A Season in Heck, by Poppy Brite

by audreyrockstar

#7: “A Season in Heck” by Poppy Brite

Synopsis: How not to get ahead in food service: a tale of Rickey and G-man and the rest of the Liquor restaurant crew from an outsider’s perspective.

“I’m kind of scared of Rickey,” Paul admitted. “He’s so… you know… dramatic. I mean, you plate the special wrong, and the next thing you know it’s like a Russian novel around here.”

G-man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but Paul got the feeling he was trying not to laugh. “Presentation is very important to Rickey,” he said at last.

One of my less favorite Liquor stories holds up well on re-reading. “A Season in Heck” appears in the collection The Devil You Know.

“Giving Blood” John Updike from the collection THE MAPLES

by Patti Abbott

Updike spent a lot of his early career writing about his failed first marriage. This is a story on the cusp of its dissolution (at least fictionally). The Maples go to the hospital to donate blood for a relative’s surgery. The husband is touched by the specter of their side by side cots and lines of blood. There is an air of finality to this story. The idea that this shared experience will be one of their last. And the blood, in its vivid red, is a good metaphor for the four children and the life they will soon leave behind. Patti Abbott

“The Morning After” by Jedidiah Ayres

by bloodandtacos

From NOIR AT THE BAR edited by Jedidiah Ayres & Scott Phillips, published in 2011 and available from Subterranean Books in St. Louis

Here’s what you should do. What over to your bookshelf. Is there a copy of NOIR AT THE BAR? It should. It has stories by Matthew McBride, Frank Bill, Sean Doolittle, Laura Benedict, Kyle Minor, and an insane list of great writers, including the books editors Jedidiah Ayres and Scott Phillips. A labor of love that deserves your support.

The story I read is right up my alley. After getting kicked out of the house and moving his spare belongings, our hero goes on a bender, only having to return back to real life.

The strengths are in the details and the ease of language. The story acts as a very simple frame for the action, and what we are given is a peek into the lives of the characters. Not a complete picture, but just enough of the present to guess at their past and future.

Also, buy this book.

14/365

Puck by Pat Dennis

by Barb Goffman

14/366 from the anthology Once Upon A Crime edited by Gary R. Bush and Chris Everheart (Nodin Press 2009)

Put-upon,  narcissistic Edith Mae can’t stand her neighbors or her husband or anyone, really.  And she hates when her neighbor Puck comes knocking at her door, selling plastic crap to raise money so little hockey players in the neighborhood can go to some tournament. As if Edith Mae should shell out her own money to assist with that. But Edith Mae gets  interested when she learns that Puck has already raised $1,500 in cash contributions for the trip. Very interested. Did I mention that Edith Mae has no qualms about breaking into her neighbors’ homes? Of course, things never go as planned, do they?

A Pizza with Legs

by chrisrhatigan

“A Pizza with Legs” by Pete Risley at Powder Burn Flash.

Alec Cizak named this story one of his top five of 2011 over at my blog, and I can see why. It’s a cool blend of crime and horror. Funny in a gruesome, strange way. Risley is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers and I plan on picking up his novel Rabid Child.

13 of 365

Outside Work Detail

by chrisrhatigan

“Outside Work Detail,” by Scott Wolven in Controlled Burn. 

This is the second story in this short story collection in a section called “The Northeast Kingdom,” referring to a region of Vermont. It’s about Cooper, who gets transferred from a maximum security prison to a minimum security prison. He learns from another inmate that his release is imminent, but he has to guard this information if he wants to survive.

This is a solid piece of work — excellent writing, tons of detail, well researched, and Cooper is relatable. For whatever reason, I didn’t really for it, but I’ll certainly keep reading this collection. I was first turned on to Wolven by his story in the Crime Factory antho, which was one of my favorites, and I’m assuming there are others in here that I’ll dig.

Bayou de la Mere, by Poppy Brite

by audreyrockstar

#6: “Bayou de la Mere” by Poppy Brite

Synopsis: Two chefs from New Orleans head inland for a weekend vacation and run smack up against one of their pasts.

They were staying on the second floor of a 160-year-old hotel that looked out over the bayou. The place smelled of lemon floor polish and genteelly decaying wood. “I gonna show you up to y’all room,” said the proprietress when they checked in. The accent out here was nothing like the exuberant, full-throated New Orleans one; rather, it was low and musical, with a hint of the French spoken here less than a century ago. The woman’s jet-dark eyes, curious but not overtly hostile, kept slipping back to them as she showed off the room with its double bed. We might not like everything y’all do in New Orleans, Rickey imagined her thinking, but we need y’all money.

Lots of people know Brite as an early 90s purveyor of splatterpunk, but I think his Liquor series, featuring chefs G-man and Rickey and their adventures in the New Orleans restaurant trade, are far and away superior to the splatter and remain some of my serious comfort reads.

Brite knows New Orleans and the surrounding environs and if nothing else, these stories are a beautiful capturing of the region, pre-Katrina. “Bayou de la Mere” appears in the collection The Devil You Know.

Threshold by Jim Ray Daniels

by Brian Lindenmuth

Threshold by Jim Ray Daniels from Trigger Man: More Tales from the Motor City.

14/365

This is a story of a man trying to hold the fraying strands of his marriage together at the same time his damaged sister is back in town looking for…something. Money, a place to lay her head, help, who knows, she probably doesn’t either.

A Walk in the Park by Iain Rowan

by Brian Lindenmuth

A Walk in the Park by Iain Rowan from the collection Nowhere to Go.

13/365

This is a Brit Grit story of a money man who is forced to attend to a hit with an out of town hitter way out in the boonies. Thinks go hinky and before you know it the story has turned into a Brit Grit Pine Barrens.

The Puzzle Lock by Austin Freeman

by Arun

Source: The Puzzle Lock. All the stories can be downloaded from Gutenberg at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500391.txt

Story Number: 14

Dr. Thorndyke, creation of Austin Freeman is famous for his forensic/medical/scientific detective methods in his novels and short stories. This story however is not a typical story which will fit into these characteristics. Here, he tackles a chronogram which effectively leads the police to completely apprehend a big gang.

The story begins with Thorndyke and his companion Jervis observing Inspector Badger following a couple of men. A few days later, Superintendent Miller comes to the doctor’s house to narrate a strange case – the police force is on the track of a ‘managing director’ of a big gang which mainly deals in the burglary of jewels. Luttrell, the man they have been following in connection to this case has disappeared. It turns out that Luttrell was also one among the two whom Badger was following; both men have not been seen ever since they gave Badger the slip. Luttrell is a dealer who has built up a fortress like office with a strong room guarded by a Puzzle Lock – a lock without any keys and which can be opened only by providing a 15 digit code. The only clue which Miller can provide is a seal from the ring belonging to Luttrell – which shows a four line Latin poem.

A few days later, Miller requests Thorndyke to accompany him to check out Luttrell’s office as the owner has noticed a leakage on the utility meter but he can’t detect the source for this leakage. By this time, the doctor has already converted that poem into a chronogram and in solving that chronogram has obtained the 15 digit code to the lock. When the strong room is opened, they find the bodies of both the missing men along with a dairy of the list of the gang members. The doctor also identifies the mastermind for the police by explaining the clues which aptly point to the guilty party.