RoadKill Review: Dead Animals by CS DeWildt

Amazon

DEAD ANIMALS contains 34 stories that together could be loosely described as Rural Noir. They range in length from tightly written, punchy flash fiction that pops like green wood on a hot fire, to more expansive pieces that burn slower and hold their heat longer.

The well crafted characters will hook you, but it is the bleak and beautiful qualities of the writing that reel you in. The eerie “Bad Habits” and the gloriously wrong “Shakespearian Varity” are amongst some of the best short fiction I have read, period. But even so, it is hard to top “Corbin’s Dreams Take Flight” with its oddly enduring trailer-trash kids and compelling narrative.  

Okay, so let’s cut to the chase here. Chris DeWildt knows how to tell a story and he does it with prose that, at times damn near sings. This collection contains some outstanding fiction. It also contains gut-shot squirrels, smashed frogs and a badly burnt pigeon. Lovers of animals beware; lovers of great writing, rejoice.

Chris' excellent new flash novel THE LOUISVILLE PROBLEM  is also out now. Featuring: one dead man, two beautiful women and a bag full of cash. You know how we roll around here. 

 

More Hot Naked Chicks

 

Here’s a heads up for the Luddites, the Amish and all lovers of the long-lost analog world. If you find yourself yearning for that near forgotten thrill of reading words on actual paper, then you can rejoice in the knowledge that Out of the Gutter 8 can now be purchased or purloined in print.

This rare treat can even be had here in little old England, Scotland too I would imagine, although I’m not so sure about Wales. Go get some Gutter Love: OOTG8 

Incidentally the hand is this shot belongs my friend and co-conspirator, Chris DeWildt. His story alone is worth the price of admission.

A word on some words

Well I guess it must be December because all the blogs are filling up with their owner's choice for the best read of 2012. And I don’t see why the hell mine should be any different.

I’ve read a lot this year, though nowhere near as much as I would have liked. Time is the fire in which we all burn and I still have a mountain of books, both paper and ‘e’ waiting patiently for my attention. Earlier this year I stared doing some book reviews for Out of the Gutter, I may have mentioned that once or twice on here already. Writing those reviews has been a blast, but it has, by necessity streamlined my choice of reading and 2012 saw me consuming a lot more in the Crime / Noir / Hard-boiled arena, than perhaps I might have otherwise. I’ll point out the obvious and say that not all of my picks were first published this year, but as I read them in 2012 they shall reside here regardless. Anyway onwards! In no particular order, here are my favourites. There were plenty of others that were good, but these were better.  



Make of that what you will, but you could do a lot worse than dropping your Dollar, Pound, Euro or Dinar on any of these excellent works.