June 1 - "A Sleep Not Unlike Death"

“A Sleep Not Unlike Death”
by Sean Chercover
Hardcore Hardboiled (2008)

* * * * (Great) Noir

Gravedigger Peace is reminded of a time – a life – before his existence as a gravedigger. When that reminder shows up in his graveyard it awakens the killer inside he long believed dead.

Gravedigger Peace is a fascinating character. The back-story provided in this short tale does nothing but whet the appetite for further adventures with this character. (And as luck would have it, Gravedigger appears as a sidekick in Chercover’s novel, Big City, Bad Blood.) That’s the problem with some short stories: they are simply too short. The characters practically beg to be explored further, in more detail.

[This story was read June 1st, but the Chair of Unexpected Sleep claimed yet another victim, and this review was posted a day late.]