Paul D. BrazillBesprekingen

The first issue of Switchblade is an intriguing mix of both noir and hard boiled fiction. The anthology is divided into two parts consisting of flash fiction and short fiction. Per the introduction written by editor Scotch Rutherford, the tales in this magazine share a common goal of killing political correctness as violently as possible while also entertaining the reader. Both goals are easily met in the first issue. Sensitive readers are warned that there is extensive use of adult language and/or adult situations. There is nothing cozy happening in these tales.

The flash section opens with an author who has been a long time favorite of this reviewer, Paul D. Brazill. His tales always feature characters in the thick of their own mess and Tony Fowler in “Getting Away With It” fits the bill from the first sentence. Crashing a stolen BMW is bad enough and then things really go downhill.

Jim J. Wilsky is up next with “Gut Wrenching.” Wayne Lee Parsons really needs a doctor. A towel and some duct tape are just not going to get the job done.

Prison taught Bobbie a few things. Max has questions in “Re-election” by Fred Zackel.

Daylight shinning into a bar is never a pretty sight and the Rumkey is no exception in “Primed” by Scotch Rutherford. Johnny owing Max instead is not an upgrade or is going to make things any better. Not there is any real choice for him or anyone else.

A kangaroo, a car, and a lot more is involved in the very short tale, “Urban Legend #223” by Susan Cornford.

After those five flash tales, it is on to the longer fare in the fiction section. The section opens with “The Stooge” by Tom Leins. Bradley Loomis is insane and needs to be put down like some sort of crazed wild animal. You have to do a lot of unsavory things working undercover and dealing with Loomis is just one of many.

Dave Williams died under the overpass last night. He was homeless. His family should know what happened in “Rats” by Liam Sweeny. The real world threw casted Dave out before the same thing happened to our narrator. He owes it to Dave to share his story.

Henry Eddie Nova has been coming to the home in Grosse Pointe to give the kid lessons for eight weeks now. He is supposed to be teaching the kid how to play in “That’s All Right Mama” by Steve Liskow. If the kid would practice, that would help. Everybody knows Henry Eddie Nova can play the guitar like nobody’s business. But, the kid is just not getting it.

The bright red Ferrari makes quite the statement in “A Taste For Danger” by Lawrence Kelter. So do two wise guys that step out of the car. Two of the biggest dirt bags Bensonhurst had ever produced are coming down the pier and getting on the boat. The Clip Joint is about to head into the evening sea with those two wise guys, a few other folks, and the latest batch of very expensive call girls.

There are submerged cars up and down Buffalo Bayou in Houston. Normally our narrator would be doing underwater work at oil rigs out in the Gulf. Then the layoff happened. The divorce happened. Now he is checking the cars for dead bodies and more in “The Apex Predator” by William Dylan Powell.

Nabih always makes a point to give Mr. K the nastiest twenty dollar bills he has. If he could find some cholera he would dip the twenties into that first before handing them over. He has his reasons in “North Creek Brown” by Preston Lang.

There are seven folks hanging out at the bar. Most of them are the regulars except for the stranger nursing his beer at a table in the back. Then the woman and her friend walk in and things start getting weird in “Stranger In A Bar” by Travis Richardson.

It is a cold night in Detroit and the casino has damn near cleaned out our narrator. He has five quarters left in “Killing Time So I Can Dig Myself A Deeper Grave” by Jack Bates. Then the old man shows up at the doors of The Big Wheel Casino. He just needs a little help in a tale that brings the first issue to a fitting close.

Switchblade: Issue 1, Volume 1 is a quality issue of gritty hard edged short stories. These are tales frequently filled with adult language and adult situations so sensitive readers should look elsewhere. These tales involve situations where things are headed sideways at best and into a wine filled gutter streaked with the blood of you and your enemies at worst.

While some folks have publicly complained about sloppy editing, I don’t agree. Most of what they are complaining about is actually stylistic choices made by the authors involved to tell their tales. My only complaint would be the very small typeface. Difficult to read on the iPad and nearly impossible to read in the Kindle for PC program, the typeface resisted all of my efforts to enlarge it.

If you like your reading with violence and dark edges, Switchblade: Issue 1, Volume 1 is definitely for you.

Switchblade: Issue 1, Volume 1
Editor Scotch Rutherford
http://www.switchblademag.com/
Caledonia Press
April 2017
ASIN: B0718SWXZ9
eBook (also available in Print)
110 Pages
$2.99

Material was picked up to read and review during a promotion by way of funds in my Amazon Associate account.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2018

Reading Brazill's Last Laugh is a bit like finding yourself in an episode
of the British version of Shameless after a night of pub crawling and
wondering how the hell you found yourself there. Pubs, drinking,
blokes, tough guys, drunks, cheats, comedians, East European whores,
and some rather off-color jokes fill out this volume. To me, this book is
as much about the atmosphere and the mood and the poetry of the
pub as it is about the plot in these stories. Some of the stories easily
morph into each other and the mood of being slightly off-kilter is
always there. There are passages in here you might want to read more
than once. The characters and the material are so rich.

Imagine if Frank from the British tv series "Shameless" were a down- on-his-luck private eye. In "The Gumshoe," Brazill offers up a full helping of classic private eye fiction meets modern British punk-fueled humor. "The gumshoe" is actually a series of vignettes rather than one long novella about a poor guy who wakes up on New Year's Day with "a horrifying wail that skewered its way deep into [his] unconscious brain." Of course, it was "Some twat, somewhere, was playing a U2 song over and over again." And, then there's the doorbell that doesn't stop ringing "like a stiletto grinding through my brain," our hero explains. This is truly the essence of a hangover. Because, well, you know, "In the real dark night of the soul, there was always some twat talking bollocks at three o'clock in the morning." These are vignettes fueled by booze and violence and solid British noir humor. Amidst the hoods and the drunks and the fishnet stockings and the bloody lifeless bodies, there is some damn good writing. Filled with references to rock music like Keith Moon drum solos, this is a story that has to be read. There are other stories here displaying this British sense of noir and punk and thuggery, but the title piece is the one that really captures your attention as you read this.

The title story, "Radio Moscow" is a dark piece of literary prose about life behind the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It features alternating narratives between that of the wife of an American businessman or diplomat and the police officer charged with watching her. The poetry in the author's descriptions is wonderful in the way it depicts the cold, gray, dreariness of life in the Soviet Bloc.

The other great story is "Say No," a take on Cain's Double Indemnity. If you like gritty hardboiled writing, this is your filet mignon. It is chock full of that wonderful pulpy good stuff and it is great fun, filled with classic femme fatales and trips south of the border.

The Last Laugh, a collection of short crime stories by Paul D. Brazill, opens with the signature story “The Last Laugh.” Godard comes back to reality on a hot day in the doorway of a record shop. He might be in Madrid, but he isn’t sure. The dream might have been real or might not. It has been a bad few days and he is feeling it in every fiber of his being. Though, for a man that is supposed to be dead, he is doing okay. Well enough to deal with a complicated problem because, though he mellowed a bit while underground, he still has the stones to do what needs to be done.

Toby Richards likes being whipped by Ania Nowak even while it has gotten rather boring for her. But, she does what she has to do to survive. In “The Luck Of The Devil” Ania and film director Toby Richards are just two players in a complicated situation involving what might be the skull ring of Himmler.

Mickey Mike Calloway is always hatching get rich plans during drinking binges with his friends. Normally, in the cold light of day, such plans are forgotten. But, one such plan stuck with the postman known to all as “Diggsy.” In “Route 66 And All That” the basic idea to get rich is to rip off a man known to everyone as “Big John Little.”

A get rich quick scheme is also at the heart of “The Postman Cometh” where some of the characters of the previous story make a return engagement. Mikey Mike has an idea how they could take over a certain local pub and become wealthy. Or, at the very least, better off than they are now. Not all the business conducted in the pub is above board and law abiding as there are various side businesses being conducted in the establishment.

This same idea naturally leads into the next story titled, “Up The Creek.” Paul Garner of the local record store has a deal with Mikey Mike. A bit of business is being conducted when Diggsy sees Eileen Calloway out on the street. Based on her attire and the black bag she is carrying she might be back in the burglary game. If so, that could be a serious problem. Not just because she is Mikey Mike’s sister.

Bertie Peaslee has really done it this time in “A Bit Of A Pickle.” He needs help and not just with getting rid of a body. Though that needs to be done too.

A cold winter night in Warsaw by way of “Red Esperanto” and Tatiana’s place is very claustrophobic at the moment. Looking over at the glass elevator at Westin Hotel does not help. More booze as well as Tatiana’s services, of which he will pay for, might help before he meets others at a local bar where plans sure to go wrong will be hatched and stories will be told.

The annual meeting of writers and crime fiction fans known as “Bullets in the bookshop” in Blackstone’s Bookshop in Cambridge is underway. Julian Stroud is holding court and is the target of a journalist representing the Madrid Review. Known as Luke Case, the journalist does quite a few things and not all of them are above board in “One Of Those Days In England.”

Jude Walker is very much dead and probably had it coming. Why Ginger Ronny had to confess to Burkey about it after a night of heavy drinking Burkey had no idea. It wasn’t like they were even friends. But, he had. Now Ronny is about to make things way worse.

Quigley is working “The Bucket List” for the exact reason one would expect. His version is a list of folks who should be permanently taken off the board. One of those names is Jacko Butler. He wasn’t the only name on the Quigley’s list that dates back to childhood. There are lots of scores to settle.

Lewis Quad also deserved to die in “A Dead Pimp In The Trunk.” But, that isn’t the point. What happened next is what matters in this tale.

He’d never thought he would ever pick up a hitchhiker. Even if she had great legs like this one on the side of the road somewhere a little down the road from Leeds. Of course, he’d also never had the idea that he would have to flee his six bedroom home in Essex in a stolen car. Now he is doing both in “A Tissue Of Webs. The fact she has a white guitar case is also important.

There are those days when everything you do goes very bad. Being the top dog at Premier Properties means there is always more than one young buck looking to take you down. That is not going to happen in “The Weather Prophet.” When Ed started at wrong in life he thought it gave him a heck of an edge sales wise and until now that has been true.

Everything that ever went bad in Peter Robson’s life could be blamed on the old Victorian house at 10 Sycamore Hill. “This Old House” is the bane of his existence. One late October night he came up with the same brilliant idea others before him have had over the decades to get rid of the problem. Like all plans, bad or otherwise, execution is the key. One has to have good help.

Lee Madison is haunted by the past in “The Return Of The Tingle.” One can never escape the past as it always is a major motivation in our lives. That fact is certainly true for Lee Madison.

Marcus Finch is in quite the mood when he leaves the Blackjax Casino with his younger brother, Toby, in tow. In “Silver Dream Racer” it is time for Marcus and Toby to hunt for action. The hunt is also a way to vent off the rage building in Marcus. Others are hunting as well.

First seen in the story in “The Luck Of The Devil” Himmler’s skull ring takes the starring role in “The Skull Ring.” Found on a stormy night that broke the stifling summer heat it was on the ground next to the dumpster. Just up the alley behind the Methodist church, Rowan woke up. He spotted the ring, picked it up before staggering home, where his life changed forever.

Lightning Jones is tall, beautiful, and extremely loud. She is also trouble in “The Lady And The Gimp.” For Private Detective Peter Ord she could turn out to be a problem he is going to deal with very soon.

Dealing with a drunk and drugged up Craig Ferry is just part of the job in “Who Killed Skippy?” Private Detective Peter Ord has known Craig since they were kids. The job is not getting any easier.

Oliver Robison finally snapped and ended his wife’s life using a couch cushion. Gloria is dead, but that did not solve the problem in “The Tut.”

If you have read A Case of Noir, Gumshoe, 13 Shots of Noir, Guns Of Brixton, or any of the other numerous works by author Paul D. Brazill you know what to expect. Stories filled with characters that experience constant hard times, drink a lot, and do what they have to survive. The Last Laugh most definitely lives up to its billing of “Crime Stories.” From start to finish in each tale the crime is the thing. The how, the why, and the players all change, but a crime remains the focus of each tale. As is the noir spirit regardless of the European setting of these twenty short stories.

The Last Laugh: Crime Stories
Paul D. Brazill
http://www.pauldbrazill.com
All Due Respect Books
http://www.allduerespectbooks.com
April 2016
ASIN: B01F0P5GM6
eBook (print format available)
264 Pages
$2.99

Publisher and author each provided me an eBook copy to read and review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

These six short, sharp stabs serve as an almost hurried introduction to an intriguing cast of characters, the kinda gumshoe guys who inhabit a hard-boiled urban environment straight out of the gold age of pulp fiction.

Indeed, The City shares some similarities with Frank Miller’s (Ba)Sin City – if not in geographical location then certainly in style and sensibility, and in the blood running into the gutters of its sleazy backstreets.

Within this collection you’ll encounter femmes extremely fatal, throwaway one-liners so sharp it’s a surprise the pages ain’t flayed, menacing gangland bosses with tribes of easily-identified henchmen, and tantalisingly obscure musical references. Just to flex some literary chops, there’s the odd Shakespearean reference, too.

At the centre of most of these stories stalks the protagonist himself, an emotionally bruised and physically battered investigator who can be horribly vulnerable and hideously violent. Inevitably he comes with the trappings that the role demands – a friend on the force, a sometime partner to watch his back, a very bad girl indeed, and a safe haven in the smoked-filled bar of a scuzzy gin joint.

Oh yeah, and Roman Dalton is a werewolf. Although that fact is far from being the driving force behind these stories. Dalton’s tendency to run amok at certain times of the month is played down in the mix – his lycanthropy is inevitably a major component of the narrative, sure, but these aren’t stories about being furry on the inside. The sinister brutalism of The City is expressed by all of its inhabitants, be they voodoo houngan, regular guy or a weirdly attractive witch.

Don’t expect acres of exposition. Brazill’s characters are expressed in bloody deed and snappy dialogue instead of detailed description. Also, don’t be even marginally misled by the slightly cutsie cover-art. Roman Dalton is not the kind of cartoon cuddly character you’d want to see at a child’s birthday party…
(There's more info about this collection over at http://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/roman-dalton-werewolf-pi-a-g... )

The problem with this anthology is that it’s all over far too fast. I’d only just about acclimatised to the author’s style and the surreal situation when each episode came howling to its conclusion. There’s plenty of black humour and carefully crafted writing to admire in this collection, but it left me feeling slightly unsettled and not entirely satisfied. Letting Roman Dalton loose for longer would, I think, make for more rewarding reading.
8/10

From the opening sentences of this gripping thriller, the reader is kept confused but captivated. You’re never quite sure what’s going on; we start with the central character in darkness, a captive, scrabbling to escape.

The canvas extends into rapid action as Brazill scatters clues to the back story. The narrative weaves between bleak banter and gritty backstreet noir, touching on the supernatural but firmly grounded in modern reality.

The writing is superbly stylish, with some sentences honed until not a single superfluous syllable remains. The action sequences are punchy, deliberately cold, hard-edged and unforgiving. And when it comes, the final resolution is both shocking and infinitely sad.
8/10

As noted in the subtitle of 13 Shots of Noir the e-book contains 13 short, sharp stories of booze, bullets and bodies. The read fully delivers on those aspects and plenty more. This collection of dark tales by Paul D. Brazill opens with “The Tut.” While comparisons to Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart are obvious, Oliver Robinson has his own particular version of the nightmare in his west London home. So much so he killed his wife, Gloria, just making things worse.

If you need “Anger Management” you could see a therapist. Or, you could channel it by joining up with “The Squad” which featured guys by the name of “Tubeway, Slammer” and Col. They go beyond the idea of football hooliganism by adding mugging to the mix. The four guys are so good at it they begin to get paid by Mr. Bettis who assigns them a specific job each month to accomplish.

Charlotte lives in East London in “The Friend Catcher.” The title of the story is also her name for a rather creepy neighbor who has tale of the past and a job for her.

When you are a serial killer sometimes you need an assistant. Even better if the assistant has a dog as made clear in “The Ballad Of The Kid.”

Though she came to the idea early, it took a long time for Carole Parker to actually plan to kill her husband in “The Man Behind The Curtain.” At least, that was her initial plan.

There are scores to settle at the party after the screening in “The Final Cut.” The public drama on film only hints at private situations.

Freddy in obsessed with a celebrity known as “M.” In the story by the same name Freddy is finally going to meet his obsession.

“Mr. Kiss and Tell: A Peter Ord Investigation” is one of the longer tales in the book. Told in five short parts, it follows the case of Billy Kirby, who wants to find his missing wife and son. They had good reason to flee all those years ago. Not that this private detective can’t be too choosy as he doesn’t have that many cases as it is.

Father Tim thought he was done hearing confessions at the end of one hot August day until Mad Mack showed up. Mad Mack has bloody feet, a busted lip, and other issues as well as quite the tale to tell. He wants to confess in “Sins of The Father.”

When you wake up after a night of heavy drinking with torn and bloody clothes and your bedroom is trashed you know things are not good. The fact that this sort of thing and more happens to one guy on a fairly regular basis is the point of the tale “Drunk on The Moon.”

Brendan Burke was well known for his regularity of a lifetime of habits. In “Everyday People” his regular schedule isn’t easy to maintain after being run down by a scooter. He is going to need some help once he gets home from the hospital.

Alison Day kept to herself and stayed out of things. That is until a stranger in the street collapsed at her feet in “Stamp Of A Vamp.”

“Thump” might mean somebody is in the pub in the ground floor. It might be her as she has not been around in a while. Or it might be something or someone else.

The 13 tales presented in 13 Shots Of Noir first appeared in 2009 and 2010 on a variety of websites. Some are mystery related, some are more super natural type tales, but all are good flash fiction or a little bit longer stories that are highly entertaining. At 63 pages this is a fast read and a good introduction to the work of Paul D. Brazill author of A Case Of Noir , Gumshoe and Guns Of Brixton among other works. Published by Untreed Reads this is a quality read well worth your time.

13 Shots Of Noir
Paul D. Brazill
http://www.pauldbrazill.com
Untreed Reads
http://www.untreedreads.com
November 2011
ASIN# B006AG3H6M
E-Book
63 Pages
$0.99

Material was recently picked up to read and review during one of the author’s free read promotions.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

Getting good help is always a problem whether in the real world at the store or repair shop, or in the fictional world. Kenny Rogan and Big Jim Lawson were supposed to go get a brief case from a man known as Half Pint Harry Hebb. Now, his name could be changed to Brainless Half-Pint Harry Hebb as Big Jim just used a sawed off shotgun to permanently change the man’s cognitive skills in a highly negative way. While Big Jim considers the matter “a little accident” Kenny vehemently disagrees and understands the catastrophe that has befallen the duo.

Half-Pint Harry Hebb was a key player with the local underworld. Considering the fact that Mad Tony Cook sent them to get the now slightly damaged stainless steel briefcase he is not going to be pleased at all that a man of Half-Pint Harry Hebb’s stature is now dead. Once they turn over the briefcase their fates are pretty much sealed. Of course, if Kenny and Big Jim can get rid of the body on their own and make it all go away with no one the wiser then they should be good. And they can get rid of the body as part of a trip they have planned to do an independent job of their own.

Anyone who pays attention at any level to the world of politics, religion, crime, and other humans endeavors should be well aware that the cover up is always a worse disaster than the original crime. Such is the case here in Guns of Brixton when the effects of a few minutes in a Landon garage ripple far afield from Kenny, Big Jim, and the departed Half-Pint Harry Hebb. For all involved it is going to be an odd and often violent start to the New Year.

Like a lot of the Paul D. Brazill’s excellent stories there are a large number of cultural references at work in this twisting crime yarn. Many become clear in time via the context of the story through one does get the feeling one is missing a point or joke here and there. What is clear regardless of your personal familiarity with the cultural references is that humor is prevalent in this read as is plenty of serious violence and action in a noir style tale that gets bigger and bigger as the novella works toward the conclusion.

Much like his very good A Case of Noir much is at work in Guns of Brixton making the read well worth your time and money.

Guns of Brixton
Paul D. Brazill
http://pauldbrazil.com
Byker Books
http://www.bykerbooks.co.uk
December 2014
ASIN: B00QIKBQJ0
E-Book (Print also available)
134 Pages
$2.99

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

A Case of Noir by Paul D. Brazil takes readers on a dark and twisted road through five chapters. Even though each one is a fairly contained short story, the five chapters link together to form a complex tale featuring Luke Case.

Except his name isn’t really Luke Case. Not that readers know that as the first installment, “Red Esperanto” opens. Instead, readers know it is Warsaw in winter and our narrator prefers Jack Daniels with Coke only after he is so drunk already that he shouldn’t be drinking at all, a Ukrainian hooker by the name of Tatiana, and hanging out with a fellow ex-pat by the name of Sean Bradley. Sean has his reasons why he drinks heavily as does Luke and their lives are going to be intertwined as the months and pages pass.

It is while with Sean in their favorite watering hole, “Rory’s Irish Pub” that the stunning C. J. walked in very late one night. Known as Crazy Jola, she is the wife of Robert Mohawk who is a mid-level a gangster of some repute. Despite being warned off about his reputation as well as hers, Luke manages to talk her into a drink and eventually quite a lot more.

Considering his past, he should have stopped while he was ahead. A Case of Noir is a complicated stylistic read full of visual imagery that moves across Europe adding and dropping people and clues as it goes. While Luke Case has a fake name and a fake cover he has his vices no matter what and that means he leaves a trail in his wake. A complicated dark trail as strikingly depicted on the cover with the maze and one that isn’t at all easy to figure out from start to finish.

A Case of Noir
Paul D. Brazill
http://www.pauldbrazill.com
Lite Editions
http://www.lite-editions.com/
ISBN# 978-8866655053
May 2014
Paperback (also available e-book)
134 Pages
$8.99

E-book version supplied by the author some time ago in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Though you may need a glossary to deal with all the British slang, Brazill's novella is an entertaining, suddenly violent, waltz through London's twisted underworld, peopled with a memorable cast of characters. Throughout, a crust of humor keeps it from getting too grim. After reading this, I feel like I've spent a couple of hours in an alien world.½

New Year’s Day would be ugly enough thanks to the hangover if it wasn’t made worse by neighbors playing a certain and very annoying U2 song over and over. Fortunately in Seatown, a fading town on the northeast coast of England, Peter Ord, can pick up a few bucks here and there as a private investigator so that he can buy the booze and pills he needs to function. Look up self-medicating patient in the dictionary and there would be his name and a picture as he fits the classic definition. Despite his issues with drugs and alcohol he can get the job done when needed and the job is right. One such client is about to be Jack Martin who owns the “Velvettes” and a number of other strip joints in the region.

Jack clearly does not think much of Peter, but what he wants done should be easily handled by a man of his talents such as they are. He thinks some of his girls are giving customers a little too much pleasure outside the club and he wants them identified. If anyone is doing so, he wants to know about it. All he wants Peter to do is fit in with his clientele in the various places and find out what is happening. Considering the shape Peter is in these days, fitting it will not be a problem.

It is a case he can handle and one that indirectly leads to other cases and situations in this dark and very good novella from Paul Brazil. Much like Peter in his life, Gumshoe drifts along at a steady pace with no discernable end point in sight for much of the read. Peter works cases, meets people and makes observations on life. Sometimes funny, sometimes caustic, those observations add color and nuance not only to Peter, but to the cases themselves in this very enjoyable read.

Gumshoe
Paul Brazill
http://pauldbrazill.wordpress.com/
Blackwitch Press
http://blackwitchpress.wordpress.com/
September 2013
ASIN: B00FITKXA0
E-Book (available in print)
65 Pages
$1.99

Amazon advises me I picked this up last December. The author is very generous in making his titles available as free reads and I can’t remember now if I got it that way or he sent it to me directly. Either way it was for my use in an objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Dark, funny, dark, clever, funny, dark and absolutely brilliant, 13 SHOTS OF NOIR is a short story collection blurbed as in the "vein of Roald Dahl". I need to go back and read Dahl. Unless Brazill's got more of these collections.

Short, sharp and lyrical, these are dark dark dark little morsels, gloriously British in feel, funny where required, poignant where appropriate. Cleverly balanced between sharply observant and a bit of sly commentary on the "human condition", there's really not a bad one in the bunch here. It made me laugh, and made me think all at the same time. Which makes it perfect reading.

Every now and then the universe sneaks up and smacks you very hard around the head and shoulders until you pay attention to that which is being waved right in front of your nose. If this happens to you, and it is 13 SHOTS OF NOIR wafting in and out of your slightly blurred vision, then take the bloody hint.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/13-shots-noir-paul-d-brazill

Paul D. Brazill always writes with punch, and this tale of a detective with the wolf man's curse is a thrilling noir romp in the vein of David Goodis and the classics, with a modern vibe and never the feel of a pastiche. It's the real deal, and the city Roman lives in feels as real as the blood he spills every time moonshine bathes his back. A great read, and an intriguing start to a highly anticipated series!

There isn't much to recommend about this short collection of stories. Brazill's way with words is good enough. There is definitely "grit" here. What is lacking is plot! And usually suspense as well. These seem more like ideas for stories than actual stories, and some of the endings are pretty throwaway as if the author didn't have a good enough idea to complete the story and just stopped writing. This might appeal to someone even more nihilistic than I am.½