Hardcore Hardboiled

As the cover states, HARDCORE HARDBOILED is a collection of some of the top new writers in the genre of neo-noir, presented by online fiction mag ThugLit. I can safely say this collection has made me fans of everyone involved, but even that does not give it the praise it deserves. Not only does it feature some BOOKGASM favorites in Sean Chercover, Ken Bruen and Duane Swierczynski, but it also has a variety of new talent to which this book will give greater exposure.

Here are some bullet points that really make a case for this collection for our readers:
• Four stories either mention or use Johnny Cash as a key part to their plots.
• Two stories deal with a new breed of vampires.
• One story has an old crime boss playing MARIO KART.
• One story deals with the world of monkey fighting.

These are stories that not only deliver with a punch, but with barbed wire wrapped around those fists. Edited by Todd Robinson, HARDCORE HARDBOILED opens with “Ten Dimes” by Mike Toomey, which relates a story of how the old-timers deserve nothing but respect, even when dead. Bruen’s “Brant Bites Back” is one of the two vampire tales, dealing with a cop who doesn’t believe what he saw, with some unexpected consequences; the other tale is “The All-Night Dentist” by Vincent Kovar.

In “Juanita” by Tim Wohlforth, a woman is sick of her husband and figures out the best way to get rid of him, until she realizes that she’s only trading in one asshole for a new one. Chercover brings back one of his secondary characters from his Ray Dudgeon series in “Gravedigger Peace,” which gives readers a bit more backstory to this brutal figure. Don’t worry, new readers: This story totally stands on its own and will probably make you search out more of his work.

Mike MacLean’s “McHenry’s Gift” is about mobsters, revenge and a man named Dillon Leary, who thinks he’s finally about to make a grand move after receiving help from a dead associate. “Kill Posse” by Victor Gischler and “Eden’s Bodyguard” by David Bareford both deal in the music world; the latter with the ideas of musicians and their delusional bodyguards, and the first about a rock star who should have kept in his pants.

Frank Zafiro’s “Rescuing Issac” tells the story of a young mobster whose dad can pull the strings, but also knows when to cut them, while “Eight Guns Over a Dead Girl” by Patty Templeton is severely black in a comic way, if you can call it that,about a female mugger who sees an easy score, a mobster’s wife and a 13-year-old who owns a pair of binoculars.

But the one story that really topped them all was Swierczynski’s “The Replacement,” told in some sort of alternate future where there is a second option for the crimes you commit: replacing the person you killed by taking their place and living their lives as if they did not die. This story comes off as one that could have easily been found in Kurt Vonnegut’s WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE, except Swierczynski is truly one madman of ideas.

I feel as though I’m leaving out some of the other great stories in this collection, like the tale of auto alarms and how people just block them out of their heads, in J.D. Smith’s “False Alarm,” or even Bill Fitzhugh’s “The Neighbors,” which plays on the 9/11 paranoia to great effect. I’m just kicking myself for not reading this book sooner, since it’s one of the best collections of short fiction of the new breed. I’ve got a whole lot of new names written down on a list of authors to be on the lookout for. —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

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About Bruce Grossman

Bruce writes the "Bullets, Broads, Blackmail and Bombs" weekly column. He lives in Massachusetts.