Author: Bruce Grossman
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A new collection
of short stories by Ed Gorman is definitely a reason to celebrate. Gorman knows
his audience, and the contents in this Perfect Crime collection, SCREAM QUEEN AND
OTHER TALES OF MENACE, truly fit the title. The 14 tales range
from straight-up crime to peeks into a bizarre future. What will really shock
some readers will delight others. Personally what I loved is how in some
stories the leads seem so normal until Gorman takes that one little turn and we
see the real truth in these characters.
While some might
assume where a story goes, like in the opening “Angie,” Gorman throws a change
up early on, only to throw another on later. “Angie” deals with a young boy who
overhears his career-criminal father, while in the title tale, a video store
clerk and his friends figure out one of his customers was a former scream
queen, but can’t figure out why she is now living in a small town and keeping
her former life a secret. It’s not the sweetest story, which is like saying
that gunshot wound isn’t as bad as that other gunshot wound.
Two of the OTHER
TALES OF MENACE are definite must-reads, but for varying reasons. “Cages” is a
near-future work of a young boy who sells something, much to his mother’s
disgust, while “Beauty” is officially one of the coldest and most brutal pieces
I’ve ever read. All I can say without giving it away is that Gorman is truly
one sick bastard, folks. And that’s a compliment.
“The Brasher
Girl” is an homage to Stephen King; actually Gorman admits in the afterword
that it might be considered theft. It deals with two young people and a special
well. The well in question holds a secret: an alien living down below who has a
control over these two, to the point of killing and other assorted activities.
“En Famile” is told from the perspective of a boy who spends his youth with his
father at the track and with his first love. “Out There in the Darkness”
follows a weekly poker game; a neighborhood watch that goes really, really
wrong; and the outcome of the events.
Again, some
readers might be thrown by some of the brutality in these stories. While
longtime crime readers will just clamor for more. With how prolific Gorman is
at the short-story format, hopefully we can expect another collection sooner than
later. —Bruce Grossman
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