Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White

There were three of us. The oldest and I were separated by a year and two mothers who named us after our fathers. The youngest was seven years behind me. He and the oldest were brothers. We were cousins.

The oldest found trouble when the girl problems started and the bottle of Ever Clear was never far from his reach. He’d racked up a few DUI’s and even ditched his car and out peddled Johnny Law on foot a few times. Running through fields and treading water. “Like Rambo.” He once told me. He eventually out grew his wild streak, moved north and settled down.

To this day he proclaims, “I ain’t no damn yankee.”

His younger brother was an avid hunter. Was disciplined in the ways of the woods by our grandfather. Who taught him how to hunt deer, coon, rabbit, turkey and squirrel. Train a hound and site a rifle. He entered the US Army reserve out of high school. Was later drafted to serve in Iraq. Came back home, dealt with the aftermath of our grandfather’s passing. But also what he’d seen and done on a continent of sand, heat, foreign tongues and bombs shaking his being from sun up to sun down. (more…)

Snubnose Press is the new e-publishing arm of Spinetingler Magazine, and they’ve come roaring out the gate with their first offering, Speedloader.

Edited by Sandra Ruttan and Brian Lindenmuth, Speedloader is a collection of six hard hitting crime fiction stories from an impressive group of authors.

In You Dirty Rat by Nigel Bird a powerful combination of festering guilt and a quest for justice drives a soldier to take action years after a series of tragic events occurred on the battlefield.

Mori Obscura by Nik Korpon and Herniated Roots by Richard Thomas both use addiction and what its overpowering pull can do to a man as their backdrop.

Crash & Burn by Jonathan Woods is an amazingly intricate story for short fiction, one which has the plans for revenge of several players unfolding on a collision course of epic proportions.

Classic Matthew C. Funk, Cuffs is a New Orleans set tale of mistaken identity – or is it? – that starts off with a feeling of confusion which quickly develops into an increasing sense of dread.

And while those five stories are all outstanding, Plastic Soldiers by W.D. County absolutely leveled me. Told through the eyes of a kidnapped ten year old boy, Plastic Soldiers showcases both the worst and best that the human soul is capable of. County manages to pack a novel’s worth of pain and desperation and hope into five of the most compelling pages you will ever read. This was the first story of County’s that I’ve read, but it damn sure won’t be the last. You can read County’s “Dancing With Myself” interview on Nigel Bird’s blog to learn more about him.

Interesting note: Boden Steiner, who did the cover art for Speedloader, created an alternate version based on the story “Plastic Soldiers.” His vision is as powerful as the story itself.

Speedloader is available from Snubnose Press for only $0.99.

Snubnose Press has set a goal of publishing a book a month, and hot on the heels of Speedloader their second title, Harvest of Ruins by Sandra Ruttan, has just been released.

Featuring original short stories, excerpts from upcoming crime and mystery novels, as well as daily blog articles, Criminal Element is a great place for fans of crime fiction and mysteries to come together and share their love of the genres.

They’ve even let me have the floor today to talk about short stories and crime fiction: “Short Stories: Fewer Words, More Work?” So pop over, read my article (feel free to leave a comment, too), and then take some time to explore the site.

I got my Kindle as a wedding gift.

Being honest, the thing was scary. It was one of those ideas that had been drubbed into my mind for so long, I had to believe. I loved the feel, the smell, the sound of books. I loved having the weight of it in my hands. I loved the anticipation as I turned the page, waiting to find out what happens next.

So, when I stretched out on the beach chair during my honeymoon, sun beating down on me, drink in my free hand, and turned on the Kindle for the first time, I was nervous. What if money was just wasted and I hated the thing? What if I didn’t even feel like I was reading a book, but instead someone’s unfinished manuscript?

Turns out, I was wrong. I loved the thing.

I still got the same sensations, while reading. The tension was there, the desire to know what was on the next page, the constant flipping. But here’s what I didn’t expect. (more…)

Feeling a little post-holiday blues? Housebound by the Snowpocalypse? Well I’ve got something to occupy your time and cheer you up: Irregular Creatures, the new short story collection from mad genius penmonkey Chuck Wendig.

Except, a little like Benjamin in “The Auction,” I may not quite be able to sufficiently put into words how incredibly amazing the stories in this collection are.

Anyone familiar with Chuck’s always inspired, take-no-prisoners style of blogging over at TerribleMinds already knows how talented of a writer he is. I’ll do my best to convey the sheer awesomeness that is Irregular Creatures, but it’s really something you should do yourself a favor and experience firsthand. Here we go…

“Dog-Man and Cat-Bird (A Flying Cat Story)” – Seems kind of odd to call a short story epic, but this one certainly is. Joe, a struggling sculptor, gets more than a bad night’s sleep when he’s banished to the sofa one night after an argument with his wife. An injured cat shows up at the back door and, when Joe tries to shoo it away, promptly dies. Or so Joe thought: I came back to the garage, only to find that the cat had sprouted wings. This was not a possibility I had considered, nor was it a possibility I accepted upon its discovery. And yet not only does he come to accept it, but when he discovers his son is a pawn in a battle between good and evil Joe realizes that Cat-Bird is much more than a genetic freak. This is my favorite story in the collection, and it’s worth the price of admission for this one alone.

“A Radioactive Monkey” – A cautionary tale about the dangers of drinking strange concoctions, especially if done to impress a beautiful woman you barely know. This one would be right at home as a Tales From the Crypt episode.

“Product Placement”- You wouldn’t think a candy bar could have inter-dimensional ramifications, but buying a “Flix Bar” is exactly the thing that starts Donnie’s trip into a bizarre world where product placement takes on a whole new meaning. Oh, and you’ll never look a 9-volt battery quite the same way again.

“This Guy” – “Every day, I catch him before he makes it to the China Skillet… I drag him into the alleyway, and I beat him with a tire iron. Sometimes, I stab him with a kitchen knife. I do this every day. I think it’s starting to affect me.” A peek into a man’s descent into insanity, this one can be described as Groundhog Day gone murderously, insanely awry.

“Mister Muh’s Pussy Show” – “God didn’t live here. Wouldn’t even show his face lest the sin burn out his eyes.” A gaijin in Bangkok gets much more than he bargains for when he pursues a mysterious beautiful woman after seeing her perform at a sex show. Vegas may be known as “Sin City,” but it’s got nothing on Wendig’s Bangkok. [Warning: Definitely the one story of the bunch not to read if you've got any issues with profanity and/or graphic descriptions of sex.] (more…)

Well, boys and girls, Christmas is almost upon us. Hopefully you’ve got your shopping finished, presents wrapped, and are free to curl up with some festive holiday reading. And man do I have a great suggestion for my fellow lovers of crime fiction, Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime by Steve Hockensmith.

As the title suggests, the nine stories in Naughty all have a Christmas theme and involve a crime of some sort, and they are all also laced with a wicked sense of humor. And though a few characters – and a fruitcake – make appearances in more than one story, each stands on its own.

I enjoyed the entire collection from start to finish, but a few of the stories particularly stood out to me:

“Fruitcake” finds septuagenarian widow Ethel Queenan stalking the Always Sunny Trailer Park looking for a replacement for her dearly departed husband. Given that widows outnumber the widowers by about 5-to-1, competition is fierce. Ethel is therefore upset, murderously so, when virtual spring chicken (just sixty-five!) Connie Sandrelli swoops in and steals Ethel’s latest target out from under her. Evil plots involving fruitcake (recipe included) ensue. (more…)

In Block’s contribution to Best American Noir of the Century, “Like a Bone in the Throat,” we meet the cast of two, William Charles Croydon and Paul Dandridge, at Croydon’s murder trial where he is convicted of killing Dandridge’s sister and sentenced to death. In order to amuse himself while on death row Croydon begins exchanging correspondence with the misguided women who send him fan letters, manipulating them into sending him revealing photos and their darkest sexual fantasies.

Soon, however, toying with women so willing to do whatever he asks of them loses the ability to excite Croydon, so he decides to write a letter to Dandridge. When Dandridge doesn’t respond, Croydon writes him again. And again. After ignoring the letters initially, Dandridge finally can’t help himself and begins writing back. The story’s set up is told through traditional prose, but the bridge is revealed via a sampling of the letters between Croydon and Dandridge, a technique that is very effective in conveying the intensity of their exchanges.

Block’s build up to the inevitable conclusion – about which I will be vague so as not to spoil it – is deliciously slow and sweet, a perfect reflection of the deliberateness with which Croydon and Dandridge attempt to manipulate each other with nothing but words on paper – much like Block with the reader – over the course of many years. Suffice it to say, the ending of “Like a Bone in the Throat” is like a kick in the teeth.

A cautionary tale of the life changing power of both hate and forgiveness, “Like a Bone in the Throat” is truly a thing of noir beauty from one of America’s masters.

“Like A Bone in the Throat” is available for downloading at Amazon.