Short Thoughts on Short Fiction Vol. 12: Give it up for the ladies!

All right, folks, welcome to a special edition of Short Thoughts.

What makes this particular column so special, you ask? (Other than the fact that I didn’t insult you, my dear, precious readers, in the first sentence.) Well, what makes it so out of the ordinary is that I’m going to focus on the women of hard-boiled/noir fiction. Let’s face facts, gang, hard-boiled has been a man’s world for just about its entire history. But over the past ten or so years, female authors such as Megan Abbott, Vicki Hendricks, Sandra Ruttan, Christa Faust, Sophie Littlefield, Theresa Schwegel, and many others have been showing us all how to get it done with vicious aplomb.

The same can be said of our female short fiction writers. Women such as Patti Abbott, Sandra Seamans, Libby Cudmore, Naomi Johnson, BV Lawson, Anonymous-9, et cetera, have been doing some serious trail-blazing as far as the short fiction game is concerned, and for this column I’ve chosen four excellent examples of recent stories penned by the women of hardboiled crime.

Insatiable by Hilary Davidson, published by Beat to a Pulp

“Insatiable” focuses on an old bastard of a billionaire named Mr. Kennett, who happens to be married to one hot-ass Honduran cougar who everyone in their social circle believes married the ancient pervert for his wad—which isn’t far from the truth. Mr. Kennett is your typical old codger of an 80-year-old who has more than a few problems getting his equipment to work, and his body is far too aged for him to ingest your typical boner-inducing medications to sexually satisfy the wife. So it goes without saying that his wife takes on the occasional lover in order to knock the cobwebs loose and get the old man’s engine revved up, as well, by letting him catch her at what she’s doing.

I’ve got to tell you that I really enjoyed this story. Davidson’s narrator is as cold as ice, and there wasn’t a single character in the entire story that I liked; which, for me is how hardboiled and noir is meant to be done. Plus, Davidson’s narrative voice is very confident and self-assured; needless to say, I expect Ms. Davidson has a serious future in front of her. Highly recommended.

4 stars

Finders Keepers by J.F. Juzwik, published by A-Twist-of-Noir

“Finders Keepers” is the story of little Abner Fendal. Abner is a special, special boy who spends his time working at the local flower shop, hanging out at his dinky hole-in-the-wall apartment, and trying to avoid getting yelled at by his sister for not keeping his place clean and neat. . . .Oh, he also enjoys creeping into people’s houses, slaughtering the entire family, and then briefly living in the house before leaving with a souvenir of his kill. Yeah, folks, this is a serial killer story, and whereas I can confidently say that I’m not a fan of the genre, I will say that I enjoyed this particular story because Juzwik writes from Abner’s simplified point of view. Plus, the twist at the end caught me off guard. However, it is a serial killer story that falls into most of the usual trappings of the genre, which turned me off of the narrative just a wee bit.

2 and ½ stars

Let Me Count the Ways My Dear, Let Me Count the Ways by Anna Russell, Published by Thuglit

I don’t know how to accurately describe this story other than calling it a “What the Fuck?” story. “Let Me Count” is the story of Sarah and Fred. Both Sarah and Fred are two radically disturbed motherfuckers; Sarah doesn’t speak, and whenever Fred speaks, he usually says something that makes people cringe or makes their eyes pop out of their heads in disgust. Fred has got a serious boner for Sarah, and Sarah, well, Sarah doesn’t say or do much to indicate that she wants Fred to give her a jump. Fred has been bringing Sarah food on a daily basis in hopes that someday she’ll be willing to pop his cherry. Anyway, one day Fred is making his usual delivery when he discovers the body of a man in Sarah’s living room, and he comes to the decision to help her dispose of the carcass.

Okay, folks, I got to tell you that I had to read this one a couple of times to really get a feel for the piece. It is a solid piece of writing, and it is the kind of off-the-wall storytelling that I typically go in for. However, most readers of hardboiled fiction are going to be scratching their collective heads over this one. But fuck most readers; I liked this, so give it a try.

2 and ½ stars

Alright, my last review really isn’t so much of a review as it is a polite nod of the head to a story you may have missed. However, if you missed this one, you did a grave disservice to yourself. The story I’d like you to take a look at (or take another look at) is “The Instrument of their Desire” by Patti Abbott, originally published by Beat to a Pulp.

The story is one of those pieces that doesn’t fit into a classification or genre, it is simply a breathtaking piece of writing by one of the true shining lights of crime fiction. This story was my favorite of 2008, and once you read it, you’ll understand why I like it so much. “The instrument of Their Desire” was also selected by Ed Gorman and Martin Greenberg for their upcoming anthology from Tyrus publishing, Between the Dark and the Daylight.

And as the talking cartoon pig says, that’s all, folks.

See you next week.