July 11 - "McHenry's Gift"

“McHenry’s Gift”
by Mike MacLean
Hardcore Hardboiled (2008)

* * * * (Great) Noir

Dillon Leary receives a mysterious package while hiding out after killing his former mentor, now rival, McHenry.

It’s a staple of noir stories – and stories in general – that the past, and the people who lived then, existed in a better state than that of the present. In these types of stories it’s that healthy level of respect that often saves a character. In this case, it provides us the twist ending to the tale. Once you meet McHenry, with his telltale fedora, it’s obvious what is in the package that arrives at Dillon’s door. The meaning of the hat, however, is a surprise, and it gives the story its perfect ending.

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.

June 5 - "Burning Ring of Fire"

“Burning Ring of Fire”
by Hana K. Lee
Hardcore Hardboiled (2008)

* * * * (Great) Noir

After a woman finds her lover, J, dead, drowned in the tub, she takes her revenge on the men responsible.

Revenge tales are fun. The good ones aren’t clean tales. They are brutal, vindictive beasts. But, they make good entertainment. Never learning much about the narrator, the story leaves the reader wishing for the next chapter in her life. Tough and determined, this is a woman with adventures still unwritten. Sometimes an unstoppable force of vengeance trailing devastation in her wake is just the thing for a Friday night.

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.]

May 25 - "Double Down"

“Double Down”
by Jason Starr
Sex, Thugs, and Rock & Roll (2009)

* * * (Okay) Noir

Jimmy takes a PI job to see if a woman is cheating on her husband. Needing money to fund his gambling habit, he decides to get paid from both ends, which leads to unexpected consequences.

The tough-guy talk is there, and it’s good. It’s accurate. Only, nothing happens. Jimmy is a degenerate gambler at the start of the story and is still a degenerate gambler at the end. Now, I wasn’t expecting huge life changes to occur in a few pages, but nothing - no change at all – that’s boring. Even his luck doesn’t change. Starts out a loser, ends a loser. At least he talks tough, using those swears like a pro.

May 16 - "Juanita"

“Juanita”
by Tim Wohlforth
Hardcore Hardboiled (2008)

* * * * (Great) Noir

Juanita wakes to find her abusive husband dead on the living room floor. Not knowing who killed her husband, Juanita decides to get rid of the body before people start asking questions.

Wohlforth does an excellent job setting the scene in this story. We can feel the oppressive heat, the crunch of the gravel yard, and the isolation of this home out in the desert. The best stories are those you can feel yourself inside. None of the characters are all that likeable – typical of noir – and yet they seem believable. They may not be people you would spend time with in the real world, but they make for fascinating company on the page. And the prose, it’s as noir as it comes in its hyphenated descriptions:

“Don’t they have some medal to honor the hero who kills the worst wife-beating, two-timing, double-crossing, porno-pimping, white-trash, desert rat there ever was?”

[This story was read on May 16, but the review was posted late because I once again fell asleep before typing it. I blame the movies I try to watch at night.]

May 14 - "A Flourish of Strumpets"

“A Flourish of Strumpets”
by Richard Matheson
Button, Button: Uncanny Stories (2008)

* * * * (Great) Noir

Representatives from the Exchange, offering a unique and venerable service to the community, hound a happily married couple.

My favorite parts of this simple story are the brief descriptions of the different attractive women knocking on the Gussett’s door.

• “a black-root blonde, slit-skirted and sweatered to within an inch of her breathing life”
• “a perky brunette with a blouse front slashed to forever”
• “a raven-haired, limp-lidded vamp”
• “a redhead sheathed in a green knit dress that hugged all that was voluminous and there was much of that”

All these noir-ish descriptions of dangerous dames in drop-dead outfits. Couldn’t help but enjoy the writing. And how about this, a great use of the word, gelatinous:

“His gaze rooted on the jutting opulence of Margie as she waggled along the aisle, then came to a gelatinous rest on a leather-topped bar stool.”