Editing by Elizabeth

August 03, 2012

Rough Riders by Charlie Stella

The last time he had tried to flee the country and the witness protection program he had made the mistake of involving people he couldn’t trust. – Singleton/Stewart

That was ten years ago, and much to his dismay James Singleton, now Washington Stewart, is still spinning his wheels in Witness Protection. True the FBI turns a blind eye to his occasional criminal activity as long as he helps them with various sting operations, but freezing his balls off in godforsaken North Dakota isn’t exactly a fair tradeoff as far as Stewart is concerned.

So when he meets up with a Colonel from the local Air Force Base who also has intentions of fleeing the country, right after completing a drug deal and squaring things up with his cheating wife, it seems like a partnership made in heave. The Colonel agrees to help Stewart get out of the country in exchange for Stewart killing the Colonel’s wife. Good to go, right? Well…

You see, Stewart’s still holding a grudge against mobster Eddie Senta for shooting him in the face ten years ago back in New York during Stewart’s first stint in Witness Protection, and he’s not keen to leave the country until he pays Senta back for the night that left him missing an eye and facially disfigured. Knowing he can’t exactly slip across the country and do the job himself, Stewart designates the task to an underling. And that’s when the wheels start coming off the wagon. →

August 02, 2012

Whiplash River by Lou Berney

“Simple and safe. Is that what you want? How much fun would that be?” – Harrigan Quinn

Actually, simple and safe is precisely what Charles “Shake” Bouchon wants. Having lived a life of crime, including two stints in the joint and serving as a wheelman for the Armenian mob, Shake is ready to settle down. In fact, he’s managed to secure his dream, owning a restaurant in Belize.

Alas, simple and safe is not in the cards for Shake. For starters, he had to borrow money from local drug lord Baby Jesus in order to purchase the restaurant, and while Jesus may be patient and compassionate, Baby Jesus is not. He wants his money, and he wants it now. So, it certainly doesn’t help matters when Shake’s place gets shot to hell during an attempted hit on a mysterious older gentleman dining there one evening.

To make matters worse, FBI Special Agent Evelyn Holly is in town and she’d like nothing better than to get Shake under her thumb so she can force him to flip on the Armenian mob. And of course when it rains it pours, so when word of the failed hit makes it back to the people who ordered it they assume Shake is actually the intended target’s bodyguard and green light taking him out too. In fact, they send a stepped up professional to get the job done.

All of which may still have actually been manageable; after all, Shake’s been through worse (Gutshot Straight). Then his restaurant gets blown up. Turns out the original team sent to carry out the hit is lead by a spunky young woman who takes failure personally and will now stop at nothing to finish the job. With nothing left to his name but the clothes on his back, Shake turns to the mysterious older gentleman, Harrigan Quinn, for answers, and that’s when things get really complicated. →

August 02, 2012

Authors You Should Be Reading by Charlie Stella

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Rough Riders by Charlie Stella, the long-awaited sequel to his book Eddie’s World, but today am excited to welcome Charlie for a guest post, in which he has chosen to spend his time not talking about his own book, but about authors he thinks you should be reading.

Charlie Stella Amici:

First off, thanks to Elizabeth for granting me some soapbox space this fine day. Rather than yap about my latest novel (Rough Riders), I decided that today would be a good chance to put a shine on a few other authors (literary and crime and/or literary/crime). I’m in my third semester of an MFA program up at Southern New Hampshire University. I originally applied for the sake of hedging my employment bets as outsourcing continues to reduce my current job (word processing) to a memory.

Three semesters into the program, I couldn’t be happier with my decision and it has little to do with securing a future income. The reading list alone has been worth the investment. There are so many writers I hadn’t read or knew about for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I’d been a philistine most of my life. The introduction to so many new (for me) ones has been like receiving a weekly Christmas present. While I had read some of the reading list in the program, many I had not, and those I hadn’t read include authors like Alice Monro, Richard Bausch, Frederick Busch, Paul Bowles, George Saunders, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jay McInerney, etc. has added hours of pleasurable reading to my life.

Here are some writers I think everyone should read sooner or later in their lives. →

August 01, 2012

15 Seconds by Andrew Gross

You get ten days, someone once told me. Ten days in all of your life that qualify as truly “great.” – Henry Steadman

Dr. Henry Steadman is decidedly not having one of those ten days. He thought he was headed for one. A successful plastic surgeon, he’s in Jacksonville, Florida to present the keynote speech at a medical conference, with plans to sneak in a round of golf at an exclusive Jack Nicklaus designed golf course with an old college friend.

While on the way to his hotel, however, he gets stopped for running a red light and things quickly go sideways. The cop is aggressive and belligerent, going so far as to cuff Steadman and put him in the back of his patrol car. Other officers show up and bizarre questions ensue, questions that demonstrate the police clearly have mistaken Steadman for someone else. After a few very scary, tense minutes things get straightened out, the rest of the cops leave, and Steadman is told by the original cop he’s being released with just a warning.

And then, while sitting in his rental car waiting for the warning to be written, Steadman sees in the rearview mirror a car pull up alongside the officer and its driver shoot the officer in the head. As the car speeds away Steadman realizes all the cops who were just there will undoubtedly think he’s the culprit, so Steadman gives chase hoping to get enough details about the car to help the police catch the shooter. Unable to catch the car, Steadman returns to the scene only to have the police open fire on him. Panicked, he flees the scene.

When he drives to the house of his old college friend, an attorney, seeking help, Steadman is horrified to find that he has also been shot dead. Clearly something sinister is going on, but with the police inclined to shoot first and ask questions later it’s a race against the clock to see whether Steadman will be able to stay free -and alive- long enough to prove his innocence. →

July 31, 2012

Pulp Modern 3 by Alec Cizak, Editor

On the heels of the successful Pulp Modern and its follow-up, Pulp Modern 2, editor Alec Cizak has once again assembled an entertaining assortment of short stories from established authors and newcomers alike that run the gamut from crime fiction to Western to fantasy. As always with any collection, there were a few that particularly stood out for me.

“Cinnamon’s Solace” by Joseph Walker. In and out of orphanages, foster homes, and juvenile hall since before they were teens, four boys and one girl, the titular Cinnamon, survived by following two rules, the most important of which was “bone-deep loyalty to each other and nothing else.” When one of the group betrays that loyalty shortly after their eighteenth birthdays -and their first attempt at a major score- it sends the group members reeling in different directions for five years. The four who were betrayed neither forgave nor forgot during that time, however, and “Cinnamon’s Solace” is a gritty, unflinching story about betrayal and revenge.

“You’re Welcome” by Chris Rhatigan is a hard-hitting look at what stress, resentment, and a touch of madness can do to a person. Pushed to the limit by all the free-loading bums he sees around him everyday, the lead in Rhatigan’s taut tale finally decides that a man has to draw the line somewhere, so he sets his sights on one “Section 8 welfare bear” loser in particular. The story ends with a twist that will have you immediately going back and reading again from the beginning to see if Rhatigan actually did what you think he did, whereupon you’ll be giving a hat tip and a huge “Thank You” to Rhatigan for the cleverness that is “You’re Welcome”. →

July 26, 2012

Bloodman by Robert Pobi

“The only thing I can say for sure is that this sonofabitch scares me – deep-down scares me.” – Sheriff Mike Hauser

Montauk, Long Island is in the path of a storm. Hurricane Dylan is a Category 5 monster which leaves unprecedented death and destruction in its wake. It’s a hurricane of truly historic proportions… and it’s not what the residents of Montauk should really be afraid of.

Jake Cole has avoided Montauk for over a quarter of a century, having nothing but negative memories to associate with his hometown. It’s where his father, renowned painter Jacob Coleridge, a man from whom he’s deeply estranged, still lives. It’s also where Jake’s mother was murdered.

Having spent a significant portion of his life battling the demons of alcohol and drug addiction, Jake now battles monsters of a different sort as an independent contractor for the FBI. Though not artistically inclined in the literal sense, Jake can nevertheless paint an exquisite picture. One only he can see, Jake has the unique ability to recreate with disturbing, haunting accuracy every detail of a murder in his mind after viewing the scene of the crime.

Now forced to return home to sort out what to do with his father, who’s in the hospital following an accident brought on by his creeping dementia, Jake is pressed into duty by the local Sheriff’s office when the bodies of a woman and young boy are discovered in a vacant rental property. The victims were brutally beaten, then skinned alive. It’s the work of a killer Jake has encountered once before, one who has a stranglehold on Jake’s past that he must break if he’s ever to have a future. →

July 20, 2012

Night Watch by Linda Fairstein

“Working Night Watch, Coop. All the craziest shit happens on Night Watch.” – Detective Mike Chapman

The fourteenth outing in the Alexandra Cooper series finds the New York City prosecutor in Mougins, France trying to enjoy a peaceful getaway with her boyfriend, famed French restaurateur Luc Rouget. Things take a decidedly unromantic turn when, coming home late from a fancy dinner party thrown by Luc, Alex discovers a pile of bones stacked outside the door to his estate.

The discovery the following morning of a young woman’s body in a nearby pond only adds to the unpleasant atmosphere, especially as she is dressed in all white like the guests who attended the dinner party the previous evening. Going from bad to worse, Luc recognizes the woman as someone who used to work for him, and she is found to be carrying a matchbox promoting the new restaurant Luc will soon be opening in NYC.

Before Alex can even offer to help, or question Luc about the dead woman, she is summoned home to New York where a case involving a high profile arrest urgently needs her attention. In a ripped from the headlines scenario, a high ranking official with the World Economic Bureau has been arrested and charged with raping the chambermaid in his fancy hotel (think Dominique Strauss-Kahn).

Already distracted by the events in France, Alex’s efforts to prepare the witness in the assault case get even further derailed when another woman is found dead in a body of water, this time in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. Unfortunately this would not necessarily be a noteworthy event in NYC, except this woman was also carrying a matchbox promoting Luc’s NYC restaurant. In order to figure out how the cases are connected Alex is going to have to delve into the worlds of high finance and haute cuisine, where she quickly learns the rich and powerful have many secrets…and that they’d do just about anything to keep them that way. →

July 19, 2012

Capture by Roger Smith

What the hell, maybe Vernon Saul is right: the truth is just the lie you believe the most. – Nick Exley

Nick and Caroline Exley appear to be living a charmed life. Nick is a successful computer guru who’s designed a cutting edge, and very profitable, motion-capture program. And while it has been a while since her last big success, Caroline is a working author. Together with their daughter, Sunny, the Exleys live in a lavish beach house in a gated community on the South African coast.

Things are not always as they appear, of course, as is demonstrated with devastating consequences at the party thrown for Sunny’s fourth birthday. As the guests dwindle and twilight sets in, Nick finds himself on the back deck smoking weed with a friend while Caroline is inside having a tryst with her lover…both of them ignoring Sunny.

Vernon Saul is not ignoring Sunny. In fact, the former policeman turned security guard is sitting on the rocks along the edge of the ocean watching as Sunny takes her new toy sailboat down to the water. When the boat is pulled away from the shore by the current, Vernon continues to watch when Sunny goes in after the boat, only to get dragged under the icy water. And still he watches. →

July 19, 2012

Ishmael Toffee by Roger Smith

Ishmael hadn’t found him no god. Hadn’t found him nothing. Lost something, is what. Lost his taste for blood, plain and simple.

Ishmael Toffee is not a nice man. In fact, he’s about as evil as they come. “From when he was old enough to hold a knife, he’d stuck people dead.” It’s a skill, a calling even, that landed him in prison, and kept him there for 21 years as he continued to serve as an assassin for gangs even while on the inside.

Except once day he just couldn’t do it anymore. No deep revelation. No spiritual rebirth. He just ran out of steam for killing. Reached his limit. Not wanting him to become a victim himself the warden isolates Ishmael, putting him to work in the prison gardens, a place where much to his surprise Ishmael finds he has another natural calling.

When the day comes he’s deemed rehabilitated and is released, Ishmael gets a job doing the only thing he legally knows how to do, working the land. It’s a good job that he finds, tending to the grounds of a wealthy Cape Town attorney’s estate, and Ishmael has every intention of keeping his head down, going about his business, and living out his remaining years in peace and obscurity. →

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