Synopsis/blurb....
Cutting edge suspense under extreme tension.
Quick & dirty flash fiction and sharp & deadly crime fiction at your fingertips; featuring a motley crew of 13 usual suspects, and new blood.
This is it: the first cut of Switchblade.
No-limit crime culture springs to life at the hands of Paul D. Brazill, Preston Lang, Liam Sweeny, Steve Liskow, Jim Wilsky, Larry Kelter, William Dylan Powell, Susan Cornford, Travis Richardson, Jack Bates, Tom Leins, Fred Zackel, and Scotch Rutherford.
A decent collection of short and longer stories curated by Scotch Rutherford, including some favourite authors - Preston Lang, Tom Leins and Paul D. Brazill, as well as stories from other names I'm familiar with and who have a presence in my library, but who I haven't read much from yet.
Contents
Message from the editor
FLASH
Paul D. Brazill - Getting Away With It
Jim J. Wilsky - Gut Wrenching
Fred Zachel - Re-Election
Scotch Rutherford - Primed
Susan Cornford - Urban Legend #223
FICTION
Tom Leins - The Stooge
Liam Sweeny - Rats
Steve Liskow - That's Alright Mama
Lawrence Kelter - Taste For Danger
William Dylan Powell - The Apex Predator
Preston Lang - North Creek Brown
Travis Richardson - Stranger in a Bar
Jack Bates - Killing Time so I Can Dig Myself a Deeper Grave
AUTHOR BIOS and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I enjoyed most of the stories, though surprisingly the one which disappointed me was one which I was looking forward to the most - Preston Lang. I just didn't vibe it.
I really liked.....
Liam Sweeny's Rats..... an act of duty carried out in the memory of a friendship.
Powell's The Apex Predator... a police diver, a discovery and a life-changing event, and luck running out.
Kelter's Taste For Danger .... a boat trip and some bloody revenge
Liskow - That's Alright Mama.... guitar lessons with a difference
Susan Cornford's flash piece Urban Legend #223 ... the shortest piece in the book, but one of the biggest kickers.
Not that my reading is especially gender balanced, but in reading future editions of the magazine/book I'd like to see a few more female contributors. (Or is that political correctness?)
4 from 5
Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled (ed. Lisa Douglass) - funny enough a female only edition has been enjoyed before.
Read - June, 2020
Published - 2017
Page count - 112
Source - purchased copy
Format - paperback
I've found that most short story collections are a bit uneven, Col.There are excellent ones, and then ones that don't engage as much. Glad you found a lot of these good.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot. I think I've yet to read the collection where they're all bangers.
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