A couple of days ago, I read a few stories from Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir, edited by Dwayne Swierczynski, published by Busted Flush Press. The book was published in 2006, and all of the stories were first published in this anthology.
Each story is preceded by a short paragraph about the author, what he has written and other interesting facts. The stories also have an afterword from the author, from one paragraph to several, talking about the story and the author's motivation for writing it.
The stories are arranged in sections and the order is by birth year of the author. Thus the first section is made up of six authors born between 1970 and 1979. And the last section, which I read, was four stories by authors born between 1938 and 1947.
The stories I read are:
- "Encore" by Milton T. Burton (b. 1947)
- "Cranked" by Bill Crider (b. 1941)
- "The Deadsters" by Robert Ward (b. 1945)
- "Just Friends" by John Harvey (b. 1938)
My favorite story in that group was "Cranked" by Bill Crider. It was fairly short, about 10 pages in length in this edition.
The story is about an elderly man who escapes from a nursing home. He leaves with only $21 and he takes his daughter's car. Unfortunately the car is on empty so he has to go to a nearby truck stop for gas, and ends up getting involved with a woman who just walked out of a meth house, as it was blown up, and two men who attempt to rob the truck stop. It was a great story; I enjoyed the humor, and the ending was perfect. The story was nominated for the Edgar and Anthony awards and won the Derringer Award.
In the Afterword for this story, Crider explains that it was a follow-up to a previous story, titled "Raining Willie." I found a copy of that story but I have not read it yet.
I also liked the stories by Milton T. Burton and John Harvey. However, the story by Robert Ward did not appeal to me at all; it leaned very close to horror. It was clever but much too gross and macabre for me.
16 comments:
I read Bill's story, and a few of the others, but I don't think I got too much further before it was time to pack up and move again...I hope my copy wasn't in one of the destroyed boxes.
Thanks for the reminder!
Interesting sounding selection, especially as the main characters are older. And we thought Richard Osman had invented 'that'. LOL!
I older I get, the more I appeciate geezer noir. Funny how that works.
You can't go wrong with a Bill Crider story! Like Jerry said, Geezer Noir becomes more appealing with age.
I have read most of the stories in this collection. A strong collection.
Todd, I hope you do find your copy. I still have quite a few stories to read in this, but I am expecting to find more good ones.
Cath, so far, the stories in this book are the darker side of older folks in crime fiction. I look forward to reading more of them and seeing what the other authors have come up with.
This is the first time I've read about Geezer Noir, and from your review, I need to know it better!
I know what you mean, Jerry. I enjoy reading about older people in any genre now.
George, I liked this Bill Crider story so much I bought an e-book edition of a collection of his short stories, The Nighttime is the Right Time. Now I just have to remember it is there.
Patti, I see that Megan has a story in the first section and I look forward to reading that one.
Hi Tracy, A good example of Geezer Noir might be An Elderly Lady Shall Not Be Crossed. I haven't finished the book but so far I really enjoyed what I have read. Also Matthew Scudder came out of retirement in Block's latest book. Must give Bill Crider a read.
I hope you give it a try, Verushka. Thanks for stopping by.
Kathy, you are right, that is a perfect example.
And I need to get moving on reading more of the books in the Matt Scudder series. I have nine unread books from that series on my shelves.
I'm sorry it took me this long to read this, Tracy. It sounds like a good collection with a solid variety of contributors. I'm not always in the mood for noir, but sometimes, it really does fill the bill.
No problem, Margot, I always appreciate your comments.
I think the four stories I read were pretty noirish, although the main character in Bill's story had a wonderful attitude. But I will see how the other authors approach that theme.
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