Coy Hall’s largely overlooked series opener, A Séance for Wicked King Death, published by Shotgun Honey Books last November, is an engrossing 1950s crime story that flaunts scrupulously distilled prose and memorable rogues. Set in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Huntington, West Virginia, it introduces Royce Pembrook, a smart, articulate ex-con with a talent for deception. A […]
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The latest issue of the Lowestoft Chronicle, published today, includes my interview with Canadian short story writer Jerry Levy. Years ago, Levy contributed an excellent short story to issue #9 of the magazine (“Paris Is A Woman”). Since then, Levy has published three story collections, including his superb The Philosopher Stories. This interview with Levy focuses on his story collections, his literary influences, and the real-life inspiration behind his intelligent, socially awkward philosophy hack protagonist, Karl Pringle, the star of his newest book.
Interview with Jerry Levy for Lowestoft Chronicle Read More »
The new issue of the Lowestoft Chronicle contains my interview with novelist Adam Berlin, in which he discusses his writing career, the backstory of his early novels, his first literary agent, and some of the stories in his newly published fiction collection.
Interview with Adam Berlin for the Lowestoft Chronicle Read More »
The heavily populated saga, involving a shady FBI operation, lies, deceit, misplaced trust, and numerous vendettas, requires intricate plotting and careful attention to character. Many have said it before, but there’s a blunt realism to Stella’s dialogue and a compelling rationale for his underworld characters’ pitiless behavior. Richard Lipez writes in an article in The Washington Post: “It’s too bad that virtually none of Stella’s best dialogue is repeatable in this newspaper. Like “The Sopranos” writers, Stella is a kind of obscene Ring Lardner, finding a lean, rancid poetry in his characters’ vernacular, and rendering it with flawless precision and humor.” With Joey Piss Pot, the prose is spare, the conversation sharp and colorful and thick with profanity, and when the action kicks in, the slick, graphic violence leaves a mark. Fans of underworld fiction will drink this up and hungrily hold out their bowl for more.
Review of Joey Piss Pot by Charlie Stella Read More »
The impressive The Philosopher Stories, published a few months ago, is the third story collection from Canadian writer Jerry Levy. As with his 2020 collection, The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, it’s released by the independent publisher Guernica Editions. Dissimilarity, this book might almost pass as a novel.
Segmented into twelve stories, it covers the ever-interesting ups and downs of Karl Pringle, an intelligent, socially awkward outsider “full of contradictions and insecurities, carrying around an entire Louis Vuitton set of heavy baggage.” A voracious reader, aspiring writer, philosopher, and guru, he’s also a slovenly layabout incapable of holding down a job.
His life takes a downward spiral when he’s thrown out of college for assaulting his professor, and a succession of poor decisions and disappointments push him further into the abyss. But then he’s thrown a lifeline when he meets the joyful and inquisitive Solange, a French woman in her thirties looking for love. Suddenly, there’s hope and a world of possibilities. But Levy’s narrative never goes in the direction you imagine it will, and maybe that’s just as well.
Articulate and original, The Philosopher Stories is an imaginative, thought-provoking pleasure that’s filled with equal parts humor and pathos.
The Philosopher Stories by Jerry Levy Read More »
My short story, “Superstars of Today,” about an incompetent journalist undermining his brutal boss, was published this month in the Spring 2024 (Vol. XXXIX, No. 3) edition of The MacGuffin, a literary magazine from Schoolcraft College in Michigan that’s been around since 1984. The piece was initially written in 2016, but I reread it earlier this year and decided to do a major rewrite.
In the case of this story, the setting is key to the narrative, and I needed a tough, legitimate location and a period setting that made sense. My intention was to lampoon those top-tier glossies and underline the devalued status of staff writers. They are the beating heart of publications but are forever fighting for recognition. New York City was the obvious place, and the 1980s felt like the ideal period. In fact, I can’t imagine it taking place anywhere else.
I didn’t experience NYC until much later, but the research side of things is always fun. My story became long, rowdy, and provocative, but fortunately, the judicious Managing Editor at The MacGuffin was happy to include it.
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Recently, Stark House Press reissued a couple of Samuel W. Taylor’s (1907-1997) excellent novels The Man With My Face and The Grinning Gismo. The first, originally published in 1948, is an outlandish crime tale about a man whose identity is stolen. It’s fast, thrilling, and slickly told, and Taylor examines the crime with such thoughtful care that by the end, you’re convinced that a crime like this could really take place. The subsequent mystery, The Grinning Gismo, from 1951, is a gritty pulp yarn that employs a number of clever techniques to keep the reader deeply invested in the story. It’s very suspenseful, full of neat twists, and with an impressive denouement. These stories are well worth seeking out, and this newly released twofer includes my essay “The Doppelgänger Fiend and the Teeth Worth Dying For.” You can purchase the volume on Amazon or Barnes and Noble
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My essay, “The Further Adventures of Fearless Agent Hart Muldoon,” introduces the volume Murder in Monaco / Death’s Lovely Mask, published recently by Stark House Press. These 1950s spy thrillers mark the final time Muldoon saw the Mediterranean. His final adventure, set in the Sixties, sent him beyond Europe and into the midst of battle on one final mission. But I’ll stop there, as that’s for another day.
Yet More Espionage from John Flagg Read More »
This is the sixth collection of novels by W.R. Burnett reprinted by Stark House Press, and there will likely be more that will follow it. Burnett wrote plenty of novels. Some say he never wrote a bad one. Big publishers wanted his stories, and his work was ever popular with readers. Occasionally, his efforts won awards. They were stories that were cinematic and full of good dialogue, and there was always the promise of action. From the first manuscript to the last, he was a reliably good novelist and became a highly prized screenwriter. The most highly rewarded, in fact. Was he shot with luck, or was there something else behind his success?
W.R. Burnett Lives On Read More »
Recently, David Shawn Klein’s second novel, And the Dead Shall Live, was published by Black Rose Writing. It’s another standalone story of comparable quality to his 2021 debut, The Money. With its intricate plotting and weighty character backstory, this is perhaps the superior of the two.
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