A few months ago, I purchased a copy of Damn Near Dead 2, edited by Bill Crider and published by Busted Flush Press in 2010. The book had come to my attention when I was looking for a copy of "Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case" by S.J. Rozan, and I decided to buy it when I saw a list of the authors with stories in the book. So this week I read a few stories from the beginning of the book.
The first story is “Sleep, Creep, Leap” by Patricia Abbott. I had read this story earlier in a collection of Abbott's stories, Monkey Justice. Bob Mason is an older man, in his early seventies (my age). His next door neighbor, Lillian, dies and her house sits empty for over a year. The neighborhood is going downhill, no one wants to buy in the area. Then, a younger woman, newly divorced, moves in. She is not the ideal neighbor, with a barking dog and a nasty boyfriend. When Bob thinks that she is being abused and tries to help out, things don't go well. This is an excellent story, dark and sad, with a lot of character development for its length.
I loved the title, which is referring to the way some perennial plants grow, the “sleep, creep, leap” effect. The first year they sleep, the next year they creep (grow more), and in the third year they leap, or reach their full potential. This is discussed as he plants hydrangeas between the two houses, noting in the second year that they will be getting bigger and bloom more. Not having much experience with perennials until the last couple of years, this phrase was new to me.
The second story is "The Last Long Ride of El Canejo" by Ace Atkins, which was also very good. Patricia Abbott discussed this story at her blog, Pattinase, so you should check out her review there.
The third story was “Stiffs” by Neal Barrett, Jr. That one is a science fiction story, set on the Moon, about a group of assassins who are very, very old and are competing to be the oldest living assassin. It was confusing, but I liked it anyway, confusion and all.
“The End of Jim and Ezra” by C. J. Box is a Western story set in the 1800's in Wyoming. Two old trappers are snowed in up in the mountains and run out of food. Everything that Ezra does is driving Jim crazy. I did not love the ending but overall the story was good and it provided a good picture of that time and the brutal weather.
I read a total of eight stories from the book, and the last one I read was “Flying Solo” by Ed Gorman. Two cancer patients, who are getting chemo treatments at the same time, become friends and decide to take the law into their own hands to help out some of the nurses. Very well done and somewhat more upbeat than the others. Based on another book I read that talked about chemotherapy treatments, that part of it was accurately described.
The theme here is "geezer noir" and the overall result is dark stories, and often very sad ones. I haven't read all the stories yet, and I know that the story by S.J. Rozan is neither noir nor sad, so maybe I will find a few others that are not so dark. Not that I mind reading dark stories.
