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J.B. Stevens: A Therapeutic Death
Violent Short Stories I had to sit on the review for this book to be released. Here it is at last – COVID-19 has created problems for both writers and publishers. So here we have tales of desperation, fear, and longing and desire. All of them wrapped up in stories that seem to have impossible…
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Curtis Ippolito: Burying the Newspaper Man
The place is San Diego, California, and the cop on the beach beat is Marcus Kemp. He’s got quite the record for finding stolen cars and he’s just located another one. Upon opening the trunk, Kemp finds more than he could have imagined. It’s not the man’s body that alarms him so much. It’s the…
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A Dark and Broken Heart: R.J. Ellroy
The other day found me rereading A Dark and Broken Heart (2012). That’s actually surprising as I have little time for such indulgence. This overview is from Ellroy’s website: It should have all been so easy for Vincent Madigan. Take four hundred grand from the thieves who stole it in the first place and who…
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David Whitton: Seven Down
Seven of them: Reservations, Engineering, Catering, Courtesy, Security, Management, and Systems. Seven sleeper agents at a chic hotel. They know nothing about each other. They know only about the phone call that will set them on their assigned task. Written as an interrogation of each agent in turn, we see that what starts off as…