VERGE LE NOIR - SHELL CASINGS (2014)

Synopsis/blurb……

This book is RATED R for violence, strong language and some sexuality.

In a violent crime scene SHELL CASINGS tell a story.

Crime Fiction Writer Verge Le Noir spins ELEVEN SHORT STORIES in the new collection Shell Casings.

•             A Gentleman’s Guide to Eating Lobster— everything changes for journalist Grace Parker—Woods when a handsome playboy pays her a visit.

•             Black Day—Salty Point is a town on the verge of social collapse, engineered by the town’s Sheriff.

•             Cherish—a small time drug dealer, a lovely stripper and her jealous boyfriend find each other, producing dire consequences for the trio.

•             Diamond Wet Dogs—three thieves on the high seas, find themselves in the middle of a storm, with Mother Nature and each other.

•             East Village Sonatina—a loveless East Village eccentric dreads the changes to the neighborhood while coping with his new movie-star neighbors.

•             Exit Wounds—in the middle of battle a young wounded soldier wishes for a dirty martini takes us on a journey of friendship, war, love and a Dominican style thanksgiving.

•             Half-Past Dead—Alpha, Cypher and Wolfie managed to break into a Federal Reserve vault, in the worse night in New York’s City’s history.

•             Love & Other Strangers—lovers’ Gemma and Dewy are hoping for a big payday from Gemma’s ex upon returning the man’s forgery plate.

•             Suburban Postcard—Jake ‘J.J.’ Jamison did his time for bank robbery, his partner didn’t, now J. J. wants his cut. But people change.

•             The Lucky Bones—young Zander Grey’s life was out of control, until a gangster pushes him to join the military, thereby changing the young man’s life, but is it for the better?

•             The Devil Makes Three— a young bishop guided by a Ute elder look for a lost gold mine. Inspired by the legend of the long lost gold mine in the Uintah Mountains.

So sit back, relax—if you can—and get lost in a world of sociopaths, twisted and often violent winding roads. A world in which you might just want to be a tourist as hot shell casings fly all over the place, each carrying its own unique story.

I derive a lot of reading pleasure from trying books and stories from authors that are - shall we say - less well known. Verge Le Noir would probably fall into that category. A bit of Amazon browsing last year had me coming across his first story collection – Black Pills & Red Bullets – a collection I took a punt on and enjoyed. Review here.

His second collection is even stronger. 11 stories weighing in at 140-odd pages, I raced through the collection in a day and a half – finishing off whilst my wife and daughter were walking the glass platform at Tower Bridge in London. Laughing like a drain at Suburban Postcard – drew me some funny looks from the rest of the tourists!

Violence, sex, revenge, robbery, racism, murder, food and more all laced with touches of black humour.

A scene in Black Day still has me chuckling when a couple of cops visit a biker gang’s clubhouse and the dude on the door is reading the author’s first book!

Highly recommended, with not a dud in the bunch. The other standouts for me were Half Past Dead and The Lucky Bones.

 I’ll be keen to see what our enigmatically monikored author does next. Cool name – cool collection.

4.5 out of 5

Verge Le Noir has his website-blog here and is on Twitter – @VergeLeNoir

Generous man that he is, he was kind enough to send me a copy of this for review.