“Daddy, what’s that gunk under your fingernails?” “It’s from the shop.” “The shop makes your hands black. That stuff is red.” Kids. They notice everything. “Well, this time it made my hands red. Now scram, I’m trying to shave.” The kid leaves, just to be replaced by the wife. “You haven’t taken your medication in […]
The bloated gypsy stamped around like a hippo with a hard-on. Twenty-four stone of cheap booze and fast food, he pumped his fists like a TV wrestler, hacked a ball of phlegm onto the concrete floor. His cocaine-gaze bored into me like maggots in dead flesh. He dragged a thumb across his tattooed throat. “I’ll […]
“Twelve years of marriage,” Dave said, “and this is what I get.” Shawn clasped a sympathetic hand on his friend’s shoulder, passing along the bottle of Jack. The two men sat in the front seat of Shawn’s work truck, in the parking lot of the Waffle House, next door to the Shady Palms, where April’s […]
I’ve been meaning for the longest time to write up a post about criminally unknown (in the US at least) thriller author Jack Kerley, but something always seemed to get in the way. So, when Ron and the gang at Shotgun Honey asked if I was interested in doing a post for their new Wednesday […]
His face hit the pavement hard. He tried to remember what just happened, but his thoughts wouldn’t sync. The pain in his head felt like he’d been whacked by the claw end of a hammer, only he remembered a loud blast. Maybe a gunshot. Blood was pooling on the ground by his eye. He watched […]
Frankie Lewis wasn’t the strangest corpse I’d ever seen. Only in the top 10. Frankie lay curled fetal on his den floor. Eyes bugged. Mouth smiling. Fingers screening his face and two holes through his chest you could house a Chihuahua in. “Something’s wrong with this picture,” Homicide Detective Andsell said, frowning on Frankie with […]
On March 24, 1984, Dave Bergman fouled off seven pitches in a row. The Tigers had two men on, two men out and it was the bottom of the eleventh inning. Bergman represented the winning run. Not just the go ahead run, the winning run. Finally, on the thirteenth pitch and after being at the […]
“You’re not cool with this?” “Do I look fucking cool with it?” Don curls his lip, bites down. A pained look. “Beer?” “Fuck off.” Frowns. “Good stuff . . . Stella.” I raise myself from the cowhide chair, cross the floor. The first thing that comes to hand is the purple lava lamp. It smashes […]
The diner was empty apart from the guy in the corner. ‘I don’t suppose you have a light?’, he said, walking over. ‘Sure’, Patty said, flicking her Zippo, hiding the stain, snuffing it out. ‘Spare a cigarette?’ ‘Oh yeah.’ The waitress looked at them out of the corner of her eye, curling her lip. Patty […]
“Oh my God, there’s a tooth in my corn nuts,” Casey said. I glanced at the contents of her cupped palm. “It’s not a tooth, dipshit.” “It’s a goddammed tooth, Ray. Take a closer look.” I poked at the kernels. “They’re corn nuts, Casey. They all kinda look like—“ I held one up and examined […]
I had just gotten to BoucherCon (what another BCon story?) in the middle of panels, just before lunch, not a person I knew roaming about, so I set down and look over my goody bag. That when Pete came up and asked me if I was me and introduced him as he. Or something like […]
Cassie Boone steps in the diner. She blinks her eyes. Pancake special on the chalkboard. Taj is in a booth. Cassie walks over. She smells home fries. Taj looks up. He wipes his hands on a blue cloth napkin. “You got it?” Cassie nods; she leads the way down the back hall. Taj says, “What’s […]
