Burned, by Hugh Lessig

 "Burned," by Hugh Lessig, in Mickey Finn 5, edited by Michael Bracken,  Down & Out Books, 2025.

This is Lessig's second appearance in this column.  That's not so unusual, but it is also his second visit here this month. That''s pretty rare.

Being a single mom can be tough.  Now imagine if your only child is  a teenage boy determined to run off to find his father who vanished years before.  That's the situation Jenna finds herself in.

A new neighbor moves into the apartment complex.  "Brooks Badger. That sounds like a cartoon character, but it really is my name." For a while he seems like a good influence on Jenna's son, Henry.  But she is suspicious (and honestly, so are you, right?)  

Turns out Brooks has a secret or two in his past.  Turns out Jenna does too.  Don't underestimate her.  A nice suspense story with its twists slowly revealed.

Eight Very Bad Nights, by Tod Goldberg

"Eight Very Bad Nights," by Tod Goldberg,  in Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg, Soho Crime, 2024.

This is the fourth appearance in this space by Tod Goldberg.  A short story? I think it's a novelette, but that counts.

Jack Katz runs his late father's furniture business, which was a sinking ship long before he took the helm.  Now it's Hanukkah and he doesn't have the money to met payroll.  This leads to him making a series of increasingly worse decisions as the nights of the holiday pass.

How bad? Well, there's confronting gangsters, drugs, theft, more drugs, sex, arson...   It's a satisfying roller coaster ride.

Johnny Christmas, by Ivy Pochoda

 "Johnny Christmas," by Ivy Pochoda, in Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection og Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg, Soho Crime, 2024.

This story is essentially a character study, and a very good one.

The narrator, Davo, recently got out of the army and decides to get a tattoo.  He gets linked up to an artist named Johnny Christmas and immediately recognizes him as Mike Goldfarb, who he had known many years before at the Brooklyn House of Detention. Goldfarb was awaiting trial for running over his grandmother's landlord. Twice.  

Lovers and relatives of the prisoners stood outside the House of D in the cold, shouting at their loved ones.  One of them was Goldfarb's grandmother, holding a chanukiah.  Goldfarb refuses to come up to see the old woman, baffling and infuriating the other prisoners.  What is it with this guy?  He is cold and emotionless with sudden shifts to violence.     

Davo eventually finds out a lot about the man, as do we. This is one of those stories that didn't make my best list until after I read it, thought about it, and read it again.

Hole in my Soul, by John M. Floyd

  "Hole in my Soul," by John M. Floyd, in Janie's Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, edited by Michael Bracken, White City Press, 2024.

 This is the fourth appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer.

What can I say about this terrific story? Not much without giving things away.  So let's talk about two different stories I read decades ago.  I don't recall the authors or titles.

The first tale I think I read in Queen or Hitchcock, probably the latter.  We follow a man walking through a city street, doing petty, nasty things.  It was my first encounter with the concept of keying a car.  He meets a young couple with their newborn baby and tells them "He doesn't look like either of you," leaving them in a shouting match.  Then he gets to his office and we realize that he works for the manufacturer of a  headache remedy and we have just seen him doing his job.

I believe I heard a high school teacher read the second story aloud.  I long thought it was by James Thurber, but I have never found it in his work.  We follow a man down a city street as he does minor good deeds, making everyone's life just a little nicer.  He gets home and his wife cheerfully tells him about her day, keying cars, and otherwise making people's lives slightly worse.  They agree that the next day they will change roles.

Okay, now on to Floyd's story.  We follow a man, the narrator, as he strolls down a city street, but first he saves a child from dying in a horrible accident...  And I won't tell you about the rest of his day.

These tales are all variations on what I have named the Unknown Narrator story in which the reader knows nothing about the main character except what he does or what people say about him.  The fun is finding out what he is up to.  And this one was a lot of fun.

Retro Rhapsody by Hugh Lessig

 

"Retro Rhapsody," by Hugh Lessig,   in Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson, Down and Out Books, 2024.

Judy manages a diner.  Her problem employee is a fifty-something guy, twice her age, named Doutree who, wrongly, thinks he has a chance with her.

Her new employee is a cook named Army who is dependable, good-looking, and maybe has a secret.  Or a whole lot of secrets. 

Maybe one of these guys can help with the other. Or maybe he can make things much worse.

This is one of those stories where new layers are revealed every few pages.  I enjoyed uncovering them.