Kindle-fied Review 6: RAISED IN HELL(THE DEVIL'S MUSIC), by Julia Madeleine

I was so impressed with Julia Madeleine’s Roman Dalton story FEAR THE NIGHT, that I immediately bought RAISED IN HELL, the first in a series of demonically-influenced peeks at the dark, secret history of rock’n’roll. And I was very, very glad I did.
First of all, it’s very clear that Madeleine knows her roots music. I know a thing or two about the subject myself, and can spot a fake ten miles away—Julia Madeleine is the real deal.
And the story? Sweet. It’s Depression-era America—Memphis, to be exact—and Sadie, the Devil’s very own daughter, is in town to collect a very particular soul. The soul is question belongs to a legendary bluesman (come on, you know the one—sold his soul at the crossroads?) but it seems he’s not quite ready to part with it yet.
Sadie is surprisingly likeable… okay, I know she’s the Devil’s daughter, but I still like her. Madeleine doesn’t go the easy predictable route by making Sadie dangerously seductive and evil--I mean, she IS dangerously seductive and sexy and all that… but she’s MORE than that, too. She’s sympathetic. She LOVES music. And she LOVES the souls she takes. Her motivation isn’t exactly evil.
To say any more about RAISED IN HELL would spoil it for you. Just take my word for it and read this one. Can’t wait to see where Madeleine takes Sadie next.

Kindle-fied Review 5: THE CHAOS WE KNOW, by Keith Rawson

Keith Rawson writes with fire and fury, taking a sledgehammer to your comfort zones and exposing you to all manner of ugliness. And he also never mixes metaphors the way I just did.
THE CHAOS WE KNOW is an amazing and disturbing collection that drags you down (quite willingly) into the bowels of human suffering. Rawson’s characters are meth-heads, corrupt cops, pervs, trannies, cannibals. The earliest stories in the book are more like snippets, really, slice-of-life bits that serve as appetizers for the more fully fleshed out stories later. Rawson’s style is bold and aggressive and raw. We need more writers with balls like this.
Only one negative comment, and it has nothing to do with Rawson’s abilities as a writer: some typos and formatting issues that would occasionally pull me out of the story, especially toward the second half of the book. But these weren’t near enough to spoil the experience. THE CHAOS WE KNOW heralds the arrival of a major talent.

Kindle-fied Review 4: FEAR THE NIGHT, by Julia Madeleine/THE DARK AFFAIR, by Allan Leverone

Picking up where Paul Brazill left off, two more exceptional writers continue the strange adventures of Roman Dalton, werewolf P.I.
In FEAR THE NIGHT, the amazingly talented Julia Madeleine takes Roman away from his usual stomping grounds in The City and to Quebec, where the search for a missing girl leads him into a direct confrontation with gruesome zombies. The climactic scene is one of the best choreographed I’ve read in a while, and beautifully gory. Great fun.

Allan Leverone picks up Roman’s story with style and flair in THE DARKE AFFAIR, which finds our hero back in The City and once again facing the undead hordes of an old enemy. But to complicate matters, a federal agent with shady motives appears—and disappears—forcing Roman on a rescue mission to save a man who may wind up being his own doom. Great, high-octane stuff.

Kindle-fied Review 3: BEAT ON THE BRAT, by Nigel Bird

BEAT ON THE BRAT is Nigel Bird’s second collection of stories, and it’s nice to see that he lives up to the high standards he set with DIRTY OLD TOWN. What makes this collection work, aside from Bird’s deft hand at pacing and creating believable, sympathetic characters, is the touching sense of humanity that shines through all of them. These are stories that make you feel pain, heartache, hope, fear. His characters really feel like real people, and reading BEAT ON THE BRAT connects you to them on a level that will startle you.

Kindle-fied Review 2: BRIT GRIT, by Paul Brazill

Paul Brazill has a beautifully understated sense of the absurd that is on full display in this remarkable collection of stories. There’s a fair amount of existential type drama, but it’s all delivered with such ease and good humor that it goes down smooth. The stories all seem related somehow, as they clearly take place in the same seedy underworld, where peripheral characters will occasionally take the spotlight in order to steer events toward whatever disaster looms. I’ve already mentioned in other posts and other places how much I admire Brazill’s skill with dialogue, and BRIT GRIT is no exception—the man writes with such flair and wit that it’s impossible to resist.

Kindle-fied Review 1: DEADFOLK, by Charlie Williams

Royston Blake’s a doorman, a bloke what relies on his rep as a right hard bastard. So when some wankers start in that he’s lost his bottle Royston has to step up. Worse even, the Munston brothers are after him for events that well, let’s not go into that just now, right? Royston needs to re-establish his reputation, like, but using his Swede ain’t his cuppa, normally. And one thing you can bank on in the town of Mangel. Ain’t nothing gonna go right, ever.
DEADFOLK was writ down by some tosser what calls hisself Charlie Williams, and he gets it all right, mostly. He seems to be on intimate terms with Royston. Not intimate like a couple of poofs or nothing, but like, he don’t make no mistakes. And DEADFOLK, well, it’s the first book in a series, innit? You’re going to like Royston, despite yourself. DEADFOLK is a great fucking book. All right, mate? All right.

Not whining about smoking, I promise

Okay, so I won’t bore you to death with all that whining about how I quit smoking and it’s so hard and waa, waa, waa. I only mention it because lack of nicotine has impacted my reading and writing this last week—it’s been hard to concentrate on anything at all, and so I haven’t accomplished much.
But it’s getting better now. And so I offer you this, my "future plans for the future":
On September 28, I’ll be starting a new feature here at Psycho-Noir as a sort of follow-up to the series on Hardboiled/Noir Writers I just wrapped up. It’s called Writers of Noir’s Golden Age, and it will focus on the scribblers from the fifties and early sixties. Why? Because that’s still my favorite era in this genre, and there were just TONS of them worth your time.
If you read Parts Four and Five of the previous series, you have a pretty good idea about some of the writers I intend to cover. Like the last series, posts will appear every Wednesday, starting on the 28th (which happens to be the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, according to my calendar, and no, that is not significant, just thought I’d mention it).
In the meantime, though… I’ll be a bit scarce around here. I have a great deal of catching up to do on my current novel, and I’ve also fallen way behind on my reading. So for a couple weeks I’ll be shutting off the lights at Psycho-Noir. Be sure, if you haven’t already, to hit the “follow” button over there on the right so that you don’t miss the first entry of Writers of Noir’s Golden Age.
One last note: starting tomorrow, my collection of short stories, DIG TEN GRAVES, is going up in price to 2.99. Right now, it’s still .99, though. Last chance to get it for cheapies.
And my novel THE BASTARD HAND is still garnering acclaim as a cult hit, but is selling like pork sammiches at a synagogue. If you’ve read the book and liked it, tell your friends. Write a review on Amazon. Help me get the word out about what a kick-ass book it is, okay? ‘appreciate it.
See you on Sept. 28!