Full Dark, No Stars

Paperback

Review:

This was a pretty great collection of short stories. Two of them are movies now. I enjoyed the general themes in all the stories. Ordinary people in extrodinary situations. On an individual rating: "1922" gets 3 stars. The first half of the story was amazing. A farmer trying to keep the property that actually belongs to his wife who now wants to sell it. In desperation, he plans to murder her and have their son help him do it. All good stuff. The second half of the same story concentrates on the son's Bonnie & Clyde descent which wasn't as suspensful or interesting as the first half. "Big Driver" gets a low 3 from me. Again, the first half of the story was amazing with this woman who is violently attacked and left for dead, but the other half of the story, her getting her revenge, was a bit hard to believe at times. "Fair Extension" gets a 4 from me. It was the shortest of the stories. It's about a man who is dying from cancer. He gets a second chance, giving to him by a strange man on an empty road. This one was the darkest in my opinion, but also kept me the most engaged. As for the last story, "A Good Marriage" I'm going to give it a solid 5. The premise? What happens if one day you discover your "good" husband is a serial killer? It starts out with a lot of backstory, but once it gets going, I loved every minute of it. Overall, this is a great collection.

The Woman in Cabin 10

Ruth Ware grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer, and is the internationally bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game. She is married with two small children.


Blurb:

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

Review:

I have read Ruth Ware's previous novel, In a Dark, Dark Wood. One of the aspects I loved was the characters. An aspect I did not like was the obvious ending. I knew who the murderer was pretty early on. Now, for this novel, The Woman in Cabin 10, I still could predict the ending. It didn't bother me as much in this one. But the characters?

First, let me go over what I enjoyed. The intro was super strong. A woman who lives alone wakes up to realize there is a burglar in her house. Yikes. And her mobile is out of reach inside the purse that the burglar has. Double yikes. That was a good opening. From there on, Lo starts on this neurotic journey where her anxiety keeps inching her toward making matters worse for others and herself. I really liked her boyfriend. He was great. Then, Lo goes on a cruise for work. She is a travel journalist. And here is where I have the character problems.

Too many. Ben, the ex, was fine. Tina, the work-hungry woman, was fine as well. And the owners of the boat, Bulma and his wife. Fine, too. Everyone else? I forgot who they all were by the end of the book. Why? They didn't matter or added much to the overall story. Too many chapters were spent getting to know people who at the end of the book, meant so little. They might as well not have been introduced in the first place. Some of the crew members were fine. However, overall, the second half of the story was spent mostly on going over too many character backgrounds and how they ended up on the cabin. This almost made me give up on the book for a while, but I kept reminding myself that the start was great and maybe the pay off would be as well.

The last act returned to the excitement of the first. I was nervous for Lo. I didn't know what would happen to her or if she would make it. A lot of bad things happen, which I won't spoil, but even though she makes a few dumb mistakes, they were understandable given the dire circumstances she was in and the fact that her anxiety sometimes made it hard for her to think rationally. I liked Lo. And I liked the ending. Although, I already suspected what would happen. My suspicions were correct.

There were times where I wasn't sure if Lo was a reliable narrator. This made the novel more intricate. I also liked the headlines on certain chapters about the bodies found. That was great, too. Learning about the cruise and being in a different part of the world was awesome as well. Like I said above, what has swayed me to give this novel the same star rating as the last one, is for an aspect that I loved in the last novel but not this one: the many meaningless characters that halted the middle of the book. I just didn't care for them and at the end, they didn't matter if only to help Lo realize what her real wants in life should be. One character could have done that. We didn't need a whole ship of them with names and backgrounds. Mostly, the problem was that I was trying to keep up with them, thinking knowing all this stuff about them would pay off, it didn't. The only ones that mattered were the ones you will actually remember by the end of the book. The rest served only to give us more suspects.

One last note, I know some readers might not like the fact that Lo didn't have a big struggle with the 'bad guy' at the end, but I loved that. Her biggest foe was herself. The person who she, for me, was fighting with all novel  and the person who she needed to escape from, was that voice in her head. I loved this part the most.

Behind Closed Doors

B.A. Paris first book, Behind Closed Doors, is a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into 36 languages. It has also been optioned for a film. Her second novel, The Breakdown, is available now.


Blurb:

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance.
He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.

Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.

Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.


Review: 

Behind Closed Doors tells the story of a perfect couple that is not so perfect after all. To others, Jack and Grace had the perfect house and perfect life. Jack, a lawyer and defender of battered women, and Grace a loving dutiful wife. Perfect. Not! The man Grace married is not at all what he seemed. And a hellish journey full of fear and disbelief awaits Grace in her 'perfect' home. This novel's premise alone sold me. I was sure the delivery would be just as awesome. And sometimes, it was. Millie, Grace's sister with Down syndrome, was great. Esther was perceptive. The way it was told was spot on. Great stuff here. Now, for the not so great stuff...spoiler alert...

I was not going to give this novel four stars. Mid-way, I decided three was good enough. Why? Grace frustrated me to no end. I felt that in order to make the psycho husband smarter, she was dumbed down. It drove me insane. She had plenty of opportunities to escape. And I kept thinking of every single scenario or instance where she could've escaped. Her husband took her out to dinner dates and to friend houses. They traveled. She wasn't locked in a room all the time. So, it was incredibly frustrating when she kept trying and failing or she'd give up quickly. My levels of annoyance kept rising all novel long until the end.

That very clever ending. Not knowing, but kinda knowing. Awaiting to be told if I was right or wrong. Edge of my seat stuff. Also, Behind Closed Doors didn't keep too much from us for very long. Whenever I wondered about something, it was revealed soon after, not leaving me hanging for chapter after agonizing chapter. The suspense was what kept me turning the page. I finished the last half in one day. Hence, four stars.

Overall, this novel was quite fun,and I found myself needing to know what would happen next, which is the great mark of storytelling.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

Stephen King is the author of...you know who Stephen King is. I won't bother with the author introduction.

Synopsis: 

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.




Review:

This is another shorts collection. Some of them were awesome, some great, some okay, some boring. I will go over the stories one by one for a clearer and better view. First out of the gate:

Mile 81: 3 out of 5 stars: A good start to the collection. It centers on a car that eats people. Yup, this is a Stephen King short. I liked the characters, the children. The story has several povs but the kids are the ones who stood out the most, and how they handled their fears. A real life nightmare is happening in front of their eyes, and they might lose their parents. Maybe that's giving away too much. But that's the gist of childhood fears. Losing parents and nightmares coming to life. So that was great. However, it did take a long time to get to the good stuff.

Premium Harmony: 4 out of 5 stars. The narration on this one was awesome and beautifully done. The story was short and to the point. Simple as well. I can't say much without giving it away, but its centered on a man who smokes too much and his overweight wife. The simplicity and honesty in the simple facts of life did it for me. It reminded me of those country noirs I so adore.

Batman and Robin have an Altercation: 2 out of 5 stars: The premise to this one is sad. A son takes his elderly father, who has alzheimer, out to eat as he does every week in the same place. His father tells him the same tales. But the ending is both strong and surprising. It did, however, linger in the middle for too long with backstory. A lot of it good and needed for the conclusion. Some of it was just meh.

The Dune: 2 out of 5 stars: Again, the premise to this one is really strong. And the twist ending as well. But the middle dragged. A retired judge tells his lawyer about a dune and its secrets. I can't say much without spoiling what those secrets are.

Bad Little Kid: 3 out of 5 stars: Long short. It recounts the story about a man on death row and why he's there. His lawyer hears his story about the bad little kid that was the catalyst for the major crime committed. Its a psychological story and intriguing enough. It was a tad longer than it should have been in my opinion, but still interesting.

A Death: 2 out of 5 stars: This was one takes place in the olden times. It's about man who is going to be hanged for his terrible crime. He has not plead guilty, and there aren't any witnesses. There's little doubt and less evidence. But he is guilty by the people's court, and that's why he HAS to die. This short questions how mob mentality can sometimes influence perspective. Innocent people could die because of it, and how maybe we shouldn't question ourselves for thinking differently from the collective whole. But, maybe, just maybe we should.

The Bone Church: 1 out of 5 stars: To be honest, I don't remember this one. It didn't stick with me and it was a bit rambly. I think it was a narrative poem...

Morality: 3 out of 5 stars: Lots to chew on here. It begins with a husband and wife. They are struggling financially. The wife works for a rich man that makes her a questionable proposition. She immediately thinks of the worst, but it turns out that its not as bad as robbery or killing someone. In fact, it doesn't seem that bad at all IN comparison. She talks to her husband about doing it. They will both become rich if she does. And she does. What happens later is the downhill spiral of a flimsy couple questioning everything they've ever known about themselves. Good stuff.

Afterlife: 5 out of 5 stars: My highest rating. One of the shortest in the collection but also one of the more fascinating ones. A man dies and he is confronted by a very office-like afterlife. Because its short, I can't get into the gist of the tale without giving the whole story away. I will say it was quite an interesting little take on life and death and the choices we make and why we keep on making them.

Ur: 3 out of 5 stars: What if you received a pink Kindle in the mail that contained every book ever written--and every book never written? That's the premise. A college teacher orders a kindle to make a point to his ex girlfriend that he doesn't 'need' to just read hard copies, but the kindle he receives is very different. Out of this world even. I liked the multi-universe aspect to this one.

Herman Wouk is Still Alive: 3 our of 5 stars: Two overweight unhappy women with a ton of children go on one last fun trip together. That's one side of the story. The other is about an elderly couple remembering the good old days. What's in store for the future of these four people? A collision. I liked how the narrative showed us how the young and the old can at times feel like they have nothing left to give. It's a depressing story.

Under the Weather: 5 out of 5 stars: I saw the ending coming a mile away. I'm still giving this one five stars because the ending was not the point of the story. It was more about holding on and the lies we tell ourselves to save ourselves from insanity. This one centers around a man who pretty things up for a living--including his own reality.

Blockade Billy: 1 out of 5 stars: A meta short. The narrator is telling King the story of Billy. This one is about baseball. No matter how hard I tried to pay attention, I just couldn't. I don't even remember the ending. It was boring. And not because of all the baseball lingo, but the story itself didn't hold my attention.

Mister Yummy: 3 out of 5 stars: An elderly man in a nursing home is convinced that he will die in the next few days. How does he know? Well, Mister Yummy has come to pay him a few visits. The story explores aspects of ageing, aids, and homosexuality. And mostly, desire. Good story.

Tommy: 3 out of 5 stars: Super short. Tommy was a gay hippy in the sixties who died but remained pure to his lifestyle. "Drink to the motherfucker."

The Little Green God of Agony: 3 out of 5 stars: The title is the gist of the story. A rich man in pain hires a broke preacher to heal him. The preacher tells him about the God of Agony while the narrator, the nurse who has heard it all before, tries not to snap at both the fake preacher and the entitled old man. I like the ending to this one a lot. Sometimes what we think we know is just what we have come to expect from years of routines and complacency. It can make us detached from others and their pain.

The Bus is Another World: 4 out of 5 stars: I tend to love ones with deep introspection. This is why I liked this one. The man in this story is trying really hard to remain calm as he heads to a very important meeting that might change his life and prospects. However, life keeps getting in the way, literally, life. Tough choices have to be made. Sometimes doing the right thing for another is of little benefit to you. Do you still do it?

Obits: 4 out of 5 stars: A fun little read about how an act of spontaneity could in fact be something inherent in you. At least that's my interpretation. A struggling writer settles for writing at a TMZ type of place. He's not proud or happy with it, but he needs money and needs to get out of his parents home. It all started like a fun little joke--so he thinks--making a crude obituary of a dead artist. But what ends up happening is not so funny, and he discovers that it might have always been a part of himself. I liked the straight narrative here. No secrecy or pretty words. Just the facts.

Drunken Fireworks: 1 out of 5 stars: I'm not gonna lie. I didn't finish this story. It bored me. And if I have learned anything from Stephen King is that life is too short to spend it reading boring stuff. The narration didn't help. It's starts out with poor folks who end up with a ton of money and....

Summer Thunder: 4 out of 5 stars: The end of the world is here. A man with his dog. Another man with nothing left but warm beers. It sounds simple enough, but also scary in that it could all really happen. What made this story great to me was the simplicity of strolling around an empty landscape knowing that there isn't much left to live for.

And that's a wrap!

The Spartak Trigger

I've been meaning to read this book for a long time. Life got in the way. But I finally got to it, so here goes.

Bryce Allen was born in Atlantic Canada in the early - 1980s. He graduated from the University of King's College in 2004 with a BA in History and currently resides in the Midwestern United States. The Spartak Trigger is his first published novel.


Synopsis:


Disgraced cop and degenerate cad Shane Bishop now makes his living as a professional set-up artist, using his unique skillset to frame his clients’ enemies for various criminal offenses. When his latest job goes wrong and his mark ends up in a body bag, the ex-lawman becomes the prime suspect in a high-profile murder investigation – framed himself by a mysterious government agent. 

E-book

In order to obtain a key piece of evidence that will clear his name, Bishop is blackmailed into performing various acts of industrial espionage upon some of the world’s most powerful corporations. He soon graduates to foreign intelligence work and finds himself in Russia charged with infiltrating a radical neo-Bolshevik terrorist group known as ‘Black October’ and retrieving a microfilm they’ve obtained which contains a Soviet-era computer virus that has the power to destroy the world…wide web.



Review:

This novel is interesting on many levels, and I don't mean interesting in the sense that I can't come up with a better word, but that this one actually applies. The narrative is not typical, and that's part of the charm. At first, it takes a minute to get used to the main character arguing with the narrator, but once you adjust to that, it's quite amusing. Mostly because Shane Bishop is an asshole. I really can't come up with a better word here. Maybe dick. He is not a likable man, and he' not trying to be. He's a racist, misogynistic, lunatic with a an equally despicable job. He sets people up. He ruins lives. Like I said, he's an asshole. Not that the people's who's life he ruins are all that great, either. To quote Bishop:

"Another high-tech corporate monkey with a super-expensive severance package?"

And to hammer my point on what an asshole he is, here's another quote:

"I go to a pet store and ask the friendly salespeople all kinds of retarded questions but I don't buy anything."

He has a daughter and you want to think that might be Bishop's saving grace, but no, he's a shitty father as well, and his daughter is an unstable girl who makes terrible decisions. He does try to help her at some point. That was nice. There. That's about the only good thing about Bishop.

Now, back to the plot, Bishop gets framed. He is hunted down. He needs help. This starts the turns and twists and bends of the book. The spy part of it. He meets a lot of interesting characters who lead him in different directions. There's explosions. Action. Sex. Betrayal. Lots of fun. Read the book. Pay attention and you might not get lost:

"He begins to explain to me what the fuck is going on with this meandering, convoluted plot you've managed to tolerate thus far."

I agree with that statement. But I have to say, I enjoyed all the extra characters, the ones that die and the ones that don't. No spoilers! They add to the craziness and fast pace of the book. They come in and out of Bishop's life to briefly confound and piss him off a little more. My favorite part of the whole novel has to be Bishop's arguments with the narrator who desperately tries to keep Bishop in line with his fancy word choices and crafty omissions.

"The narrator sheepishly apologizes for what he calls a contrived coincidence"

You get the sense that Bishop is not all there in the head. He keeps getting calls wherever he is from telemarketers in all kinds of places. All the time. You get a feeling that the narrator and MC don't know what's going on and that endeared me to them and the story. For sanity's sake, you just hope it all comes to a satisfying resolution. I believe it does.

The End of the Trail

Louis Rakovich writes sometimes-fantastical literary fiction. His short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Bartleby Snopes, The Fiction Desk, Criminal Element and other places. He's inspired by authors such as Truman Capote, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Edgar Poe, and filmmakers such as David Lynch and Andrei Tarkovsky. He grew up in Jerusalem, Israel, and currently lives in NYC, where he's working on his first novel – a psychological thriller with theological undertones. You can find more stories by him at www.louisrakovich.com, or follow him on Twitter at @LouisRakovich.




Synopsis:

A barren land of salt and snow; a castle where underground paths twist and turn in endless circles and a reclusive king has not shown his face in years; a forest where few things are what they seem. An unnamed hero must navigate through these places as he takes on the task of tracking down a supposed witch, in a story that blends dream and reality, rumor and truth, danger and hope.




Review:

The End of the Trail is a novelette that has a lot going for it. It thrust you into a cold world of salt, among superstitious folks who tell wild tales and have many misconceptions. It's not a nice place. Neither is the weather. It's brutal. I loved the way I was able to feel the cold seeping through my skin as I read. Very descriptive prose. We are introduced to a nameless man, a reader, a lord, who happens to be bitter. And who can blame him? He has lost many relatives, and some of the neighbors have speculations on what his parents did with the deceased children. Would you eat your own dead kids or starve? Was that ever an option? Who knows. The salt drillers, fishermen, petty merchants, and the gossiping women of the cold have stories for everything and everyone. (This actually reminded me of the town a grew up in. Except that it was super hot instead of cold.) This is the type of land and time where survival is a way of life:.

 It was better to fall asleep to death and have your body buried by your family, than to drown in freezing water.

A year is three months of mild summer and nine months of uncompromising winter.

Rumor this and rumor that. A true fact: No one has seen the king in years. Our hero is then summoned to the castle by a thin man. He doesn't know what to expect or who he's going to see. He does meet the 'young' queen. His mission: to track a witch. There have been many rumors about this witch. None of them good. He is cautious entering the forest, the weight of the world rests on his shoulders. His mission is almost impossible to complete in such harsh conditions. But the reward of a new, warm, better life that awaits him if he succeeds is a good enough motivator to help him get through the thick of it all. He might or might not come out of the forest alive.

Like I said above, I liked the poetic way the story was told. At times I had to stop and think about a certain thought or phrase. I don't just mean the more poetic lines of thought, but what seemed like simple ones too:

She chuckled without making a sound.

These characters are nameless, and the story itself is timeless. So are the themes. Deception. Love. Danger. Courage. Honor. Sacrifice. I would have liked to have read more, to have seen our hero deal with the consequences of his decisions, or if he had any later on. It's left to our imagination. And if you really think about it, most of the story has been left to our hero to suppose about since he never really knows what awaits him or what's true or not. Snow and salt are extremely deceptive in their own right. Perfect setting for a story about how appearances can fool. The mood of the story resembles the one of the narrator and the atmosphere. Bleak. It fits well.

This tale is a decent read. And it does a good job of seamlessly merging you into the setting without having to waste time trying to ease you into it. The same can be said about the passages relating to our hero's past. It swirls around like snow drizzle but gets its point across. A good read. Beautiful and poetic.

Black Cat Mojo

Adam Howe writes the twisted fiction your mother warned you about. A British writer of fiction and screenplays, he lives in Greater London with his partner and their hellhound, Gino. Writing as Garrett Addams, his short story Jumper was chosen by Stephen King as the winner of the On Writing contest; the prize was publication in the paperback and eBook editions of On Writing, and an audience with The King, where they mostly discussed slow vs. fast zombies. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in places like Nightmare Magazine, Thuglit, Mythic Delirium, Horror Library 5, Plan B Magazine, and One Buck Horror. His second novella collection, Die Dog Or Eat The Hatchet, will be published soon by Comet Press. He is currently working on his first novel, One Tough Bastard. Tweet him at @Adam_G_Howe.



Synopsis:

Ebook copy

 In these three novellas of blackly comic crime and creature horror, you’ll go slumming with well-endowed dwarf porn stars, killer badgers, redneck mama’s boys, morbidly obese nymphomaniacs, dumbass dog-nappers, trailer trash Jesus freaks, diarrheic Jack Russell Terriers, not-so-wiseguys, mob-movie memorabilia collectors, junkie blackmailers, and giant man-eating Burmese pythons. 















Review:

Black Cat Mojo is a twisted ride down a vicious road. And that was part of the reason I enjoyed it. This is a collection of novelettes. They all have similar themes. Animals. Trailer trash. And bad luck. Let's not forget bad decisions. Our 'heroes' (I use that term very loosely here) are put in impossible situations but handle themselves as best as they know how. Not good. They are not the brightest bunch, but a lot of them have heart. There's redemption here. You root for these folks even when you know you probably shouldn't. The prose is direct and to the point. The plot is swift and unapologetic. And the characters are colorful. You can't really ask for more. But it does leave you wanting more.

Because these shorts are individual pieces,and I don't want to lump them into one long, general review, I'll go at them one by one:

OF BADGERS & PORN DWARFS:

First of all, that title alone tells you a lot of what you need to know. Rummy is a dwarfs with a huge penis. A porn actor with a drug and gambling problem. He wasn't always a fuck up. At one time, Rummy was just a a little guy with big ambition who wanted to make serious films, and not as the lead of Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Up Your Ass We Go. He gets into some financial trouble with a bookmaker, Scanlon, and his muscle, Beef, who personally wanted to make him a eunuch, or as the dwarf puts it:

Rummy suspected the promise of a blowtorch weenie roast was the only reason he'd (Beef) rolled out of bed this morning.

In order to pay for his debt, poor Rummy has to do the unthinkable--or unthinkable only because he wasn't into that stuff. This leads to a series of events that leave the dwarf fighting for his life, his sanity, and another chance to do it all over again. There are some hilarious moments in this short--probably my second favorite--and I laughed out loud at lines like the one below where the bookmaker discusses Rummy's appearance:                                            

"I didn't know you already, you told me you had progeria, I'd believe you." 

"Jesus, man, I know I look tired but--" 

Of Badgers and Porn Dwarfs stays mostly in Rummy's pov. Flashbacks to his former life add a whole set of layers to this has-been's story. Its entertainingly wicked, but it also has a lot of heart.

JESUS IN A DOG’S ASS 

Gotta love these titles. This little story weaves more characters and story lines with distinct goals and levels of aptitude. Again, not the cleverest bunch, but hilarious nonetheless. We have Hank and his wife Marsha. He's an unemployed, moviemaking wannabe, and she's a religious woman who's idea of a good day is coming come to watch American Idol with a large tube of Ben & Jerry's. They have dog name Scooter, and Scooter's ass happens to look like Jesus.

In this same town we have Poke and Hootie. Two lowlifes whose schemes only get them into trouble. Mostly Poke who is more a follower than a leader. After being released from jail again, Poke teams up with Hootie to Steal the dog a lot of the townsfolk have been worshiping. The rest is fanatic mayhem.

The characters in this one were some of my favorites. They were conniving. They all had their own agendas to get what they wanted. Marsha arguably the best at it. The rest just didn't know how to go about it, and when they tried, it all fell apart. Watching this group stumble from A to B, trying to outsmart one another with their poorly thought-out schemes was too funny. The only character worth feeling sorry for here was the dog.

FRANK, THE SNAKE, & THE SNAKE

The tale of Frankie “The Tin Man” Piscopo was my favorite. A three part story about a man with bad luck who was once an average mechanic until his shop was destroyed. He asks the wrong man for help. The Snake, a mob leader, who proves to be as slithering as the creature his nickname comes from.

Frank wrote a book about his former life. The book was named: Requiem for a Rat. That's not what Frank had in mind, but that's the shitty luck he has. Witness protection isn't all that great either. He works at a shitty garage and ends the night at a shitty bar. The wife left him. And he's old. There's nothing much to live for. It wasn't always like that for Frankie. For about six months of his life, he was a "Goodfella" or so he'd liked to believe.

I loved the many references to the mobster movies. Maybe because I'm personally a fan. I found this story the most entertaining, mostly because of Frank. He was just a poor sucker with bad luck. He was not greedy or conniving like some of the other characters in the book. He was just an unlucky smuck who never seemed to catch a break for long. When he meets Stevie, the story really starts to get fun but sad. The obsessive boy demands the impossible from Frank and because Frank has no choice, or assumes he doesn't, he goes a long with everything, hoping things will work out. But things never work out for Frank, and that large (actual) snake in that reeking trailer proves it.

THE MAD BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD'S CHARIOT OF DEATH 

Last but not least. The shortest. The bonus. I don't know what I liked more about this one. The crime or the horror. Maybe both. The real details about Ed Gein, the killer and body snatcher, were a nice sprinkle, and this story was actually based on some truth. Bunny Gibbons was an actual person. He was a funfair owner who bought Ed's car. A Ford. He called it "Ed Gein Ghoul Car". History doesn't tell us much about the man, but Adam Howe does. Like Rummy, Bunny had some serious mommy issues, and not only that, but he was a serious alcoholic. His shows didn't go the way he wanted. And he wanted to scare the reason out of people. Bunny went the extra mile to ensure this. Of course, to a large population, he was seen as a con taking advantage of a terrible situation for financial gain. Depress, he starts to drink more and sleep more until one rainy night he has a breakthrough--or so he thinks.



I love the horror and the backstory to the last one--or really all the stories. The characters were not just mindless people going about their lives reacting to their environment. These were well-fleshed out folks who tried to survive and make a living in even the most dire of circumstances. Anyone can relate to that if nothing else.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes. Do I recommend it? Yes. In short: Buy it. Read it. Share it. Because why the hell not?