#556 Work Denis Johnson

#556 Work Denis Johnson

  

OK, let’s see: we have an abusive drug addict beating up his abusing drug addict girlfriend; we have an alcoholic so riddled with the DTs that he needs help lifting the day’s first shot up to his mouth; we have robbery, fights, and crooked card games…must be another Denis Johnson short story.

This is a world filled with misery, regret, shame, and little chance of redemption, unless your definition of redemption is a few ill-gotten dollars so you can partake in more bad decisions that lead to misery, regret and shame.

This story isn’t as fun as it sounds.

Notable Passage: “To me you don’t make no more noise than a fart in a paper bag.”

Rating: 7-6-5-5- Total= 23

#548 Charm City- Robert Stone

#548 Charm City- Robert Stone

Frank Bower falls for a con. He is attending a music recital alone at the museum, and lets himself be seduced by a mysterious woman. He is married but likes the taste of a little adventure and drives her across the bay to his second house. All the while, the woman remains vague and intriguing. When they get to the house, she feigns remorse and asks to be driven home.

We see later that the meeting was not a random occurrence, but a set up, and she had successfully used his vanity to scope out his house for a robbery.

Notable Passage: “Everybody loves you when you’re somebody else.”

Rating: 7-6-6-6 Total= 25

#547 Misprision of Felony- O’Neil De Noux

#547 Misprision of Felony- O’Neil De Noux

A murder happens in New Orleans. The owner of a corner store was shot and killed in an armed robbery. Unfortunately this has happened more now than it used to.

“Things were different now, AK—after Katrina. The hardcore criminals, who were some of the first to return, had reestablished themselves with a killing vengeance. The murder rate was back up top as new blood carved out drug territories, and the police department, as devastated as the neighborhoods, reeled in turmoil.”

Det. Savary is on the case, but is getting nowhere. He is being stonewalled by the neighborhood, meaning only one thing:

“A local boy did this, but no one was giving him up to the police. It didn’t even matter if Savary was raised three blocks away on Erato Street. The day he started the police academy was the day he’d left the neighborhood—permanently.”

With the help of his FBI friend, Savary tracks down the murderer, and it was a local criminal. Now that the murder is taken care of, he’s going after the culture of silence. Misprision of Felony goes back to English common law. It makes it illegal to knowingly conceal the details of a felony, even if you, yourself are not involved. In other words, rat or rot.

Rating: 7-6-6-5 Total= 24

#528 Dundun- Denis Johnson

#528 Dundun- Denis Johnson

There is no honor among thieves…or drug addicts. Dundun has just accidentally shot McInness. It’s Dunduns birthday, he’s been smoking opium to honor the occasion and now he’s just shot someone. The narrator is the driver, and is doing this to curry favor in the group. They drive past endless fields of dying crops, in a futile attempt for salvation.

“It was a long straight road through dry fields as far as a person could see. You’d think the sky didn’t have any air in it, and the earth was made of paper. Rather than moving, we were just getting smaller and smaller.”

Unfortunately, sometimes there is no salvation to be had. McInnes dies in route and they dump the body. “Most of the farmers didn’t even plant anymore.”

Rating: 7-6-5-5 Total= 23

#508 A Fine Mist of Blood- Michael Connelly

#508 A Fine Mist of Blood- Michael Connelly

Connely uses his Detective Harry Bosch for this one, the same detective used in many of his mystery novels. This time he’s working a cold case, actually two cold cases. The LAPD has put together a DEATH squad that has digitized all the forensic details of their unsolved cases. Harry gets a hit that links two muders.

Diane Gables was a cursory witness in two old cases, but nothing much came out of either one. When Harry catches her in a seemingly innocent lie, he knows immediately that she was the killer. She falls in his web and it turns out that she is a vigilante targeting abusive men.

This story discusses the fine line between punishment and retribution, revenge versus justice.

Rating: 7-6-7-6 Total= 26

#493 Out on Bail- Denis Johnson

#493 Out on Bail- Denis Johnson

This is a drinking take, full of degenerates, crime, and little hope. Johnson is doing his best William Boroughs impersonation. The narrator flashes from memory to memory of his times at the Vine bar and his acquaintance, Jack Hotel that just beat a 25 year prison sentence for robbing a drug dealer. Although not a fantastic story, or an original one for that matter, it does have some nice quotes about drinking.

-Because we all believed we were tragic and we drank. We had that helpless, destined feeling. We would die with handcuffs on. We would be put a stop to, and it wouldn’t be our fault. So we imagined. And yet we were always being found innocent for ridiculous reasons.

-Sometimes what I wouldn’t give to have us sitting at a bar again at 9:00 a.m. telling lies to one another, far from God.

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27

#484 Smothered and Covered- Tom Barlow

#484 Smothered and Covered- Tom Barlow

As the title suggests, this story takes place late night/early morning in a Waffle House. The waitress, Sandy presides over her normal 3 am crowd which includes her ex husband Tim. A twelve year old girl walks in and Sandy isn’t sure whether to call the Police. In a scene of normal late night Waffle House cast of speed freaks, and other undesirables, the image of a little girl seems out of place. But she’s a smart-mouthed sass-giving customer that doesn’t look like she’s in trouble so they don’t call.

It turns out that the “adult” that came to pick her up was an internet predator and the girl ended up dead the next morning. Now, Tim and Sandy are left guilt-ridden about not interceding and the big mistakes of their past come flooding back.

Notable Passage: “I never realized when I was a kid that every day of your life is a high wire act. Twenty years you can say the right thing, and then pow—one casual comment, one inattentive moment, and you’re in freefall.

Rating: 7-6-7-7 Total= 26

#480 Lamb to the Slaughter- Roald Dahl

#480 Lamb to the Slaughter- Roald Dahl

Mary Moloney was the perfect housewife, loving and doting on her husband. She was also six months pregnant. Her husband was the perfect husband, a hard working police officer. He comes home after work and she makes drinks and they sit together, enjoying each other’s company. This is a happy marriage.

“She loved him for the way he say loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door, or moved slowly across the room with long strides. She loved the intent, far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny shape of his mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness, sitting still with himself until the whisky had taken some of it away.”

Of course things aren’t always as they seem. When secrets are revealed, a horrible crime is committed. They say that the cover up is always worse than the crime. In this case it may also be more delicious too.

Rating: 7-8-8-8 Total= 31

#442 Genesis to Revelation- Peter Plate

#442 Genesis to Revelation- Peter Plate

This is another short story from the San Francisco Noir collection. It’s Christmas Eve and a surprisingly sweltering ninety-six degrees on Market Street. Slatts Calhoun, three days released from San Quentin Prison in on the streets looking for trouble. He’s dressed as Santa Clause, and he’s packing a .357.

He forces his way into a medical marijuana shop, and robs the register.  It was almost a clean getaway but the police got there faster than he thought. So much for Santa.

“The Gods of crime were not smiling on Market that afternoon.”

Rating: 6-6-5-6 Total= 23

#424 Young Man Blues- Luis Alberto Urrea

#424 Young Man Blues- Luis Alberto Urrea

The sins of the father fall on the son’s shoulders. Joey takes care of his drunken mother while his father is in prison. I laughed at the first line of this one:

“It sounded like a vacation spot: Pelican Bay.”

Of course it isn’t really funny at all. It’s tragic. His father was in the most notorious, maximum-security prison this country has. He was a gangbanger. His motorcycle gang, The Visigoths, were trying to take territory that wasn’t theirs. There were shootings, now Joey is left in its wake. He looks through his father’s gear including Nazi paraphernalia and club jackets.

“He knew that if he stepped outside wearing the vest, he’d be dead in an hour. It gave the colors a weird sense of power.”

He didn’t want any of that, but he held onto it because it was his fathers. Butchie, a member of his dad’s club wants Joey to hand over a gun, but he won’t.  Now he’s in trouble. He can get out of trouble if he helps Butchie rob Joey’s employer. He won’t do that either. Now he’s really in trouble. Salvation might have come too late.

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#273 The Sign of the Potent Pills- Dashiell Hammett

#273 The Sign of the Potent Pills- Dashiell Hammett

This reads more like a British parlor game of who-dun-it rather than the hard-boiled detective stories Hammett is known for, but it is an entertaining one. Mr. Trate is a young detective summoned to a house full of awaiting people. He does not know why is has been asked there and neither do we. As he stands in the room listening to its inhabitants talk vaguely talk about what has happened, he is occasionally brought into the mix. His 11 day career causes him to be poked at relentlessly:

-“Go ahead young fellow…detect something for the lady.”

-“I hope you ain’t going to be too hard on us young fellow.”

-“I’m gonna smack that punk yet.”

Intrigue, fires, gun-play, and a bit of a twist ending (although a convoluted one), makes for a fun read. The piece did suffer a bit of an identity crisis. What turned out as more of a farce, at first had a bit of a spooky mood, with descriptions like:

-“In front of the house a high grilled gate interrupted the black fence. It was a gate designed for shutting people out rather than admitting, a gate wrought in lines as uninviting as the upright sharp pickets.”

-“Opaque blinds and heavy curtains hid the windows. A glittering chandelier lighted the room. From the farther end a dozen faces looked at Trate with indefinite expectancy.”

Notable Passage: “I think it’s wonderful…to be able to make plans that go through successfully no matter how much everybody tries to spoil them from the beginning.”

Rating: 7-7-7-6 Total=27

#263 Glow in the Dark- David Dante Troutt

#263 Glow in the Dark- David Dante Troutt

David Dante Troutt put together a unique collection here. The Monkey Suit: And Other Short Fiction on African Americans and Justice, is fictionalized tellings of true court cases. The truth about these cases have been obscured by shady history, bad reporting, and about the ways we never truly can know certain facts. Just because these stories may not represent the facts, doesn’t make the telling of them any less truthful.

The opening salvo is Glow in the Dark. John Henry, a runaway slave is tied to a Sheriff awaiting his fate. He is struggling with killing the lawman in his sleep. He holds this conversation with the rope itself:

“Hush rope, John Henry whispers hard at it. I ain’t wanna hurt dis boy. I see bout runnin tomorruh.”

The heavy dialect sets the correct mood for this story. John Henry has no allies except for his anthropomorphized bindings, and fate, as expected runs it course.

Rating: 7-7-7-6 Total= 27

#261 Doo Wop- Jabari Asim

#261 Doo Wop- Jabari Asim

Ray Mortimer is a violent, crooked cop. “Crossing Sarah street, Mortimer loses himself in a fog of memories. So many ass-kickings, all in the name of peace.”

Charlotte is “A Petite southern lady with a brain for science will of steel.”

And Guts is a hard-hitting killer.

Tonight their three paths will cross. Their fates will converge, and somebody will die. Is it random, is it justice, is it destiny?

“It’s all about choices…tonight I stopped. Another day I might have kept on going. Who’s to say how it all comes out in the end? Damned if you doo-wop, damned if you don’t.”

Notable Passage: “Danger always has a scent, though most of us miss it.”

Rating: 7-7-7-7 Total= 28

#252 The Hunter- Dashiell Hammett

#252 The Hunter- Dashiell Hammett

Hammett, of course, is the author of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man. This collection is a compendium of his previously uncollected short works.  Most of them are not the crime stories that he became famous for. The Hunter however, is such a work, it’s a detective mystery, of the hard-boiled variety—I’ve never been sure exactly what hard-boiled meant in a detective story, but here you have it.

According to the introduction, Fred Vitt is particularly hard-boiled and is on the case of a check forger and narrows it down to a business owner or his bookkeeper. He settles on the book keeper, but gets stonewalled: “That was better. Againts antagonism he could make progress.”

He puts on the hard press and gets his confession. Another good day’s work. The life of a private detective can be a hard, thankless life.

“But he liked its irregular variety, the assurances of his own cleverness that come frequently to any but the most uniformly successless of detectives, and the occasional full-tilt chase after a fleeting someone who was…a scoundrel of one sort or another. Too, a detective has a certain prestige in some social divisions, a matter in no way equalized by his lack of any standing at all in others.”

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27