains. In “American Chivalry” Rex has a plan for the Korean wives
on the 20 bus if he can get enough space change to get on the bus in the first
place.
The
short Mexican is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though he doesn’t know
it yet as “Dumb Shit” begins. Donny and his friend, Smitty, lost their roofing
jobs to Mexican workers that worked far cheaper for the contractor, Jimbo
Pincer. Donny is mad at everyone in the world. It never is a good thing when
Donny is mad.
She’s
alone, drinking, and has a .32 in her purse. She also has a story to tell in
“Spare Change.”
Bud
Gorski has a wife he can’t make happy and a night job at Liberty Steel that
does not pay enough. The strike has not helped things at all. Ron feels
bad for him in “State Road 53” though he does not feel bad enough to stop seeing
Bud’s wife, Lynn.
Stan
Dillon does not normally go for blondes and then she walked into the bar. As a
cop, he knows a hooker when he sees one. In “Patience,” the hooker of the same name
has a friend, Finesse, and a place, if he is willing. Off duty and male, he is
definitely willing to go with her to the Ramada on Wilshire.
The
two guys that are friends of Katy’s dad showed up wearing ski masks. They gave
her a blindfold and put her in their car. She wanted to see Billy get his in
“Katy Too.”
“My
Kind Of Town” features Jenna and Tom who have a plan for their future. Tom’s
wife Maggie is not part of that plan. Neither is his gas station.
Enrique
Paz has been trailing the guy on foot for a while now in “A Matter Of Time.”
Paz was supposed to be meeting a couple of white guys from West Hollywood to
sell them some meth before this guy earned his attention. The fact went he into
a church isn’t going to save him.
Debbie
had seemed fine when she left after having drugs and sex with Ethan though she
did not tell him where she was going. In “Methamphetamine And A Shotgun” Ethan
has decided to go outside and see the day. He has also decided it is a good
idea to take his shotgun.
She
needs a payphone and that has proved to be a bit of a problem in “Little People.”
She could use her cellphone, but that would create a record. A record of the
call could link her to the guy in the trunk of her silver Lexus.
Harold
showed up early at Nicole’s place in “A Moral Majority.” He has a problem and a
sin to confess. If the congregation finds out, they won’t be happy. He needs
advice and a solution to a terrible problem he has created.
“The
Ralphs At Third And Vermont” used to exist before the riots. It burned. What
happened to Charlie, who used to carry folks groceries, is the point of this
tale that shifts back and forth in time.
The
tales in Crooked Roads: Crime Stories are all good ones.
These previously published stories feature a range of characters, emotions, and
situations that create a dark atmosphere full of vengeance and violence.
Nothing is simple in these tales whether it is the plan for survival, the
reason for the situation, or the actions by anyone involved. Published by All
Due Respect Books, the short stories contained in Crooked Roads: Crime Stories
by Alec Cizak live up the title and then some. In a number of cases, the
road is not just crooked, but pulverized into sharp channels that rip your
soul.
Crooked
Roads: Crime Stories
Alec
Cizak
http://nomoralcenter.blogspot.com/
All
Due Respect Books
http://www.allduerepectbooks.com
May
2015
ASIN: B079KX5GSW
eBook
(print format available)
160 Pages
Material
was purchased in August 2015 to read and review by way of funds in my Amazon
Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2016
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
SleuthSayers: Guest Post: Room for Real Life by James A. Hearn
SleuthSayers: Guest Post: Room for Real Life: James A. Hearn—Andrew, to his friends—first came to my attention when I found one of his stories in the slush pile for The Eyes of Texa...
Review: Razorblade Tears: A Novel by S.A. Cosby
It has been fifteen years since Ike Randolph walked out of Coldwater State Penitentiary. He changed his life and built a business. He has a good life now, but he is still a black man in America with all that entails. Cops on the doorstep does not bode well.
Their arrival means that his world has
changed forever. His son, Isiah Randolph, is dead. Murdered along with his married
partner, Derek Jenkins. The son of Buddy Lee Jenkins, who also did time in
prison. Neither father, to various levels, ever accepted the fact that his son
was gay. Now that each son is dead, each father has to face that reality with
so much left unsaid. Each father separated by race and so much more is dealing with
a bottomless pit of regret as well as smoldering rage.
As the days turn into weeks, it becomes
clear that the police are not finding out who did it. The excuse is that the
people who knew Isiah and Derek will not talk to them. That could be true. The
fact that they were gay in Virginia might be a factor as well. Maybe law
enforcement does not see them as people who matter. It is Buddy Lee that gives voice to the idea
that they unite start talking to the folks that knew them on a daily basis and
find out who killed their boys. Having given air to the smoldering rage in both
men, it is not long before they are putting the skills learned the hard way
many years ago to use in the here and now.
United in grief and suppressed rage, the
fathers are not at all alike. Their disparity extends far beyond race and class
while at the same time each is symbolic of the struggle facing America today. Yet, where it counts, love for the son and
what should have been, means they become united in the pursuit to get answers.
Answers that will not bring their boys back, but will give them at least some
shred of peace. Propelled in a hunt for some sort of justice against the people
who killed their sons, each father is forced to confront his bias and far more
in Razorblade Tears: A Novel by S.A. Cosby.
This is one of those books that my
review does not do justice. I am sure it is going to win a slew of awards. I cannot
recommend it enough. It is an incredible book that works on all levels and
keeps you thinking and feeling long after the last page.
Make sure you check out Lesa Holstine’s review.
Razorblade
Tears: A Novel
S. A. Cosby
https://www.facebook.com/blacklionking73
Flatiron Books
(Macmillan Books)
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250252708
July 2021
ASIN: B08FGVMHNG
eBook (also
available in audio and hardback)
336 Pages
With Scott’s assistance in making the Libby App work, my eBook reading copy came from the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2021
Monday, August 30, 2021
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Kissing Game by Marie Harte
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Kissing Game by Marie Harte: R eviewed by Ambrea Rena Jackson is looking for a forever kind of love. She’s a diehard romantic and she wants to find her happi...
Reads, Writes, Reviews: New Release/Guest Post: Empire's Heir by Marian L Thorpe
Reads, Writes, Reviews: New Release/Guest Post: Empire's Heir by Marian L ...: I am so excited that Marian L Thorpe's new book, the latest in her Empire's Legacy series, is released today! I have read all the ...
SleuthSayers: Where Do Characters Come From? by Steve Liskow
SleuthSayers: Where Do Characters Come From?: Last week, Barb Goffman talked about how your best characters are desperate. A character who doesn't want or need something serves no p...
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 84 Calls for Submissions in September 2021 - Paying Markets
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 84 Calls for Submissions in September 2021 - Payin...: This September there are seven dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always, eve...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Doing the Devil’s Work by Bill Loehfelm
I learned
about Bill Loehfelm through a tweet from Alafair Burke. Loehfelm is a talented
guy, writing novels and playing drums in a rock band. He wrote two stand-alone crime
novels and then created Maureen Coughlin, a cocktail waitress on Staten Island.
Coughlin moved to New Orleans about the same time as Bill Loehfelm did, where
she joined the New Orleans police force. Her adventures are documented so far
in five books.
The third one
is Doing the Devil’s Work (Sarah Crichton Books, 2015), which
received starred
reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. Coughlin has completed
her officer training and is on the patrol rotation schedule. Out alone at
night, she is sent to investigate the report of a dead body in a gang-ridden
black neighborhood. The victim she finds is all wrong for the location: a young
white man with a slashed throat. A few days later another corpse with a similar
injury turns up.
Coughlin by
rights has no place in a homicide investigation beyond reporting the discovery
and securing the scene, but she itches to help with the two related killings.
Research on the victims’ backgrounds shows links to a domestic terrorism group
which opens the door to Federal involvement. In addition the gang leader who
eluded capture in her previous case has turned up, and she is determined to
bring him in this time.
Coughlin is
still trying to find her place within the force, an outsider due to her inexperience,
her gender, and her newness to New Orleans. The pair of officers she most often
deals with encourage her to go along to get along but she’s uneasy about some
of the corners they cut. With the police force under scrutiny for corruption,
she is not eager to be found not following proper procedure. But reporting her
team mates is frowned upon too. She finds herself in an ethical quandary and in
an exquisitely written few pages she verbally tap dances through awkward
conversations laden with landmines with the pair and with her training officer,
trying not to incriminate herself in anyway or to compromise her own personal
ethics.
Loehfelm is a staggeringly gifted writer. I found myself pausing to admire a sentence, a word choice, an image. Coughlin is complicated but credible, as are the rest of the characters. I especially liked her training officer. I will be looking up the rest of the books in the series. Highly recommended.
·
Publisher: Sarah Crichton
Books (January 6, 2015)
·
Hardcover: 320 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0374298580
·
ISBN-13: 978-0374298586
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2021
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
