GRAHAM WYND - LOVE IS A GRIFT (2019)

Synopsis/blurb......

Love is a Grift by Graham Wynd
Cover and layout by S.L. Johnson Images

Sex, Death and Crime: The essentials of Noir.

How does obsession begin? For one hit man it starts with a target he just can’t kill. She leads him on a deadly spree across Europe. With every step he’s in deeper. Each crime binds them together like a vow and only death can part them. But will it be his… or hers?

Love is a Grift and the other stories in this collection offer a fresh take on a classic genre, that begins with obsession and most often ends with death.

LOVE IS A GRIFT One woman, four cities - and a string of bodies in her wake.
1. GALWAY—The Salt House
2. BRUXELLES—À la Mort Subite
3. HELSINKI—Ravintola Saari
4. DUNDEE—The Tay Bridge Bar

OTHER TALES OF DESPERATION
PSYCHO MOTORCYCLE DOLLS (1966)
BONNIE & CLYDE
THE TENDER TRAP
DON’T CALL ME DARLING
SMALLBANY
TOY MONKEY
HAM ON HEELS
BONKERS IN PHOENIX
MESQUITE
LIFE JUST BOUNCES
MASQUERADE
INEVITABLE
BROKEN BICYCLES
THE CABAL
THE OVEN
BLOODY COLLAGE
THESE TOYS ARE FOR TOUGH BOYS
SOMEWHERE IN SLOVENIA
REPETITION
COPPED IT
SPIRITS IN THE NIGHT
DO ANYTHING YOU WANNA DO
I’VE TOLD EVERY LITTLE STAR
REBELLIOUS JUKEBOX
30 VERSIONS OF ‘WARM LEATHERETTE’

A novella and an interesting collection of short stories which kept me entertained on and off for a month or so, as I worked my way through the set.

Sex, drugs, drink, music, crime, robberies, guns, bikers, kidnap, witches, family feuds, take-downs, consequences, trailers and diners, fake friends, dead boyfriends and a swimming lesson, real friends and a false alarm, nasty neighbours, a werewolf PI in the background, a good deed and an oven clean, and lots more.

Pick of the bunch is the main event - a bit of a road trip around Europe in the company of a beautiful, scheming, psychotic woman - one whose always in control, manipulating and bending others to her will.

Act 1 - Galway - an ageing husband needs rid of, the cuckolded boyfriend with dreams and plans for the pair of them enlisted and disposed of once the deed is done. Never trust a Galway girl.
Act 2 - Brussels and a hitman on her trail, seduction and a U-turn, a fixer fixed and a new partner in tow. 
Act 3 - Helsinki - a business meeting, a sauna, another death... not quite sure I understood the motivation for this one, but hey ho

Act 4 - Dundee - a Jack the lad, some competition, some jealousy, a robbery, another disposable man

Lots to like and enjoy. I couldn't say I loved every tale, but most of them worked for me.

I do like tales of criminals and outlaws and grifters and there are plenty here to occupy me. There's also the ordinary Joe - here mostly Jane - tales where an incident or accident occurs usually with devastating consequences.

4 from 5


Graham Wynd has been enjoyed before - Satan's Sorority, Extricate and Smallbany 

Read - June, 2019
Published - 2019
Page count - 256
Source - review copy from publisher Fox Spirit Books - thanks!
Format - PDF

JOE CLIFFORD - RAG AND BONE (2019)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Perfect for fans of Dennis Lehane

Having spent ten months on the run after he was framed for the murder of an estate-clearing associate, handyman Jay Porter returns to his hometown of Ashton, New Hampshire. During his time as a fugitive, he searched for a hard drive - evidence that would put his longtime nemeses Adam and Michael Lombardi behind bars. But he came up empty handed.

He has nothing. No hard drive, no hope. He hasn't spoken to his ex-wife and son in almost a year and he's broke. With his reputation tarnished and employment opportunities nonexistent, Jay takes a charity assignment from old friend/flame Alison Rodgers and learns of a fire at Alison's former rehab farm. Jay is convinced that the Lombardis started a fire as a scare tactic to pressure Alison to sell. As Jay begins to look into the origins of the fire, he hopes he will finally be able to put away his enemies. But he soon discovers that evil isn't so easy to define, and that sometimes we need to take the law into our own hands if we want justice.

The fifth in the author's Jay Porter series and my first, which in truth did me no favours coming into the series ass backwards. Jay Porter's back in town; innocent after an enforced exile on the run and he still has a hard-on for the Lombardi brothers.

Solitude, unemployment, town pariah, skint, paranoid, pity party, a brief family reunion, police hostility, a lost business, an online contact feeding information, bereavement, grief, loss, drinking, an old flame, a bitter divorce, a suspicious fire, another investigation and another opportunity - he thinks - to try and bring the local king pins down.

An okay read, but one which I didn't really feel too bothered about. The main man, Porter has his history and issues - borderline alcoholic (?), but functioning and give him his due he's determined, but I think it's one of those series books that doesn't stand up too well on its again. It's a feeling reinforced by the ending offering an outcome in respect of the Lombardi brothers time at the top of the heap. Porter vs the Lombardis is an over-riding series ARC. The more relevant - to this book at least - mystery of the fire is solved in addition. It is demonstrably over-shadowed by the bigger picture.

Elements were enjoyable. The relationship between Porter and the local police chief (sheriff?), at times hostile, other times almost friendly kept my interest. The relationship with his ex-wife I found less so.

Pace ok, setting ok.

I kind of felt an indifference to the main character though, something that would probably have been avoided if I had started with Lamentation, the series opener.

3 from 5

I've enjoyed a short story collection from Joe Clifford way, way back - Choice Cuts - in 2013.

I will read more from him in the future, including the earlier Jay Porter books. Maybe with that context behind me this one will have a different feel.

Read - June, 2019
Published - 2019
Page count - 256
Source - Edelweiss Above the Treeline early reviewer site, courtesy of Ocean Publishing
Format - ePub on laptop

2 BY DENISE MINA

Two from another Scottish author, Denise Mina about whom I've heard good things, but who I have never actually gotten around to reading.

Her novels have won and been nominated for numerous awards.....

Barry Awards Best British Crime Novel winner (2006) : The Field of Blood
Anthony Awards Best Novel nominee (2007) : The Dead Hour
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (2007) : The Dead Hour
Macavity Awards Best Novel nominee (2007) : The Dead Hour
Dagger Awards Best Book nominee (2011) : The End of the Wasp Season
Dagger Awards Best Book nominee (2016) : Blood, Salt, Water
McIlvanney Prize Best Novel winner (2017) : The Long Drop

I have three of her books on the TBR pile; these two plus Resolution. Quite restrained for me considering she has about 14 in total to her name. That said I still have a fair proportion of my library still to log, so there might be another one or two lurking.

Mina has three different series to her name - Garnethill (3 books), Paddy Meehan (3 books) and Alex Morrow (6 books), as well as a couple of standalone novels and other works - graphic novels and some short story contributions in some anthologies.

One of these years, I'll pull my finger out and read something by her!









Garnethill (1998)

Maureen O'Donnell wasn't born lucky. A psychiatric patient and survivor of sexual abuse, she's stuck in a dead-end job and a secretive relationship with Douglas, a shady therapist. Her few comforts are making up stories to tell her psychiatrist, the company of friends, and the sweet balm of whisky. She is about to end her affair with Douglas when she wakes up one morning to find him in her living room with his throat slit.

Viewed in turn by the police as a suspect and as an uncooperative, unstable witness, Maureen is even suspected by her alcoholic mother and self-serving sisters of being involved. Worse than that, the police won't tell her anything about Douglas's death.

Panic-stricken and feeling betrayed by friends and family, Maureen begins to doubt her own version of events. She retraces Douglas's desperate last days and picks up a horrifying trail of rape, deception...and suppressed scandal at a local psychiatric hospital where she had been an inmate. But the patients won't talk and the staff are afraid, and when a second brutalized corpse is discovered, Maureen realises that unless she gets to the killer first, her life is in danger.


The Field of Blood (2005)

Paddy Meehan discovers that one of the boys charged with the murder of toddler Brian Wilcox is her fiance Sean's cousin, Callum. Soon Callum's name is all over the news, and her family believe she is to blame. Shunned by Sean and by those closest to her, Paddy finds herself dangerously alone.

S.W. LAUDEN - THAT'LL BE THE DAY: A POWER POP HEIST (2019)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Jackson Sharp is a former guitar player fresh out of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He's on a mission to settle the score with his dead beat dad, but needs to collect some cash from his younger brother and former bandmate, Jamie. He finds Jamie at his struggling Tulsa record shop, but the cash is long gone. Jamie offers up a heist instead—steal a rare copy of a pre-Beatles 45 from a wealthy collector in Memphis. The road trip that follows is the violent family/band reunion that Jackson never wanted.


My second outing with S.W. Lauden's work after Crosswise was enjoyed a couple of years ago. This time around it's an offering that's shorter and faster  - a 78 versus an old LP - and one I found more enjoyable.

An ex-con, one with a plan for revenge burning bright in his belly, a fractured family, music, sour memories, shared history, a band, guitar playing, a break-up, a jail sentence, ill-gotten gains, a reluctant road trip, a plan for a power pop heist, a gig, a meeting with old friends, an obsessed collector, a bungled robbery, a reunion gig, a comeback in the offing and a reconciliation along with some peace.

A fast-pace to this one, 70-odd pages, so a one-sitting read. An ex-con and a heist - my cup of tea. Plenty of music as a back-drop - some bands and titles I was familiar with, others less so. The heist centres around a rare Beatles record.

There's also a delving into the world of obsessive collecting and the kind of madness it inspires. Reminded me of me and my books, to a slightly lesser degree.

There's also plenty about family and resentment and upset and fractures, with a resolution involving forgiveness, understanding and a willingness to let the bitterness go. Sage advice wrapped up in some solid reading.

4 from 5

I'll have to bump Lauden's Crossed Bones up the TBR pile.

Read - June, 2019
Published - 2019
Page count - 74
Source - Kindle Unlimited
Format - kindle

MIKE McCRARY - SEPARATE CHECKS (2019)

Synopsis/blurb....

It’s just dinner. …

That’s what former lovers, Jackie and Hunter, tell themselves as they take a trip down memory lane. Unfortunately, no amount of time can erase their mistrust of each other. As the meal progresses, their suspicions about the other’s intentions grow to alarming heights. One believes the other is there to murder them. The other can’t wait for their former lover to try.

Have they made a deal with the devil or will their rocky history prove to be a thing of the past?

Separate Checks is the new short story by Mike McCrary. If you like pulp thrillers, dark humor, and wickedly entertaining antiheroes, then you’ll love Mike McCrary’s fast, fun story.

A bit more to my liking than the other short Mike McCrary tale Broken that was read on the same day.

Dinner, distrust, conflict resolution, collateral damage, unfinished business.


Interesting characters, an interesting situation, there's a kind of to be continued vibe about the outcome, but it's one that worked for me.

What more can you say about a 20 minute read?

4 from 5

Genuinely Dangerous and Getting Ugly have been enjoyed from him before.

Read - June, 2019
Published - 2019
Page count - 18
Source - Kindle Unlimited

Format - kindle

STEVE BREWER - SHOWDOWN (2012)

Synopsis/blurb....

Two old men have played cards together every week for thirty years. Each man assumes he knows everything about the other by now. Then one reveals a terrible secret from long ago. And they both know this night will end like no other.

SHOWDOWN is a suspenseful short story from Steve Brewer, author of more than 20 crime novels, including the well-known Bubba Mabry mystery series.

The fifth and last of the Steve Brewer short stories available on Amazon and another 10 - 15 minutes of fun and another bump to the reading stats.

Two men, old friends re-enacting the same weekly ritual that they've been performing for thirty years. Tonight ends differently......

Cards, beer drinking, maybe one or two too many, loose lips - sinking ships, confession good for the soul but not too good for camaraderie, exposed secrets, horror, grief, family history, wives, cheating, arrogance, disrespect, stored resentment, some pre-planning, a gun in a drawer, a few home truths, shifting dynamics - an outcome which ensures our host is going to have to find himself a new drinking and card buddy.

I do appreciate the skill involved in constructing a short story where there's little time to fully develop the characters or plot and get them from A to Z while having the reader interested in the outcome. Steve Brewer possesses that guile in abundance.

4 from 5

Read - June, 2019
Published - 2012
Page count - 11
Source - Kindle Unlimited
Format - kindle

MIKE McCRARY - BROKEN (2019)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Blinded by an accident. Blindsided by danger.
Riley thought she’d endured the worst, but the violent criminals who took so much from her are back for more.

Dead-set on inflicting as much pain as possible, they’ve set their sights on the only good thing left in her life and will stop at nothing to destroy it and destroy the person Riley thought she’d become. Now she must revisit the worst part of herself to remove the threat and protect the one person who has been there for her.

Broken is an intense short story from Mike McCrary that’ll have you begging for more.

Begging for more hey? Well not really - enjoyable enough but unlikely to remain in the memory banks for too long.

A near blind woman, Riley with her carer Albert in the claustrophobic setting of her home, Riley trying not to bond with the man, but failing. Bits of information teased from each other over the months of his visits. So far, so good until trouble comes a knocking.

Secrets, mental health issues, physical deterioration, memories, a criminal past, a bag of money, a bag of guns, some unwelcome visitors, a trusty blade and some nearly forgotten skills coming back into play, despite her disability.

Worse ways of spending 25 minutes and a decent enough reminder of the author's longer works sitting ignored on the kindle.

3 from 5

Genuinely Dangerous and Getting Ugly have been enjoyed from him before.

Read - June, 2019
Published - 2019
Page count - 20
Source - Kindle Unlimited
Format - kindle