Noir

Book Review: Tussinland by Mike Monson

bryancyr Book, Noir , , ,

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Tussinland by Mike Monson is another great pulpy noir from the guys at All Due Respect books.  What a ride!  this book starts out with our main character Paul Dunn getting wasted on Robitussin, hence the title of the book.  Paul lives with his mother after loosing everything he had, job, wife, kids, house, all gone!  We soon find out that his wife and new boyfriend are slaughtered, each shot twice at close range with a shotgun.  Paul is soon the main suspect in the crime and he is off on a task to find out why his wife was murdered and why they are trying to frame him.

Paul is part of the most dysfunctional family I’ve ever come across in literature.  His mom is a beautiful women and knows it, she seduces men often and her family has grown OK with that, oh yeah she also likes her vodka.  His sister is married to a pastor of a new church, the church believes one thing, if you are a white male heterosexual who packs a gun you are a good christian.  Their daughter, Paul’s niece, is a smart girl, but has lost interest in school after meeting her boyfriend.  Her and her boyfriend like sex and drugs, and don’t mind filming the sex for others entertainment.  They hope to make a career in the adult industry.  Paul’s stepfather is the most sane of the bunch.  He left Paul’s mom and has found happiness with a much younger man who he has married.  And that is just the family!  We have an alcoholic cop and a pair of used car salesman that dabble in heroin distribution to throw in the mix.

Modesto California is the city where the author lives and the story takes place.  I’m also currently watching the television series American Crime which takes place in Modesto also.  Modesto sounds like a town that has been hit hard from the current recession.  Modesto, like all good noirs uses the city almost as a character in the story.  I found Modesto itself has as much to do with putting Paul into his current situation as the people around him.

This is a great book for anybody that wants a modern pulp noir to read.  You can get a copy at:

http://allduerespectbooks.com/

Also Mike Monson was the guy that was nice enough to send me some books from All Due Respect and has a great blog as well.  Check him out at:

http://mikemonson.org/

Book Review: Revenge is a Redhead by Phil Beloin Jr

bryancyr Book, Noir, Pulp , , , ,

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I recently read a blog that was talking about how pulp literature has become back in favor.  This is good news for noir fans!  Pulp was popular with the working man, because it was short, cheap and talked to the downtrodden.  We had magazines like Black Mask and The Strand and they published their issues on cheap pulp paper, hence the name.  The literary world used slick glossy paper for there publications causing them to be to expensive for some.  Today we have the internet, and especially E-readers.  This makes it easy for independent publications to put out pulp like stories on the cheap.  I also read somewhere that noir stories don’t sell, people want happy ending and likable characters(I guess nobody told Gillian Flynn that?).  Anyway some noir authors had no outlet to get there work out to the public, but now thanks to small independent publishers and E-readers we can get great stories that may never of had a home 10 years ago.

One of these publishers was kind enough to send me 6 books to read and see what I thought.  All Due Respect is a small publisher specializing in pulp and noir books and I thank them for letting me check out there library of work.  Of course I grabbed the slimmest volume first to read.

That book is Phil Beloin Jr’s Revenge is a Redhead and it is only 90 pages, but I could not put it down and read it in one night.  We have two main characters in this short but sweet read.  We have a homeless man with 70 cents in his pocket and a gorgeous femme fatale hooker that moonlights as a stripper when they need somebody to fill in.

Our protagonist is named Rich, but he is far from rich.  We find him in a strip club enjoying the scenery and find out he is flat broke.  He was just kicked out of his father’s house and took off in his beat up Olds and plans on going until the fuel runs out.  He changes his mind and stops at the club instead.  He spends what little money he has on a beautiful redhead stripper named Cherry.  Rich leaves the club and goes to the nearest homeless shelter for a meal and a cot.  Soon our hero wakes up in an unusual situation and it just keeps getting worse from there.  This short book is packed with great dialog and some amazing character development.

This book is pure pulp with a shocking scene on every other page.  Some might find this book a bit offensive…so if your easily offended don’t read it.  If your not…buy this for a quick read of pure entertainment.  I look forward to reading the rest of the books from All Due Respect and look forward to what else they publish in the future.

Here is a link so you can see what else they offer and check back here for more reviews in the near future.

http://allduerespectbooks.com/

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