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    • Abdullah the Butcher in Gotham by Mark A. Nobles
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Close to the Bone's NIGHTSIDE: TALES OF OUTRE NOIR
edited by Mark Slade


A New Collection of the Best of British Grit

Reviewed by Adam Van Winkle

At Cowboy Jamboree we've been a fan of Close to the Bone Publishing for a while now.  Next week, 10/30, just in time for Halloween the Bone releases a stunning new anthology packed with some of the best writers in grit, in crime, what editor Mark Slade aptly dubs "Gonzo Noir."

In other words, imagine if Hunter S. Thompson wrote crime fiction.

It's a beautiful idea, and one that editor Slade and Close to the Bone pull off masterfully in NIGHTSIDE: TALES OF OUTRE NOIR.  Contributing writers Holly Rae Garcia (also responsible for that awesome cover silhouette illustration), Paul D. Brazill, Viktor Auralis, Jeff Niles, Jesse Rawlins, Kimberly Godwin, Jason Norton, Tom Pitts, Slade, Michael Martin Garrett, Jim Shaffer, G. Wayne Miller, Andy Rausch, Phil Thomas, and T. Fox Dunham offer a break from the tedium of the watered down crime genre for a peak at something all together different.  Think the anti-CSI.  Garcia's story, for instance, is an epistolary tale told through e-mail correspondence, where an undercover agent working food service if offed for his overly gabby correspondence.  In Slade's story a homeless man is enlisted by a ladder climbing police officer to solve a murder.  Paul D. Brazill's contribution starts with a hangover and works backward to an attack of werewolf biker gang members on a favorite bar in total 1950s pulp style.  Auralis and Niles offer up a joint venture, a full-on script form about a "Chanukah Horror," masterfully written.

In other words, if you are looking for something different, for a break from the watered-down-television-movie-brand of crime story, check out Close to the Bone's upcoming anthology release, Nightside: Tales of Outre Noir.  "Outre" means violating convention or propriety; it means the bizarre.  "Outre Noir" indeed.

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  • CJ MAGAZINE
  • Current Issue
  • Style & Submit
    • About CJ
  • Books
  • Sheldon Lee Compton
    • Oblivion Angels
    • The Orchard Is Full of Sound (excerpt)
    • Our Lord and Savior Christian Slater
    • Dog With a Rabbit's Head
    • By-blow
    • Until the Going Down of the River
    • The Judas Steer
    • Tooling Up
    • DYSPHORIA (excerpt)
  • Interviews, Reviews, & Presses
    • Blake Johnson's Prodigal: An American Parable
  • Jobbers
    • Big Rig by Shaun Jex
    • A Night Out with Big Ricky by Katy Goforth
    • War Eagle by David Barker
    • True Dreams of Wichita by Shaun Jex
    • Doink the Clown Works Birthday Parties by Michael Chin
    • The Ballad of Ethel Bridges by David P. Barker
    • House Show in Badger County High School Gym by Simon Nagel
    • 288 Miles by David P. Barker
    • Corn Dogs by Shaun Jex
    • Getting Ready + Cowboy by Michael Chin
    • American Dream by Robert Libbey
    • Training Partner by A.A. Rubin
    • Finding the von Erichs by Shaun Jex
    • The Making of Big Sandy by Michael Carter
    • Pot Roast from Vance Godbey's by Mark A. Nobles
    • Abdullah the Butcher in Gotham by Mark A. Nobles
    • PWI by Josh Olsen
  • Harry Crews
  • CJ Issues & Authors
  • Our Father's Lit: Western Pulp