June 17 - "The Replacement"

“The Replacement”
by Duane Swierczynski
Hardcore Hardboiled (2008)

* * * * * (Excellent) Noir

A man is sentenced to the Replacement Program after killing a young woman while driving drunk. In the Replacement Program the man must compensate for the loss of life by living the life he stole.

It’s such a crazy and fascinating idea, taking the death penalty and flipping it to a life sentence. It’s the kind of idea that only works as a story – nobody would make the effort the narrator makes at filling in for this lost life (and no right family would suffer the killer as replacement). Swierczynski is a master at taking an impossible idea and turning it into a fast-paced, enjoyable tale. And that final scene in which the resentful brother can take this intrusion no longer and ends up destroying the family is hilarious in its tragedy.