Synopsis/blurb……
This book is RATED R for violence, strong language and some sexuality.
In a violent crime scene SHELL CASINGS tell a story.
Crime Fiction Writer Verge Le Noir spins ELEVEN SHORT STORIES in the new collection Shell Casings.
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Eating Lobster— everything changes for journalist Grace Parker—Woods when a handsome playboy pays her a visit.
• Black Day—Salty Point is a town on the verge of social collapse, engineered by the town’s Sheriff.
• Cherish—a small time drug dealer, a lovely stripper and her jealous boyfriend find each other, producing dire consequences for the trio.
• Diamond Wet Dogs—three thieves on the high seas, find themselves in the middle of a storm, with Mother Nature and each other.
• East Village Sonatina—a loveless East Village eccentric dreads the changes to the neighborhood while coping with his new movie-star neighbors.
• Exit Wounds—in the middle of battle a young wounded soldier wishes for a dirty martini takes us on a journey of friendship, war, love and a Dominican style thanksgiving.
• Half-Past Dead—Alpha, Cypher and Wolfie managed to break into a Federal Reserve vault, in the worse night in New York’s City’s history.
• Love & Other Strangers—lovers’ Gemma and Dewy are hoping for a big payday from Gemma’s ex upon returning the man’s forgery plate.
• Suburban Postcard—Jake ‘J.J.’ Jamison did his time for bank robbery, his partner didn’t, now J. J. wants his cut. But people change.
• The Lucky Bones—young Zander Grey’s life was out of control, until a gangster pushes him to join the military, thereby changing the young man’s life, but is it for the better?
• The Devil Makes Three— a young bishop guided by a Ute elder look for a lost gold mine. Inspired by the legend of the long lost gold mine in the Uintah Mountains.
So sit back, relax—if you can—and get lost in a world of sociopaths, twisted and often violent winding roads. A world in which you might just want to be a tourist as hot shell casings fly all over the place, each carrying its own unique story.
I derive a lot of reading pleasure from trying books and stories from authors that are - shall we say - less well known. Verge Le Noir would probably fall into that category. A bit of Amazon browsing last year had me coming across his first story collection – Black Pills & Red Bullets – a collection I took a punt on and enjoyed. Review here.
His second collection is even stronger. 11 stories weighing in at 140-odd pages, I raced through the collection in a day and a half – finishing off whilst my wife and daughter were walking the glass platform at Tower Bridge in London. Laughing like a drain at Suburban Postcard – drew me some funny looks from the rest of the tourists!
Violence, sex, revenge, robbery, racism, murder, food and more all laced with touches of black humour.
A scene in Black Daystill has me chuckling when a couple of cops visit a biker gang’s clubhouse and the dude on the door is reading the author’s first book!
Highly recommended, with not a dud in the bunch. The other standouts for me were Half Past Deadand The Lucky Bones.
I’ll be keen to see what our enigmatically monikored author does next. Cool name – cool collection.4.5 out of 5
Generous man that he is, he was kind enough to send me a copy of this for review.
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