Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Short Story Wednesday: Bullets and Other Hurting Things, edited by Rick Ollerman

From the description at Down & Out Books:

In a career spanning nearly four decades, Bill Crider published more than sixty crime fiction, westerns, horror, men’s adventure and YA novels. In this collection 20 of today’s best and brightest, all friends and fans of Bill’s, come together with original stories to pay tribute to his memory. Authors include: William Kent Krueger, Bill Pronzini, Joe R. Lansdale, Patricia Abbott, Ben Boulden, Michael Bracken, Jen Conley, Brendan DuBois, Charlaine Harris, David Housewright, Kasey Lansdale, Angela Crider Neary, James Reasoner, James Sallis, Terry Shames, S. A. Solomon, Sara Paretsky, Robert J. Randisi, SJ Rozan, and Eryk Pruitt.

I personally have enjoyed books from Bill Crider's Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and a Western, Outrage at Blanco, set in Texas in 1887. I was happy to see this book of short stories honoring him.


I started reading this book of short stories on Monday. I have only read six of the stories but they are all good, so that bodes well for the rest of them.

In "Innocence" by William Kent Krueger...

Nick and his 4-year-old daughter Pet (short for Petula) are traveling in Minnesota. They stop at a motor court in a tourist town. They meet a pretty waitress, and Nick daydreams about staying with her, settling down, fishing at the lake together. But there are other considerations ....

In "Night Games" by Bill Pronzini...

Brennan is an investigator who  specializes in industrial espionage, and is willing to cross the line when necessary. He is searching for his quarry and the money he has taken on a small island off the coast of Washington.

In "Promise Me" by Joe R. Lansdale 

Two hit men are planning to kill an accountant who has taken a large amount of money from the company he works for. Surprisingly, he is at his house waiting for them. The ending was very good.

In "Pretty Girl from Michigan" by Patricia Abbott

Chet Plummer, Chief of Police in West Lebanon, Michigan, is looking into the brutal murder of pretty Lena Lefkowski, who worked in the pet department of Grueber's Department Store. Although he has to call in detectives from Traverse City to help out, in the end he solves the crime with a little help from his mother. I loved this story; it was very clever.

In "Asia Divine" by Ben Boulden

Detective Mike Giles of the Tooele County Sheriff's Office in Utah is investigating the death of a woman whose body was left in a bus in a junkyard. This story includes two of Bill Crider's favorite things, Dr. Pepper and alligators.

After reading the first five stories, I checked out the next to last story in the book by S. J. Rozan, "Chin Yong-Yun Finds a Kitten." 

This one surprised me. It isn't even really a crime story. I am a big fan of S. J. Rozan's Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series, but I did not recognize immediately that Chin Yong-Yun from the title was Lydia Chin's mother. This is an entertaining and fun story, told in first person narration by Chin Yong-Yun and it was good to see her character fleshed out more. However, I don't think you need to be familiar with the character previously to enjoy the story.


Of course I will be continuing to read the stories in this book over the next few weeks, and I encourage you to find a copy and read them too. 


20 comments:

George said...

I have BULLETS AND OTHER HURTING THINGS on order. Bill Crider deserves a shelf of books like this one! He was a great guy.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have read three of those. That is my second story about that sheriff. I am working on a third.

col2910 said...

I must admit I saw this collection and was tempted by it. I haven't yet taken the plunge.The publisher puts out some cracking books. By coincidence I just finished one of Bill Crider's early books this week - Dead on the Island. Really enjoyable. Bless him.

Margot Kinberg said...

What a great idea to do a tribute to Crider's work. And I'm really impressed with the names I see here; it sounds as though the stories are very well-done, too (not that I didn't expect that!). Glad you enjoyed it, Tracy.

Rick Robinson said...

I've read just over half of it, and enjoyed every story.

TracyK said...

Rick, I am glad to hear that, and not surprised at all.

TracyK said...

George, I agree. I did not know Bill personally, but I know of his reputation and how supportive he was to other authors. He deserves recognition.

TracyK said...

Patti, I am glad to hear that there is another story about that sheriff and one that you are working on. Is the other one available anywhere?

pattinase (abbott) said...

It is in BOTH BARRELS vol 3 and also in my collection I BRING SORROW and other Tales of Transgression (Polis). It is a lot grimmer than this one though. TItle is "A Kid Like Billy."

TracyK said...

Thanks, Patti. That means I read it in I BRING SORROW back when the book came out. I will find my copy of the book and read it again.

TracyK said...

Col, You should definitely get this collection. I think most of the stories would appeal to you.

Dead on the Island is the first of the Truman Smith series and I don't have any of those. I think the setting of Galveston, Texas would be good. I have a couple more of the Dan Rhodes series on my shelves, but I want to try his other series also.

TracyK said...

Margot, the book is a lovely tribute and the stories I have read so far are very good.

Todd Mason said...

I just read Angela Crider Neary's introduction today, and had to stop and mull that over some. Bill was a great guy, and I knew him mostly via email and related media, though I did meet him in person once at a Bouchercon, which was a love-fest for the most part, in the shadow of 9/11 a week or so later in 2001, in a hotel in Arlington only a few miles from the Pentagon.

I'll certainly keep reading. I've been reading Bill Pronzini and James Sallis since I was nine or ten years old, not too terribly long after they began their writing careers. Others I caught up with a bit farther along, though my first Lansdale story was less than a decade later, and even closer to his first stories. Etc.

Glad you're enjoying it so far, Tracy. Colman, you are unlikely to regret the purchase. I'll reimburse you if you do...

Lex @ Lexlingua said...

Is Short Story Wednesday a meme you run on your own blog, or a meme that your participate in? Sounds pretty cool. :) Not heard of any of these authors before, but will keep an eye out for their names now. Thanks!
~ Lex (lexlingua.co)

Mathew Paust said...

Bought the Kindle edition last week, Tracy, but haven't read any of the stories yet. Looks to be an exemplary list of authors, including Patti and Ben.

TracyK said...

Todd, I enjoyed the introduction to the book. Your story about the Bouchercon following 9/11 was very interesting. I would have loved to go to a Bouchercon, but I don't like crowds of people.

I have been reading Bill Pronzini's books for decades, because I introduced my husband to his books in the late 1970s. Now my husband is even more of a fan than I am. He has read all of the Nameless books, and has most of the Nameless short story collections, which I need to dig into. James Sallis is an author I want to read, I have some of his books, but I just haven't read any of them yet. I have The Long-Legged Fly and the Turner Trilogy. Do you recommend any others?

There are several other authors with stories in this book that I haven't read, and I look forward to trying them.

TracyK said...

Lex, Patricia Abbott at Pattinase gathers the links for Short Story Wednesday. Her blog is http://pattinase.blogspot.com/. She is the author of one of the stories in this book and has written many short stories.

This week's post for short story Wednesday is http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2021/03/short-story-wednesday-smoke-ghost-by.html

I mostly read crime fiction and most of the authors of the stories in this anthology write crime fiction but sometimes in other genres also. I am new to reading short stories in any genre but I am learning to love them.

TracyK said...

I agree, Mathew, the selection of authors is good and I am glad that there are a good number that I haven't read, so I can sample their writing.

Todd Mason said...

Tracy, I've been reading Pronzini's and Sallis's work since about 1974, but I've been most likely to read their short fiction, as anthologized by themselves or others...Sallis in his early career mostly wrote short fantasy and sf fiction, rather than crime fiction, and I haven't yet read any of his novels, though I did FFB his early anthology THE WAR BOOK some time back. He's also contributed critical essays to THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. When I catch up with Sallis's novels, I'll check in to see what we might recommend to each other!

Pronzini's novels, some Nameless (and at least one split Nameless/McCone collaboration with Marcia Muller) among other novels (including one other with Muller and one with Barry Malzberg), so much of his often brilliant short fiction, his extensive and impressive editorial work, and his nonfiction about, among other things, bad fiction (GUN IN CHEEK, SIXGUN IN CHEEK,etc.).

TracyK said...

Todd, I don't know that I have read either of the Nameless novels that he co-wrote with Muller or Colin Wilcox. I will have to check that out. They are relatively early ones.

I really want to get copies of Gun in Cheek and Son of Gun in Cheek. I had not heard of Sixgun in Cheek, and I know little about Westerns, unfortunately.