AUGUST 2019 - ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY - 6 OF THE BEST!

Happy August! Another six crackers to look forward to......

David Owen - Why Neville Shot Gus (2019) - from author

Oh the kindness of authors, all the way from Tasmania to Leighton Buzzard - David Owen's latest. Minimalist blurb, to be sure from the author of the Pufferfish series.

I've enjoyed a couple of his in the last few years.

13-POINT PLAN FOR A PERFECT MURDER (2016) and BIG RED ROCK (2017)


Synopsis/blurb....

Read it.

Randy Kennedy - Presidio (2018) - purchased copy

Popped up in my Goodreads feed and I liked the sound of this.

Synopsis/blurb...

Set in the 1970s in the vast and arid landscape of the Texas panhandle, this darkly comic and stunningly mature literary debut tells the story of a car thief and his brother who set out to recover some stolen money and inadvertently kidnap a Mennonite girl who has her own reasons for being on the run.

Troy Falconer returns home after years of working as a solitary car thief to help his younger brother, Harlan, search for his wife, who has run away with the little money he had. When they steal a station wagon for the journey, the brothers accidentally kidnap Martha Zacharias, a Mennonite girl asleep in the back of the car. Martha turns out to be a stubborn survivor who refuses to be sent home, so together these unlikely road companions attempt to escape across the Mexican border, pursued by the police and Martha's vengeful father.

The story is told partly through Troy's journal, in which he chronicles his encounters with con artists, down-and-outers, and roadside philosophers, people looking for fast money, human connection, or a home long since vanished. The journal details a breakdown that has left Troy unable to function in conventional society; he is reduced to haunting motels, stealing from men roughly his size, living with their possessions in order to have none of his own and all but disappearing into their identities.

With a page-turning plot about a kidnapped child, gorgeously written scenes that probe the soul of the American West, and an austere landscape as real as any character, Presidio packs a powerful punch of anomie, dark humor, pathos, and suspense.

Manda Scott - A Treachery of Spies (2018) - purchased copy

Mick Herron rates it - SOLD! 

Synopsis/blurb.....

Treachery of Spies is an espionage thriller to rival the very best, a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse, played in the shadows, which will keep you guessing every step of the way.

An elderly woman of striking beauty is found murdered in Orleans, France. Her identity has been cleverly erased but the method of her death is very specific: she has been killed in the manner of traitors to the Resistance in World War Two. 

Tracking down her murderer leads police inspector Inès Picaut back to 1940s France where the men and women of the Resistance were engaged in a desperate fight for survival against the Nazi invaders. 

To find answers in the present Picaut must discover what really happened in the past, untangling a web of treachery and intrigue that stretches back to the murder victim's youth: a time when unholy alliances were forged between occupiers and occupied, deals were done and promises broken. The past has been buried for decades, but, as Picaut discovers, there are those in the present whose futures depend on it staying that way – and who will kill to keep their secrets safe...

‘A Treachery of Spies is the equal of Charlotte Gray in its insights into the period and, I would say, beats it for sheer excitement… one of the most gripping spy stories I have ever read.’ Jake Kerridge, S Magazine

'This is a rich vein for fiction, and Scott does it more than justice, with this beautifully imagined, beautifully written, smart, sophisticated - but fiercely suspenseful - thriller.' Lee Child

Stephen King - The Colorado Kid (2005) - purchased copy

Recently re-published, a bit scarcer than rocking horse pooh before that. I tried the series Haven a year or two ago and didn't get on with it. I'm sure the book will be better.

Synopsis/blurb.....

Stephen King’s bestselling unsolved mystery, THE COLORADO KID – inspiration for the TV series HAVEN -- returns to bookstores for the first time in 10 years in an all-new illustrated edition.

On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There’s no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues, and it’s more than a year before the man is identified. And that’s just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...? No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett’s THE MALTESE FALCON and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world’s great storytellers presents a moving and surprising tale whose subject is nothing less than the nature of mystery itself...

Markus Zusak - Bridge of Clay (2018)

I've enjoyed Zusak's work in the past - I am the Messenger and The Book Thief. I'm not going to pass up his latest.


Synopsis/blurb.....

Here is a story told inside out and back to front

Five Dunbar brothers are living – fighting, loving, grieving – in the perfect chaos of a house without grown-ups. Today, the father who left them has just walked right back in.
He has a surprising request: Who will build a bridge with him?

It is Clay, a boy tormented by a long-buried secret, who accepts. But why is Clay so broken? And why must he fulfil this extraordinary challenge?

Bridge of Clay is about a boy caught in a current, a boy intent on destroying everything he has in order to become everything he needs to be. Ahead of him lies the bridge, the vision that will save both his family and himself.

It will be a miracle and nothing less.

At once an existential riddle and a search for redemption, this tale of five brothers coming of age in a house with no rules brims with energy, joy and pathos. Written in Markus Zusak's distinctive style, it is a tour de force from a master storyteller of the heart.

****************

'Bridge of Clay is one of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time' Washington Post

Lawrence Block (as Jill Emerson) - Thirty (1970) - from author

FREEBIE AUDIBLE CODE received from one of Mr Block's assistants - one of the benefits of receiving his newsletter. Another one to be listened to on the commute to and from work.

Synopsis/blurb.....

The edgy diary of a 1960s housewife's adventure of self-realization.

Turning 29 years old, Janet Giddings Kurland starts a journal and records her comfortably routine suburban lifestyle. But when she rolls the dice with her friend's husband, she starts down a path that will lead her to the hip streets of Greenwich Village. Amidst the sexually free, Janet blossoms and her housewife's journal turns into a sex diary filled with unexpected encounters, dangerous partners, and drug-fueled sexual escapades.

Will her adventures destroy her? Or will she find, as the poet William Blake proclaimed, that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom?

Lawrence Block, award-winning novelist and screenwriter, has written eight novels over the years as Jill Emerson. Thirty is one of them.

©1970, 2010 LB Productions (P)2014 LB Productions

AUGUST 2019 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

Nine books read in the month (ok eight read and one Audiobook consumed). One shy of my usual target of double digit reading.

5 STAR - PICK OF THE MONTH - not this month - but Steven Max Russo and Thieves can have the glory. It came close.

4.5 STAR READS - just scraping the crossbar x - 2 Steven Max Russo - Thieves and George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle - a second or possibly third re-read.

4 STAR READS x 5 - T.S. Hunter's Careless Whisper, Thomas Waugh with Enough is Enough, Lee Goldberg and Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse, A.G. Pasquella and Carve the Heart and Mike Knowles with Darwin's Nightmare


3.5 STARS x 1 - James Sallis - Others of My Kind

3 STAR x 1 - Lawrence Block (as Sheldon Lord) - 21 Gay Street

I spent time in the company of .....

an ex-cop and his flat mate investigating murder

a survivor of years of abuse, helping others

a vigilante/bodyguard sorting out an Albanian drugs gang

an OCD former detective proving murder

some small time villains and a home invasion

a broken-hearted beau trying to get his former partner off the hook

some young New Yorkers seeking sex and love

an off-the-radar independent villain reluctantly involved with a criminal fraternity

some low-lie hustlers, selling guns and settling scores


Settings...... 80s Soho, London; somewhere in the US; London again; San Francisco; New Jersey/New York; Toronto; New York; Hamilton, Ontario; 70s Boston

T.S. Hunter - Careless Whisper (2019) (4)

James Sallis - Others of My Kind (2013) (3.5)

Thomas Waugh - Enough is Enough (2019) (4)

Lee Goldberg - Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse (2006) (4)

Steven Max Russo - Thieves (2018) (4.5)

A.G. Pasquella - Carve the Heart (2019) (4)

Lawrence Block (as Sheldon Lord)  - 21 Gay Street (1962) (3)

Mike Knowles - Darwin's Nightmare (2008) (4)

George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1970) (4.5)

Anal analysis time read on if you're an insomniac ......


New to me authors in the month - 3 - A.G. Pasquella, Steven Max Russo and Mike Knowles

I have more on the pile to read from Mike Knowles and A.G. Pasquella

Authors enjoyed before - 6 - Lawrence Block, James Sallis, T.S. Hunter, Lee Goldberg, George V. Higgins and Thomas Waugh

There's more on the TBR pile from all of them.

9 reads from 9 different authors.

4 were series books .....

Lee Goldberg's Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse is the first in about a dozen from the author

A.G. Pasquella's Carve the Heart is the second Jack Palace book, after Yard Dog

Mike Knowles with Darwin's Nightmare is the first of six or seven featuring his main man, Wilson

T.S. Hunter's Careless Whisper is the third in his Soho Noir series featuring recurring characters

Series maybes....

Thomas Waugh's Enough is Enough could spawn a series.



Gender analysis - 0 female authors, 9 male. No further comment really necessary (copies and pastes last month's comments re gender)

Another poor attempt at diversity in my reading! Deja-vous.
It looks like I'll have to sort out another all-female reading month later in the year to address the imbalance. Blah, blah, blah


Of the 9 different authors read, 6 hailed from the USA, 2 are British (can't be any more specific than that), 1 hails from Canada - as best I can tell.

All 9 of the reads were fiction,

7 of the 9 books read were published this century - 5 from this decade

3 from 2019, 1 from 2018, 1 from 2013

1 from 2008 and 1 from 2006

1 book was from 1970, and 1 was from 1962

3 came from the man-cave blue tub stash in my garage.

Mike Knowles, George V. Higgins and Lee Goldberg

Publishers -  Red Dog Press, No Exit Press, Sharpe Books, Signet, Down and Out Books, Dundurn Press, Robinson Publishing, Lawrence Block and ECW Press


4 of the 9 reads were pre-owned,

1 was accessed at Net Galley early reviewer site, cheers to publisher Dundurn Press

1 came via reviewer site Book Sirens

2 were received directly from the publisher - cheers to Red Dog Press and Sharpe Books

1 came from the author - his assistant actually in the form of an Audible download code - cheers to team Lawrence Block



Favourite cover? Steven Max Russo - Thieves

Second favourite cover -  George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle

My reads were this long 126 - 192 - 144 - 304 - 280 - 277 - 184 (or 5hrs 54mins) - 190 - 196

Total page count = 1893 (3816 in July) ....... a decrease of 1923 pages

1 was a Kindle read,  2 were ePub files read on the laptop, 1 was a PDF file read on the laptop, 1 was an Audible listening book, 4 were paperback - 2 of them 3 book Omnibus editions of which the first of each was consumed


0 < 50,
0 between 51 < 100,
6 between 101 < 200,
2 between 201 < 300,
1 between 301 < 400,
0 between 401 < 500
0 over 500 pages

Lee Goldberg - Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse was the longest read at 304 pages

T.S. Hunter and Careless Whisper was the shortest at 126 pages long.


Oh....and I also did my annual August short story challenge.....

AUGUST, 2019 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

AUGUST 2019 - FILMS + TV (HOME VIEWING)

Not too much enjoyed in the month, as I was somewhat disrupted by family birthdays, holidays, car trouble - MOTs and repairs, work and general all-round nonsense interfering with my reading and viewing relaxation.

One TV series continued - still doggedly pursuing it to the end slowly, slowly - maybe 5 episodes to go and 2.5 films watched - 1 a re-watch from 20 odd years ago and the unfinished film to be continued with tiredness over-taking my absorption in the plot, when watching.

The Handmaid's Tale - Season 3 (2019) - TV Drama

The slow march towards the climax of this continues. Scary as fuck really, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out. Interesting to note how my sympathies and compassion for certain characters constantly changes during the course of the series.

From Google.....

Based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, this series is set in Gilead, a totalitarian society in what used to be part of the United States. Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state, and is faced with environmental disasters and a plummeting birth rate. In a desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world, the few remaining fertile women are forced into sexual servitude. One of these women, Offred, is determined to survive the terrifying world she lives in, and find the daughter that was taken from her.

Fargo (1996)

A re-watch from who knows when. My son had never seen it, so we dusted off the old DVD and had another look. I still really like it. The last watch was long enough ago that I couldn't actually remember everything prior to seeing it again. I do like Steve Buscemi. He cracks me up every time. Frances McDormand is excellent.

I've enjoyed the three TV series which have aired in the past few years. More than this? Hard to say. Maybe because of the longer format, probably.

From Wikipedia....

Fargo is a 1996 neo-noir black comedy thriller film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating roadside homicides that ensue after a desperate car salesman (William H. Macy) hires two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law (Harve Presnell).

Fargo premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the festival's Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director Award) and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or. A critical and commercial success, Fargo received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. McDormand received the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Coens won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.


The film was selected in 2006 for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"—one of only six films so designated in its first year of eligibility.In 1998, the American Film Institute named it one of the 100 greatest American films in history. A Coen-produced FX television series of the same name, inspired by Fargo and taking place in the same fictional universe, premiered in 2014 and received critical acclaim.

Django Unchained (2012)

About halfway through this one and enjoying it immensely. I got the DVD as a present about 6 or 7 years ago from my son and never watched it before, for some bizarre reason. Idiot. I think I've enjoyed all of Quentin Tarantino's films TBH. Jamie Foxx is excellent as is his nutty sidekick, not someone I can recall seeing before - Christoph Waltz.


From Google.....

Two years before the Civil War, Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave, finds himself accompanying an unorthodox German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) on a mission to capture the vicious Brittle brothers. Their mission successful, Schultz frees Django, and together they hunt the South's most-wanted criminals. Their travels take them to the infamous plantation of shady Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), where Django's long-lost wife (Kerry Washington) is still a slave.

The Big Short (2015)

Did I understand all the financial machinations and shenanigans? No, but it didn't stop me enjoying this one. Interesting expose, but in truth didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Bankers, politicians, regulators..... shady fuckers the lot of 'em. 

As a side note, our current chancellor, Sajid Javid was involved in selling CDOs at Deutsche Bank - a practice which contributed to the financial crisis. Surprised? Not really 

John McDonnell's view (Labour politician)


From Wikipedia....

The Big Short is a 2015 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Adam McKay. Written by McKay and Charles Randolph, it is based on the 2010 book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis showing how the financial crisis of 2007–2008 was triggered by the United States housing bubble.

AUGUST 2019 - FILMS (CINEMA)

A quiet month by recent standards with only three opportunities taken to get out and grab a film. They were good films though.

Blinded by the Light (2019)

I've been looking forward to this film for a few months now..........the 80s, Bruce Springsteen and Luton - a real dose of nostalgia and a trip down memory lane, having grown-up in the town and having enjoyed Springsteen's music a lot, around the time of Born in the USA album.

The film didn't disappoint. I have the book which inspired the film on the shelves Greetings from Bury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor

From Google.......

Javed is a Pakistani teenager who experiences racial and economic turmoil while living in Luton, England, in 1987. He writes poetry as a way to escape the intolerance of his hometown and the stubborn views of his traditional father. When a classmate introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteeen, Javed sees parallels between the singer's powerful lyrics and his own working-class environment. Springsteen's melodies soon inspire Javed to find his own voice and follow his dreams.

Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

I do like Jason Statham as an actor, although it might be fair to say that his range and versatility maybe haven't quite been put to the test. You kind of know what you are getting with his films ...... action, pace, a punch-up or two, a bit of brutality and usually some gun play, as well as a bit of dead pan self deprecating humour. Double the dose here with Dwayne Johnson, someone who has grown on me over the past couple of years. Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Eddie Marsan and Kevin Hart also feature.

A decent night out, entertaining, funny, silly, very OTT with the plot and the stunts - did what it said on the tin.


From Google......

Brixton Lorr is a cybernetically enhanced soldier who possesses superhuman strength, a brilliant mind and a lethal pathogen that could wipe out half of the world's population. It's now up to hulking lawman Luke Hobbs and lawless operative Deckard Shaw to put aside their past differences and work together to prevent the seemingly indestructible Lorr from destroying humanity.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Much hyped and I bloody loved it.  Features Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen (every time I see him, I can't help but remember Reservoir Dogs and his funky switchblade dance to Stuck in the Middle With You.) I quite enjoy seeing Pitt and DiCaprio as they age and get older. They're not quite the pretty boys they used to be.

A great story line, great setting, fantastic acting, a bit of action, a few laughs and quite chilling in places. I found the twist at the back end quite sad and poignant really and I could quite happily have watched it again as soon as it finished.

From Google....

Actor Rick Dalton gained fame and fortune by starring in a 1950s television Western, but is now struggling to find meaningful work in a Hollywood that he doesn't recognize anymore. He spends most of his time drinking and palling around with Cliff Booth, his easygoing best friend and longtime stunt double. Rick also happens to live next door to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate -- the filmmaker and budding actress whose futures will forever be altered by members of the Manson Family.

2 BY DEREK NIKITAS

A couple from another unread, untried American author - Derek Nikitas

Amazon order history tells me I ordered one of these in June, 2008 and the other in January, 2014. I guess I'm just waiting for the right moment to read these then.

What drew me towards these? 

An Edgar nomination, death, family secrets, a biker gang, a road trip, drugs, police, past sins.......... what's not to like?

Since these two Nikitas has written a novella/long short story - Runaway (2014) and another novel for YA - Extra Life (2015) ...... discretion being the better part of valour I'll stick with these two for now

He's also been published in a Lee Child edited anthology - Killer Year

Pyres (2007)

In PYRES, 15 year old Lucia Moberg lifts a CD out of a store in a shopping mall—and when she and her dad get into their car, there is a tap at the window. The next second her father's brains are on the dashboard. So begins the story of the ruin of her mother, whose home life is shrouded in darkness, a mysterious and menacing motorcycle gang, the real-to-life female cop out to crack the case, who is facing her own family's collapse, and the struggle for Lucia to piece together some semblance of a normal teenage life. The writing is hard and crisp, and wholly multi-dimensional, while the story moves along at a nail-biting pace with twists, turns, literary allusions, and the engaging plight of several fascinating, memorable, and fully rounded characters.

The Long Division (2009)

An Atlanta housecleaner flees her nowhere life to reunite with the son she gave up for adoption. The teenage boy joins his long lost mother on an unlawful road trip that proves how much they both have to lose by finding each other. Elsewhere, a deputy must track down the shooter in a drug-related double murder before other investigators discover the deputy's illicit ties to the case. The killer is an unbalanced college kid hunted by vengeful drug dealers and the police, haunted by loves both dead and for bidden. When the renegade mother and son arrive, past sins and present gambits will ensnare them in the violent endgame between the deputy and the desperate killer.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH SARA GRAN

Late last year, I was lucky enough to get the chance to read Sara Gran's latest novel - The Infinite Highway - the third book in her Claire DeWitt series.

Sara Gran by Eliza Gran

A few semi-coherent thoughts on The Infinite Blacktop here.

With the Washington Square Press paperback now available, Sara was kind enough to answer a few questions for me......

Your latest book, The Infinite Blacktop, can you pitch it to a potential read in a short paragraph? It was my first time reading your work and I really enjoyed it.

The INFINITE BLACKTOP is the third book in my ongoing series about a detective, Claire DeWitt, as she makes her way through life and all of its mysteries.

After City of the Dead and Bohemian Highway, was it an easier book to write than the other two?

It was much, much harder than the other two, and I will explain why, so other writers will do this in a smarter way than I did: in the first two books, I created a bunch of (very cool!) mysteries and loose ends and secrets waiting to be revealed. So in the third book, I had to start dealing with all those mysteries and complicated plots and secrets and start letting the audience in on what was going on here and how it all ties together -- while also making the book accessible to people who hadn't read the first two. Very uncool! Although I think and hope the result was worth it.

Did it involve a lot of research in respect of the locations of events in the book?

The book takes place in places where I've spent enough time to realistically set something there. I struggle with writing places I haven't been in. I struggle with other writers doing it, too. It's very, very hard to pull off (but not impossible).

How long from conception and the germ of an idea for the story until eventual publication did the book take?

YEARS! I had a a lot of false starts with this book. In addition to the structural problems mentioned above, these characters and this world have become very dear to my heart, so it's very important to me not to take shortcuts and be really scrupulously honest with these stories.

Is Claire’s race run or are there plans afoot for further cases for the “world’s greatest detective”?

There are definitely more Claire Dewitt books coming. But next up is another horror novel, a thriller, and then the next Claire DeWitt.

On your writing in general, do you have a typical writing schedule? 
Do you write every day?

When I was starting out, I found that I wasn't really accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish, so I made a rule: any free time, I'd be writing. I wrote on the subway. I wrote on my bookstore lunch break. I wrote nights, mornings, and weekends.

Is the writing a full-time gig? I see from your website you also work in film and television. Does that involve writing as part of a team?

Yes, writing is a full-time job. I write, books, TVs, movies, and occasionally little essays (which generate almost no income, but can be fun). Then there's also all the bullshit around the actual writing: the rejections, the pitches, the talk of book covers, the arguments with editors, and all that. It can be fun to get out there and work with others, but I also very much value days spent writing alone.

Random trivia question time…..

When did you last have a cat/fist fight? 

I wouldn't say I exactly fight with my cat, but we do bicker occasionally. She really doesn't respect my schedule, or the fact that I pay the bills around here.

Have you ever been thrown out of a bar or a club? 

Oh yes.

Do you have any tattoos? 

Four. I would like to get more but I developed a (minor) autoimmune disorder called lichen planus, which sadly does not involve turning into an actual lichen, but makes my skin scar too easily/unpredictably for more tattoos.

What’s the worst meal you have ever eaten? 

Probably one I cooked myself, although I'm getting better.




Many thanks to Sara for her time.

You can catch up with her on Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/sara__gran/ 

Her website is here -  https://www.worldsbestdetective.com/

and she has a very rare newsletter you can subscribe to at https://www.worldsbestdetective.com/contact


You can get hold of The Infinite Blacktop at Amazon

UK    US    CANADA   AUSTRALIA      

(and other retailers of course)

BARNES & NOBLE    BAM    INDIEBOUND

About The Book


The “delicious and addictive” (Salon) Claire DeWitt series returns with a thrilling, noirish knockout novel that follows three separate narratives starring the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest detective.” As Cara Hoffman, author of Running, says, this “is a hard-boiled, existential masterpiece.” 

Claire DeWitt, the hard-living and tough-talking private investigator, has always been something of a detective. As a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, Claire and her two best friends, Tracy and Kelly, fell under the spell of the book Detection by legendary French detective Jacques Silette. They solved many cases together, in the process witnessing human behavior at its worst. The three were inseparable—until the day Tracy vanished without a trace. That is still the only case Claire ever failed to solve.

Later, in her twenties, Claire is in Los Angeles trying to get her PI license by taking on a cold case that has stumped the LAPD. She hunts for the real story behind the death of a washed-up painter ten years earlier, whose successful, widely admired artist girlfriend had died a few months before him.

Today, Claire is on her way to Las Vegas when she’s almost killed by a homicidal driver. In a haze of drugs and injuries, she struggles off the scene, determined to find her would-be killer’s identity but the list of people who would be happy to see her dead is not a short one.

As these three “eccentric, enticingly artful” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) narratives converge, some mysteries are solved and others continue to haunt. But Claire will continue her search for the answer to the biggest mystery of all: what is the purpose of our lives, and how can anyone survive in a world so clearly designed to break our hearts again and again?

AUGUST, 2019 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

Another exercise undertaken for the 4th consecutive year. Usual rules applied, some days I skipped, some days I read more than one, especially as I was away the arse end of the month.

Some are recent, some are from a few years ago, some are from authors I love..... Preston Lang, Matt Phillips, Paul D. Brazill, Aidan Thorn etc etc

Previous years links below

AUGUST, 2016 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

AUGUST, 2017 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

AUGUST, 2018 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!


1st     J.M. Taylor - A Quick-Silver Pay Out (Out of the Gutter Online)

2nd   Jeffrey A. Cooper - Jack Was a Thief (Sketchy Types - Jeffrey A. Cooper's website)

3rd    Martin Zeigler - Three Ring Binder (Shotgun Honey)   

4th     Mark SaFranco - Cream (Suspense Magazine)

5th    C.J. Grant - The Job (Close to the Bone)

6th    John Stevens - The Thunderbird Motel (Close to the Bone)

7th    Beau Johnson - No Offence to Mr. Neeson (Spelk Fiction)

8th    Aidan Thorn - A Conversation with a Stranger (Spelk Fiction)

9th    Jason Beech - A Conversational Robbery (Out of the Gutter Online)

10th   Jeffrey A. Cooper - Trouble Man (Sketchy Types - Jeffrey A. Cooper's website)

11th   Jesse "Heels" Rawlins - The Bayou Boobie Blues (Punk Noir Magazine)

12th   Brandon Sears - Deep Woods Despatched (Shotgun Honey)

13th   Roy Dorman - To Be Opened Upon My Death (Out of the Gutter Online)

14th   Roy Dorman - Claire's Close Call (Yellow Mama Webzine)

15th   Paul D. Brazill - The Last Shot (Close to the Bone)

16th   Tom Leins - Scumbags with Bumbags (Spelk Fiction)

17th    Brandon Barrows - Above Water (ToughCrime.com)

18th    Beau Johnson - My Kingdom for a Fence (Spelk Fiction)

19th    Brian Morse - The Buttered Pig (Shotgun Honey)

20th    Paul Matts - Spade, Rose and Blood (Punk Noir Magazine)

21st    Preston Lang - Three Minutes Thirty-Nine Seconds (Spelk Fiction)

22nd   Don Stoll - Trust (Punk Noir Magazine)

23rd    Paul Greenberg - Dollar Sign on the Baby (Out of the Gutter Online)

24th    Matt Phillips - Role Player (Out of the Gutter Online)

25th    Jesse "Heels" Rawlins - Kiss Me Goodbye, Baby … (Spelk Fiction)

26th    Bill Baber - Those Three Days (Dead Guns Press) 

27th    Preston Lang - Spray (Shotgun Honey)

28th    Robert Ragan - Positive Role Model (Punk Noir Magazine)

29th    David Jaggers - Interrogation (Spelk Fiction)

30th    Albert Tucher - The Rule of Three (Shotgun Honey)

31st    Bill Baber - You Were Supposed to Be (Yellow Mama Webzine)