MITZI SZERETO (ed.) - THE BEST NEW CRIME STORIES: SMALL TOWNS (2020)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

A collection of non-fiction accounts by international writers and experts on small town true crime shows readers that the real monsters aren’t hiding in the woods, they’re inside our towns.

Small towns aren’t always what they seem. We’ve been told nothing bad happens in small towns. You can leave your doors unlocked, and your windows wide open. We picture peaceful hamlets with a strong sense of community, and everyone knows each other. But what if this wholesome idyllic image doesn’t always square with reality? Small towns might look and feel safe, but statistics show this isn’t really true.

Tiny town, big crime. Whether in Truman Capote’s detailed murder of the Clutter family or Ted Bundy’s small-town charm, criminals have always roamed rural America and towns worldwide. Featuring murder stories, criminal case studies, and more, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns contains all-new accounts from writers of true crime, crime journalism, and crime fiction. And these entries are not based on a true story―they are true stories. Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, the stories in this volume span the globe. Discover how unsolved murders, kidnapping, shooting sprees, violent robbery, and other bad things can and do happen in small towns all over the world.

A bit of true crime reading for a change and a collection of essays/reports/accounts on a variety of different crimes throughout the ages and in locations all across the globe. 

The full contents are 

INTRODUCTION 

1. SNOWTOWN by ANTHONY FERGUSON

2. A TRAGEDY IN POSORJA: WHEN “PEOPLE’S JUSTICE” GOES HORRIBLY WRONG by TOM LARSEN

3. ABOUT A BOY by C L RAVEN

4. TWENTY CENTS’ WORTH OF ARSENIC by EDWARD BUTTS

5. “I KILL FOR GOD” by MITZI SZERETO

6. THE SUMMER OF “THE FOX” by MARK FRYERS

7. WHO KILLED GABRIELE SCHMIDT: THE TRUE STORY AND THE MYSTERY SURROUNDING A FORGOTTEN MURDER by ALEXANDRA BURT

8. BULLETS AND BALACLAVAS: THE LONG, COLD ORKNEY SHOOTING by CHARLOTTE PLATT

9. THE BLACK HAND AND GLASS EYE OF EARLIMART: A KILLER’S PERSPECTIVE by CHRISTIAN CIPOLLINI

10. CRIME HAS COME TO PENAL! by IRIS LEONA MARIE CROSS

11. THE VOODOO PREACHER by DAVID BRASFIELD

12. “LA BELLA ELVIRA”: MURDER IN THE TUSCAN HILLS by DEIRDRE PIRRO

13. THE DOCTOR, THE DENTIST, AND THE DAIRYMAN’S DAUGHTER by PAUL WILLIAMS

14. IN THE HOME OF THE CANNIBAL by JOE TURNER

15. NAMELESS IN VAN DIEMEN’S LAND by STEPHEN WADE

REFERENCES FOR “THE SUMMER OF ‘THE FOX’ ” 

ABOUT THE EDITOR 

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 

I enjoyed reading the different accounts of crimes, though a month on few of the details have really remained regarding any of the cases discussed bar two. 

Re-checking the collection the crimes illustrated are far-reaching...... Australia, Ecuador, Wales, the US, Germany, Scotland, England, Italy and Tasmania. 

One disturbing case concerns a German cannibal, who managed to meet a consenting victim via an internet chat room. The degrees of mental illness that would need to be present to either be the willing supplicant here or the perpetrator must be staggering.

The other case that struck a chord concerned "the Fox." Malcolm Fairley was a burglar turned rapist who terrorized England's Home Counties area during the mid-80s for a period of about six months before he was captured. He remains in prison to this day.

Why the familiarity? I worked with one of his victims and whilst she had a lucky escape, the trauma she suffered changed her dramatically. She left the workplace shortly after the incident and to be truthful it wasn't something you could discuss with her.

My wife, though not my wife then, knew another of the victims. At the time she lived in one of the nearby villages where Fairley struck. He subdued a girl, her boyfriend and her brother and subjected them to a degrading and sickening assault. Absolutely vile and monstrous. A sick man with a sick mind. If he's never let out it will be too soon.

I can dimly recall the fear that infected the populace, the newspaper reports and daily headlines, the extra security precautions people took, the boom in sales of weapons - mainly shotguns, and the aftermath of an attack - the shock, the outrage, the rumours and conversations dominated by one man.

Major incidents and news events always seem to happen to other people in other areas and you sympathise with those affected, and then you change the channel or turn the page and get on with your life. Sometimes, very rarely events touch you closer to home.

Overall - an interesting change to my usual reading.

4 from 5

Read - January, 2021

Published - 2020

Page count - 252

Source - review copy from Book News

Format - PDF read on laptop

ANDREW GRAHAM - THE GATHERING OF THE SEVEN STARS (2020)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

A multi million pound Football betting scam appears to be a front for something much more sinister when a brutally tortured body is discovered. Twelve years earlier Europe's Chinese Communities reported a large increase in crime and disorder and now it's happening all over again. DS Oscar Smiles, returning from compassionate leave must deal with the ghosts from his past and put aside his personal worries as a notorious underworld figure battles with a Triad gang to control the dragon Gate area of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

An okay January read with some gritty Tyneside set crime involving the city's Chinese community, organised gangs and betting scams. The story itself was okay but would have been enhanced by some careful editing, eliminating a lot of typos and perhaps tightening up the narrative a bit.

I liked the setting for the story with a community within a community - the Chinese, settled and accepted in the city of Newcastle. We have a murder initially and a team of cops investigating. Our main protagonist is DS Oscar Smiles, a capable, likable detective. His boss, Jim McGovern is a bit of a dinosaur with some of his attitudes and opinions belonging to earlier times. He seems just as interested in his next bevvy and dirty story as he is in catching criminals. Smiles likes and respects Jim McGovern and they make a capable team. Smiles is the more acceptable face of 21st century policing.

One murder begats another. I think what I quite liked was the author spent some time introducing us to the characters, so that there was some empathy regarding the murder victims. We also get history and back story for the main characters regarding family tragedy, marital breakups and personal circumstances. All adds some flesh to the bones. Along the way, there's also the possibility of a bit of romance and happiness for Oscar, with one of the characters, peripherically connected to one of the crimes.

Casino, restaurants, bars, big boss, trophy wife, security, protection, extortion, organised crime, Triads, football, betting fixes, an international element, drugs, junkies, a local wild man, undercover work, investigation, deaths and an escalation. Plenty of local colour in the narrative.

There are a few twists and turns with the plot. The increasing number of murders adds plenty of pressure to the police working the cases. Obviously at the end all the why and wherefores are tied up and we get an understanding of the motivations. I could buy what the author was selling here, but I wasn't necessarily stunned or amazed at the raison d'etre or outcome.

Overall - 3 from 5. There's was a half decent story in there trying to get out. Not the worst book I've ever read, but not one I could recommend either. I think it was let down a bit by the numerous typos which proved a little bit distracting the further into the book I got.   

The Gathering of the Seven Stars is Andrew Graham's debut novel.      

Read - January, 2021

Published - 2020

Page count - 195

Source - review copy from author

Format - PDF read on laptop

OCTOBER 2020 - ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY - 6 OF THE BEST!

More for my own amusement than anything else.... 

Six of last October's additions

                                                     John Rector - Already Gone (2011) - bought

An author that I've heard of, bought a couple of books by, but haven't gotten around to reading yet. One more can't hurt....

 

Jake Reese is a writing teacher at an American university. He lives in a small brick Tudor close to campus with his art buyer wife, Diane. His life is quiet - ordinary even. And he likes it that way. But it wasn't always quiet. Jake's distant past was a life on the streets, inflicting damage and suffering on more people than he can count. And now someone from his past, it seems, has come looking for him.

A raw, gripping thriller about the price paid for past sins, John Rector's third novel is a live wire that crackles with the intensity of a man with nothing left to lose. When two men attack Jake in a parking lot and cut off his finger, he tries to dismiss it as an unlucky case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when events take a more sinister turn and Diane goes missing, Jake knows he can no longer hide from the truth. As he embarks on a mission to find his wife, he realizes his dark past is refusing to stay buried, and that his future is about to unfold in ways he could never have imagined.

Taut and brooding, Rector paints a formidable portrait of a reformed man's slow descent into a life he thought he had walked away from forever. As the intensity becomes almost unbearable, the pace quickens and the suspense applies an unrelenting, vice-like grip, as Already Gone hurtles toward its ultimate, explosive climax.

                          

                                              Colin Conway - The Value in Our Lives (2020) - author copy

I've enjoyed a few of Colin Conway's books before, mainly his Charlie 316 series which is co-authored with Frank Zafiro. Cozy up to Death - part of a three book solo series was pretty entertaining.  

Detective James Morgan believes in a different set of rules—for the cops.

A violent and ruthless gang has its sights set on Eastern Washington. The Spokane Police Department’s Criminal Task Force receives the unenviable assignment of confirming this rumor.

As the senior detective of the CTF, Morgan leads by example. It has earned him respect from other officers, suspicion from the brass, but unmistakable fear from the criminals he contacts. And that is precisely the way he likes it.

When a new drug hits the street, Morgan believes he knows who is behind it. He’s not going to let anyone or anything stop him from proving that truth—even if it means he needs to bend the law in the process.

The Value in Our Lies is the fifth book in The 509 Crime Stories, a series of novels set in Eastern Washington with revolving lead characters. If you like hard-hitting police procedurals with compelling personalities, then grab this book today.

                                        Scotch Rutherford (ed.) - Switchblade 9 (2020) - bought

An enjoyable crime anthology which appears a few times each year.

Issue 1  and the Stiletto Heeled special have been enjoyed previously.

Switchblade number Nine is all about gaslighting, the outfit, racketeering, prostitution, and the priesthood. Issue nine takes a stab at insanity, revenge, and new beginnings. Unlike the bulky heavyweight issues of the past, this issue is lean and mean, like Tommy Hearns. Featuring Paul D. Marks, Glenn A. Bruce, John Kojak, J. Rohr, Willie Smith, Richard Risemberg, A.F. Knott, Stefen Styrsky, Fred Rock, Mark Slade, and Jack Bates. And just like The Motor City Cobra, this issue packs a punch, leaving you with legs of jelly, grasping for consciousness.

                                                   Gerry Boyle - Deadline (1993) - bought

Another author I've heard of but never tried. 

Deadline is the first in a longish series featuring a crime reporter, Jack McMorrow

Jack is back in this dynamic rerelease of best-selling crime writer Gerry Boyle s first novel. Meet Jack McMorrow, a hard-hitting crime reporter for the New York Times now living in the backwoods of Maine, near the paper plant in Rumford. Jack s there to run the local paper, but when a unpopular photographer is found drowned in a nearby canal, Jack gets drawn into a complicated game that has kept members of the town silenced and in fear for their lives. Maine may be the place where life is as it should be, but McMorrow finds out staying alive may be harder than he thought."

     Robin Yocum - The Sacrifice of Lester Yates (2021) - Edelweiss early reviewer site

I'm a big fan of Robin Yocum's work. Both of the books I've read by him previously - A Brilliant Death and A Welcome Murder  were 5 STAR BANGERS!

A new political thriller from the author of bestselling novel The Essay. 

Lester Yates is the notorious Egypt Valley Strangler, one of the country’s most prolific serial killers. Or, is he? Yates is two months from his date with the executioner when Ohio Attorney General Hutch Van Buren is presented with evidence that could exonerate him. But Yates is a political pawn, and forces exist that don’t want him exonerated, regardless of the evidence. To do so could derail presidential aspirations and change the national political landscape. Yates’ execution will clear a wide political path for many influential people, including Van Buren, who must battle both the clock and a political machine of which he is a part.

 

Robin Yocum has been compared with E. Annie Proulx for his authenticity of place, and Elmore Leonard for his well-laid plots and perfect pacing. Arcade is thrilled to publish The Sacrifice of Lester Yates, which is Yocum at his best: suspenseful, political, and smart.   

                                             Ed James - The Hope that Kills (2016) - bought

Another punt in the dark. Probably a bookbub special offer at the time. East London setting and a bit of grit - both plusses.

A missing daughter. A haunted cop. A deep, dark mystery.

When a young woman's body is found in a disused East London building, in the shadow of the City of London’s gleaming towers, DI Simon Fenchurch takes charge but soon faces an impossible situation.

The victim has no ID on her, just hard-earned cash, but there is no doubting the ferocity of the attack. As Fenchurch and his team in the Met police service try to identify her and piece together her murder, they’re faced with cruel indifference at every turn. Nobody cares about yet another dead prostitute.

To Fenchurch, however, she could just as easily be Chloe, his daughter still missing after ten years, whose memory still haunts him, his burning obsession having killed his marriage.

But the discovery of a second body forces Fenchurch to peel back the grimy layers shrouding the London sex trade, confronting his own traumatic past while racing to undo a scheme larger, more complex and more evil than anything he could possibly have imagined.

Murder is intercut with humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set on the gritty streets of East London.

TOM LEINS - THE GOOD BOOK: FAIRY TALES FOR HARD MEN (2020)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

Testament, Florida is the town where the American dream bottomed out. A town that was bled dry and kicked into the weeds by venal men with bad intentions. A town so insignificant that it no longer appears on any map.

During the 1980s, however, it was home to the Testament Wrestling Alliance, the chaotic wrestling promotion that made stars of Gringo Starr, ‘Voodoo’ Ray Blanchette and the Jazz Butcher. The man who made it happen was promoter Frank ‘Fingerf*ck’ Flanagan, who ruled his territory with an iron fist. A tough man willing to make tough decisions, Flanagan’s personal road to hell is paved with dead wrestlers.

The Good Book is an interlinked, 21-story collection that takes place between 1980 and 1999. These stories are grubby, hardboiled tales that explore the lives of desperate men—men who can’t leave their rivalries in the ring. In Testament, every action has a reaction and every feud ends in carnage. If someone else wins, you lose.

Last of my December reads and a day spent in the company of some of Tom Leins' short stories is always rewarding. 2020's reading ended on a dirty high.

There's a certain inimicable style to Leins prose which marks it out as an acquired taste. Here all our stories are centred around wrestling ..... graphic, violent, bloody, and filled with damaged protagonists, some of whom we meet more than once.

For the benefit of my OCD, we have..... 

Chicks Dig Scars

The Curtain Jecker

Hellbelly

The Sunset Flip

Fairy Tales for Hard Men

The Big Blow-Off

The Last Dog & Pony Show

The Cold Vein

Other People's Pussy

The Glory Hole

Meat Whiplash

Truckload of Trouble

Goat Sucker

Gusher

Beauty & Ruin

Bloater

The Signature Move

Black Sheets of Rain

Guatemala Kill-Pit

The Stooge

Real Americans

   

We encounter .....muscle vests, scars, drunks, pimps, kickbacks, bouts, strip clubs, cocaine binges, knuckle-dusters, Big Dick's bar, a fake Rolex, a double-wide, hooker jeans, a white power rally, a meat king, pancakes, chemical toilets, a knife attack, toupees, sweaty thighs, burnt food and urine..... and that's as far as page 7 takes us.

I suppose a cover to cover one sitting reading probably isn't the best way to enjoy the book, as there's no real let up in intensity throughout. Perhaps after a while I was somewhat anaesthetised to the power of his descriptions. A more leisurely look - two or three a day over the course of a week, might have been a better way to go. I do have the option of revisiting the book at a later date and doing just that. It's a keeper.

4.5 from 5

I've still got some catching up to do on this author's work. He's one of a select band of author's whose new books have to be acquired as soon as they drop.

Meat Bubbles and Other Stories  and Skull Meat have been enjoyed before. 

Read - December, 2020

Published - 2020

Page count - 152

Source - review copy from publisher (cheers Chris)

Format - paperback

JONATHAN MACPHERSON - BRAZEN VIOLATIONS (2016)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

Would you turn criminal to save a child?

"Truly inventive, very compelling, original and exciting"– David Caesar, Director Dirty Deeds.

Desperate to save his dying nephew, Mitch Walker agrees to commit a dangerous crime, in exchange for life-saving medicine. But things go horribly wrong and he sets off a chain reaction of kidnapping, carnage and chaos. Hunted by ruthless criminals, Mitch's only hope is a cop named Betts, who wants him behind bars. But the game is about to change.

If you love a fast paced, action packed thriller, Buy BRAZEN VIOLATIONS today.

"Exhilarating and intense, this dynamite debut is loaded with thrills and wicked fun!"--goodreads review.

"A cracking tale taking the crime genre kicking and bleeding into the 21st Century via some high-tech twists that will leave you squirming and cringing in your seat." -- Amazon Customer

"Original, exciting and most of all fun" -- David Caesar, film director.

Another one read a while back and enjoyed - mostly. It did have some moments which caused my eyeballs to roll to the back of my head. Repeatedly. 

Top marks though for originality and likable characters and an entertaining plot. 

Mitch Walker's nephew is dying unless he receives mega-expensive treatment that his sister can't afford. Previously, law abiding Mitch hooks up with some smugglers to do a drugs run, thus financing the access to the medication needed to keep the boy alive. 

Mitch gets caught and is hospitalised. Under arrest, his criminal associates, fearful of him talking, rip up their agreement and try to kill him. A cop is caught in the middle - he wants the drugs gang, he wants Mitch, but he is sympathetic to the plight of the sick boy, the unwitting cause of all the strife in the book.

Fast moving plot, plenty of twists and turns. The means of smuggling is quite inventive. The author's wacky imagination also comes to the fore with the crims turing the tables on the cop hunting them. There's a slight stretch of credibility involved, but I was happy enough to go along with it. 

It's a busy book.....plane trips, operations, exploding breasts, cops vs crazy crims, crims vs former associates, drugs, scams, CCTV with a difference, hit men, kidnapping, a sick boy, a distraught desperate family, a boat trip and an overlong shoot out to settle things at the end.   

The climax was definitely another stretch. I did wonder if one of the combatants was ever actually going to die. She was either a zombie or some latest upgrade on a Terminator. I was happy enough to give the author some leeway from the odd preposterous liberty, but at the end it was just one too many. 

More to like than dislike overall. Not especially realistic, fun was had upto a point and I've read a lot worse in my time. I'd be happy to give the author another go in the future.

3 from 5

Read - December, 2020

Published - 2016

Page count - 200

Source - purchased copy

Format - Kindle

MICHAEL CRICHTON (as JOHN LANGE) - ZERO COOL (1969)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

American radiologist Peter Ross just wanted a vacation. But when he meets the beautiful Angela Locke on a Spanish beach, he soon finds himself caught up in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact.

From Barcelona to the rain-swept streets of Paris, from the towers of the Alhambra to its darkest catacombs, Peter Ross is an ordinary man in desperate circumstances; racing to uncover a secret lost for centuries, before he becomes its next victim.

Not a massive fan of science fiction type novels, I've managed to avoid Michael Crichton's books forever. Here though we have some 60s pulp type adventure stuff, which had originally been published under a pseudonym. Hard Case Crime brought seven or eight of them back into print and I'm glad they did.

An American doctor takes a holiday in Europe and finds himself caught up in some international intrigue....... death threats, autopsies, smugglers, criminal rivals, a beautiful girl, sex, some espionage type shenanigans with Peter Ross the unwitting piggy in the middle, slowly catching on to the jig.

240 pages long it was a one sitting read. Memorable, ground-breaking, literary? Not really. Entertaining, absorbing, fun? Definitely.

I liked the main character and the run around he gets. As a doctor, he's obviously intelligent, capable and practical. In worldly matters and on a foreign continent, initially he's a bit naive and bewildered. Very quickly he wises up. 

I quite liked the European road trip - who wouldn't want to visit Paris and Barcelona?. I liked the time when the book was written and when it was set, the swinging sixties, the time of sexual liberation with women not afraid to express themselves. It's hard to say whether the sex here is used as a weapon, or because the beautiful Angela is attracted to Peter. Initially the former, but probably a bit of both and in any case probaby not worth too much time fretting over it.

Fun was had. I'll definitely read more of Crichton's John Lange books in the future.

4 from 5

Read - December, 2020

Published - 1969

Page count - 240

Source - purchased copy

Format - paperback

DAVID CRAY (aka STEPHEN SOLOMITA) - KEEPLOCK (1995)

Synopsis/blurb.....

"I've met with enough ex-cons to know they're mostly lying about the important things." - David Cray

Peter Frangello, labeled a sociopath at the tender age of nine, has been getting into trouble ever since he was old enough to leave the house on his own, Now thirty-eight years old, he's had enough; about to be paroled from New York State's toughest prison, he knows he can never allow himself to be locked up again.

Still, even if a leopard desperately wishes to change its spots, will the system let it? For Pete, the world beyond the prison gates turns out to be more treacherous and hostile  - and full of vicious surprises - than he could ever have imagined. Perhaps all the hard-won survival skills he's developed in a life spent behind bars won't serve him well enough in the face of the ruthless forces allied against him.

Not only must Pete pretend to play along with the deadly heist plans of career thugs who have no intention of ever allowing him to go straight, he msut also satisfy the increasingly impossible demands of a pair of crooked cops. Rizzo and Condon, two police detectvies who've caught wind of the million-dollar score, are determined to keep Pete as their man on the inside until the very last moment they're ready to move in on the action.

Brilliantly hard-boiled and as convincing as the morning headlines, Keeplock shows how one man's rigidly constructed armor can make for unexpected vulnerability.

A book I enjoyed slightly less than I'd hoped to. It had all the key ingredients that I like in my fiction .... an ex-con trying to go straight and caught in a pinch between a couple of dodgy cops and some prison associates planning an armored car job and wanting him in on the score. A New York setting. Events kind of flip-flopping back to pre-prison and the events that set our main protagonist on his course in life, prison incidents and memories and a post-prison nightmare, with one bright spark possibly on the horizon. The old girlfriend who testified against him, still has feelings for him. Plus factor in a positive relationship with some of Stephen Solomita's earlier books. 

Pete Frangello is out on parole and rooming at a sort of halfway house. Another ex-con in the house tries it on with the newbie and to his cost ends up in the hospital. Enter the cops, Frangello's punch bag was their informant and with him out of the picture, Frangello can get violated and sent back to the joint or he can start getting them some good information. This isn't how Pete envisaged his post-prison life unfolding.

Frangello under duress, resurrects a friendship formed inside and is in on a big robbery. Dilemma time - rat out his friends at the cop's bidding? Kill the cops? Refuse and go back inside?

Our man has to negotiate a narrow course while deciding on his options. In the end the cops themselves decide how it all plays out and Frangello has to try and afapt and engineer an outcome to suit his aims.

I liked the main character. He's a criminal and he's got a sad history from an almost life-time of being in state institutions. He suffers abuse as a boy and there's an inevitability as to how his life turns out. No opportunities, no care and compassion, no guiding hands - just a label.

I enjoyed the tension created by the situation Pete found himself in. There's friction and division in the robbery gang, with no one really trusting anyone else that's in on the score. There is also the balancing act of keeping the cop's happy, without actually committing to being a rat - something which is an anathema to his code.

I liked the resolution as well. On balance maybe I enjoyed it a bit more than I thought. At the time, I read it a bit staccato style - stop start stop start - probably because of work circumstances - and so it never really seemd to flow for me. Another time, a different mindset and it probably would have been a banger.

3.5 from 5

Dancer in the Flames, The Striver and The Monkey in the Middle (pre-blog days) have all been enjoyed before under the author's real name.

Read - December, 2020

Published - 1995

Page count  - 276

Source - owned copy

Format - hardback