DISCOUNT NOIR

Last year I took part in Patti Abbott’s Walmart, I Love You, flash fiction challenge. The challenge attracted some great writers who put together some great stories. But it didn’t end there....

With Patti and Steve Weddle as editors and super agent Stacia J.N. Decker onboard, the project with some additional stories from other top writers has been put together as an anthology. Tentatively titled Discount Noir, the collection of stories will soon go to e-press published by Untreed Reads. For the official announcement double digit HERE.

This is my first inclusion in an anthology and, whilst I realise that I am holding onto the coattails of some super writers, I am blown away with the whole thing.

Finally, my thanks have to go out to Patti, Steve and Stacia for all their hard work, which has made this happen. Congratulations to all involved!

Have a good weekend folks.

TONY BLACK’S GUS DURY NOVELS

I’ve just finished reading, back to back, Loss and Long Time Dead; books three and four in Tony Black’s stunning series of Gus Dury novels. I read the first two, Paying For It and Gutted a while back, when they came out in paperback.

Now, hands up here, I’m no book reviewer but these books struck a chord with me and I wanted to put a quick post up about them.

Gus Dury is a washed up hack and an alkie with issues that stem from a troubled childhood. Gus has a quick temper and, at times, lets his fists do the talking. He’s fond of a pagger! After seeing his once promising journalism career and his marriage flushed down the toilet, Gus looks out at the world through the bottom of a whisky glass.

A friend asks a favour of Gus and he finds himself as a reluctant Private Investigator, pounding the mean streets of Edinburgh in his trusted Doctor Martin boots.

I read the books in order and I’m glad I did. Although each book is a standalone they chart a journey for Gus and, at times, reference key events from previous books.

But, by reading chronologically, I got a real taste of how Tony’s writing improves with each novel – not just the storylines but also how Gus evolves as a flawed and complex character; getting under his whisky sodden skin and a real understanding of the baggage he carries and the demons that haunt him.

It’s a bruising, rollercoaster journey for Gus. Along the way, written in first person, with a caustic and searing wit, we see and hear Gus Dury’s view of the world and his beloved city of Edinburgh, how it has changed; for good and for bad.

All four books are, in my humble opinion, cracking reads and highly recommended.

Check out the links/blurbs below and for a taster short story, care of The Rap Sheet, double digit HERE.

PAYING FOR IT
Former journalist Gus Dury has hit rock bottom – drifting from bar to bar, a drink away from Edinburgh’s down-and-outs, his high flying career and wife he adored now a distant memory. But his life takes an unexpected turn when a friend asks him to investigate the brutal torture and killing of his son.

GUTTED
When the gangland owner of a pit bull that killed a three-year-old girl is found gutted on an Edinburgh hill Gus Dury is asked to investigate, and soon finds himself up to his neck in the warring underworld of the city's sink estates. Amidst illegal dog fights, a missing fifty grand and a police force and judiciary desperate to cover their links to a brutal killing, Gus must work fast to root out the truth, whilst the case sinks its teeth ever deeper into him.

LOSS
Gus Dury is a changed man. He is off the Edinburgh streets and back with estranged wife, Debs. He has promised her that he won't get involved in any more dodgy cases which the police can't or won't solve. And above all, he's off the drink. In his pocket at all times is a half bottle of Scotch, but although the label is worn to shreds, he has never so much as loosened the cap. Then his brother Michael is found dead with a bullet in his heart and Gus' life begins to unravel all over again. How can he keep the promises he has made and still avenge his brother's murder?

LONG TIME DEAD
Gus Dury is back on the drink. While in hospital after a hit-and-run accident, his best friend, Hod, asks him to investigate the ritual, on-campus hanging of an Edinburgh University student. The murder victim's mother is a high-profile actress, who has promised a big-money reward. Gus, desperate for money, goes undercover at the university, taking a janitor's job, and soon uncovers a similar ritualistic hanging which took place in the 70s. Few of the students are prepared to talk about it - until another one of their group turns up dead by the same method. But Gus now moves into very dangerous waters as he begins to discover what and who is really behind it all - and he becomes the next target for the executioner.

RADGEPACKET VOLUME FOUR: TALES FROM THE INNER CITIES

Radgepacket Volume Four, published by those nice people at Bykerbooks, arrived in the post a few days ago c/o Amazon.

Now, my TBR pile is a little daunting at present but I’d been eagerly awaiting this collection of short fiction and couldn’t resist sampling one straight away...

It had to be Paul Brazill’s The Night Watchman; featuring his Private Investigator from ‘Up North’, Peter Ord.

This was the first time I’d read an Ord story and Ord didn’t disappoint. It has all Paul’s hallmarks stamped over it; a wonderfully descriptive narrative, gritty dialogue sprinkled with deliciously dark humour plus those characters - I ask you, who else would describe a character with a face like a blackcurrant crumble!

I believe this is Paul’s debut in a print anthology although I know he has other stuff up and coming. It’s a fine debut from a talented and prolific writer who I know has a lot more to come in the way of published stories.

There are some super writers involved in this project: Ray Banks, Danny King and Andy Rivers to name just three more.

This should be an entertaining read and great value at £5.99 for 22 stories.

Have a good weekend folks.

GREAT CAR CHASES THAT ARE RIGHT UP MY STREET

I’ve been chewing the fat over the Blogosphere with Cormac Brown. Cormac, as you are no doubt aware, really knows his stuff and he has a post up at his blog on “Noir and San Francisco”. Pop over there if you have not read the post already and also here at The Rap Sheet. The subject is all about films that have been set in the fantastic city of San Francisco.

Cormac kindly posted a link for me (in the comments section) to that thrilling car chase from Bullitt, again shot in San Francisco, featuring the wonderful Steve McQueen.

Well, watching that chase scene stirred my old brain cells and up popped a memory of when I was a lad and the great John Wayne came to this part of South London to shoot a film called Brannigan.

I can recall queuing up with a load of other kids and getting an autographed card from the big man himself – oh the memories.

There is a super car chase in this film and, watching it again, at one point the two cars involved, a Jag and a Ford Capri, come flying down the very road where I now live – it’s a small world. Click HERE; it’s a belter.

The car chase scenes were stitched together around different areas of Battersea/Wandsworth but the chase suddenly concludes on Tower Bridge, which is a good six miles away from here as the crow flies – but I guess that’s show business folks!

TBR PILE

My TBR pile of books is not getting any smaller but during a shopping trip today I couldn’t resist treating myself to these three.

I’m really looking forward to cracking the spine on these books as soon as I can; I’m currently reading “Loss” by Tony Black, which is a super read.

I WRITE LIKE

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

This has been doing the rounds on a few blogs over the last couple of days. So, doing what I do best, holding onto somebody’s coattails, I decided to give it a go.

I pasted in the following piece, which I have been kicking around on my keyboard for a while. It came back with David Foster Wallace.

I had no previous knowledge of David Foster Wallace but I looked him up and will pay him all due respect.

As for my bit of hackneyed stuff and nonsense... Well, nuff said.

Have a good weekend folks.

***

Priest fired up a Silk Cut and the Audi Quattro and burnt rubber.

Lately, Priest had likened himself to his fictional hero: Detective Chief Inspector Gene S. Hunt.

Albeit being on the opposite side of the law.

The TT Coupe was clean; hired under a false name and paid for with a Gold MasterCard that was moodier than a teenager peppered with acne. A little ostentatious maybe but like Gene, Priest did things with style.

Illegal things.

Gene Hunt, Priest wondered how long it would take for the name to find its way into the cockney rhyming slang vernacular. A smile cracked his hard, grizzled face and he let loose a nicotine abused chuckle.

It wasn’t a nice face. Picture a slab of cold meat.

It wasn’t a nice smile. Picture a ravenous Python bearing down on a mouse at feeding time.

Six foot six tall, Priest was a ferocious looking man with a rep to match. He was a vicious career criminal and as popular as a fart in a space suit with the Metropolitan Police as well as a large part of the South London criminal fraternity.

Did he care? Not a jot.

“F**k em,” was his moto.

(c) Alan Griffiths 2010

BRIT GRIT INTERVIEW

He is a gentleman of the blogosphere and Paul D. Brazill has graciously re-posted my Brit Grit interview over at his blog – You Would Say That, Wouldn’t You?

If you missed it first time around at Pulp Metal Magazine then please double digit HERE.

Mr Brazill needs no introduction, as you all know by now he is a talented and prolific writer and his blog is choc-a-block with super stuff. Thanks PDB!