Review – Crimes In Southern Indiana

I picked up my copy of Crimes in Southern Indiana when I was last in Henderson. It got buried in the precarious pile of stuff on the end of my desk and only turned up again when gravity won out. So now I'm busy playing catch up.

Praise for Frank Bill's first book has been flooding in since it was published in the US last fall. Having finally got to it, all I can say is, fuck! This is one hell of a book.

Crimes in Southern Indiana is a collection of short stories, set in the rural, blue collar backwoods and boy is it brutal. I've read (and liked) a lot of stuff that most people would class as the literary equivalent of a video nasty, but Frank Bill takes it to a whole other level. Think of Winter's Bone meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but with a higher body count.

Crimes is about tough lives, lived by what ever means are necessary. There is little thought of consequence or regard for town laws in this part of Indiana. These are harsh stories; cooked up along with the meth in the busted -ass kitchen of a back country shack. And then delivered with a wonderful blast of Frank's unique shotgun equivalence. Most of the characters we meet are doomed never to make it to the last page, but they get some killer dialogue along the way. The whole thing drips with beer-sweat and reeks of revenge. Frank Bill shoots you just to watch you bleed, then sticks his finger in the bullet hole and wiggles it.

You have to read this book, but a word of warning, you're going to get bloody on this one!

Frank Bill blogs at: http://frankbillshouseofgrit.blogspot.co.uk/

Also, check out his interview with Ron Earl Phillips over at Shotgun Honey: http://www.shotgunhoney.net/interviews/frank-bill