I am the author of the Black Viking and Hellbent Riffraff Thrillers and several volumes of dirty realism poetry. I am also the Founder and editor-in-chief of Bristol Noir, an indie publisher and ezine specialising in curiously dark fiction and crime noir. Since 2017 Bristol Noir has been publishing up-and-coming and best-selling authors from around the world. Iām a writer originally from Northumberland in Northern England. In the late 90s, I studied in Greater Manchester when the IRA bomb went off and during the infamous years of the Hacienda club. I now live in Bristol. Iāve devoted my writing to exploring my heritage and the environments Iāve been in.
I wrote
Weston-super-Nightmare: A Hellbent Riff Raff Thriller
This is the dirty realist poet, Charles Bukowski's, last novel and is filled with intriguing code and name-dropping of people he knew and was influenced by. As well as being as poetic as hell. Pulp also gives a glimpse of what it might have been like if Bukowski had lived on and ventured fully into crime fiction or pulp noir.
I love the bookās surface-level simplicity to draw you into its world. However, it then subversively lets bigger themes creep in: including surrealism and spiritualism, as the author faces his own death. All this with Bukowskiās deftly poetic touches.
This showed me how semi-autobiographical elements can fuse and influence fiction and vice versa. And, that it doesn't have to be hard to absorb or distract from the story. By acknowledging layers in writing which are there for those who want to peel back and discover them. And when they donāt, these layers form a deep and vivid backdrop to the story and invite the reader back for a re-read.
Charles Bukowski's brilliant, fantastical pastiche of a detective story. Packed with wit, invention and Bukowski's trademark lowlife adventures, it is the final novel of one of the most enjoyable and influential cult writers of the last century.
Nicky Belane, private detective and career alcoholic, is a troubled man. He is plagued not just by broads, booze, lack of cash and a raging ego, but also by the surreal jobs he's been hired to do. Not only has been hired to track down French classical author Celine - who's meant to be dead - but he's also supposed to find theā¦
Derek Raymondās 4th book in his Factory Seriesis sublimely dark and poetic. Itās brit-grit with an industrial, dirty backdrop and hard feel. Some lines are funny in their harshness with a cliched bad PI turned up to max.
This is a British hard-boiled, hard-drinking, and damaged detective with all the atmosphere of a French noir clashing with Ted Lewisā Get Carter.
I Was Dora Suarez is a prime example of brit-noir with a flawed protagonist chasing clues and signs in an equally damaged world. Despite the bleakness of the characters and situations itās impossible not to be gripped and have your face thrust against the glass to see.
An axe-wielding psychopath carves young Dora Suarez into pieces and smashes the head of Suarez's friend, an elderly woman. On the same night, in the West End, a firearm blows the top off the head of Felix Roatta, part-owner of the seedy Parallel Club. The unnamed narrator, a sergeant in the Metropolitan Police's Unexplained Deaths division, develops a fixation on the young woman whose murder he investigates. And he discovers that Suarez's death is even more bizarre than suspected: the murderer ate bits of flesh from Suarez's corpse and ejaculated against her thigh. Autopsy results compound the puzzle: Suarez wasā¦
Looking for clean romantic suspense with spiritual undertones?
Look no further than the Acts of Valor series by Rebecca Hartt. With thousands of reviews and 4.7-5.0 stars per book, this 6-book series is a must-read for readers searching for memorable, well-told stories by an award-winning author.
This is Auster exploring all the themes heās well known for now, and crafting them into a beautifully absurd almost surreal tale. Not strictly a noir book this has a protagonist struggling with his place in the world and his identity, whilst getting drawn into situations out of their controlāall tropes which are seminal to the genre.
Austerās first book released under the pseudonym Paul Benjamin, called Squeeze Play, is a more typical crime, or pulp noir. And it's easy to see his blend into literary fiction whilst holding the noir handles close for The Music of Chance.
Often writers start out literary then a genre attaches itself. Here, Auster appears to have hit big by penning a commercially aimed work, then shifting back to where his core themes ring out.
Iām a huge fan of these themes heās so good at; stories within stories, back-tales of characters, and existential overlaps between these roles; involving the author and reader in this word-play as well as a profound search for identity throughout.
In The Music of Chance, I found enthusiasm for drawing readers into absurd and surreal sidelines that eventually become attuned to, or evolve into the defining theme. Similar to David Lynchās work, this is genius in that it doesnāt always strive to make sense, as real life rarely does, but it always entertains and feels more creative and authentic for it.
Nashe comes into an inheritance and decides to pursue a life of freedom. He meets Pozzi, a gambler, who exerts a terrible fascination over, him and together they take a desperate gamble. By the author of "The New York Trilogy", "Moon Palace" and "The Invention of Solitude".
This is angry, savage, beautifully poetic, and uncomfortably real crime fiction.
Sallis writes like a master blues or jazz musician with deft control over what notes not to play, as much as which to let shout outā¦creating tensions, succinct phrasing, and beautifully rich and condensed narratives and characters.
Iāve learned a lot from Sallisā books and the translation onto the screen of this one in particular. They're a masterclass of modern neo-noir.
'Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there'd be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn's late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room....'
Thus begins Drive, a new novella by James Sallis.ā¦
Blood of the White Bear
by
Marcia Calhoun Forecki,
Virologist Dr. Rachel Bisette sees visions of a Kachina and remembers the plane crash that killed her parents and the Dine medicine woman who saved her life. Rachel is investigating a new and lethal hantavirus spreading through the Four Corners, and believes the Kachina is calling her to join theā¦
Stephen J. Golds is a prolific powerhouse of dirty realist poetry and gritty modern crime fiction. Iāve been lucky enough to work with him on a number of projects now and admire his mind and words greatly.
Say Goodbye When Iām Goneis a breakthrough work of art for someone well-studied in his craft. Itās punchy, atmospheric, and brutalā¦but also, so sensitively poetic and soulful.
Say Goodbye When Iām Gone, and his other books generally, are prime examples of how a masterwork doesnāt have to be a doorstop in page length. Like The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, these gems of noir fiction are often in novella format. Soulful, concise, sharp, and lean. Like the best poetry, which Golds happens to be unsurprisingly masterful with too.
1949: Rudy, A Jewish New Yorker snatches a briefcase of cash from a dead man in Los Angeles and runs away from his old life, into the arms of the Boston mob.
1966: Hinako, a young Japanese girl runs away from what she thought was the suffocating conformity of a life in Japan. Aiming to make a fresh start in America, she falls into the grip of a Hawaiian gang dubbed 'The Company'.
1967: Rudy and Hinako's lives collide in the city of Honolulu, where there is nowhere left for either of them to run, and only blood to redeemā¦
The Hellās Belles was Jimiās bar. A retirement gift to himself after a hard lifeās graft, and no one owned the stage but him and his Gibson SG ā except exāstrippers, Tammy and Betty.
Matt, the youngest brother to three of The South Bank Cricketers, the infamous London gang, wanted to play ā not gonna happen.
Jimi needed backup. He knew some gangsters of his own, and had criminal friends. But thatās not who he was going to call. He needed something tougher, more reliableā¦ made of stone.
Meet Tony Valenti. His high-flying corporate law career just cratered. His society marriage blew up in a bitter divorce. He's returned to the Chicago suburbs to lick his wounds and regroup in the haven of the Valenti family home. But time to heal isn't in the cards.
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: āAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?ā Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itā¦