It all started one night with one guy and his friend Frederick casting out his demons in a pub digging deeper with each successive story out of his muIt all started one night with one guy and his friend Frederick casting out his demons in a pub digging deeper with each successive story out of his murky scotch filled mire of his soul. He finally reaches one last secret, a tattoo on his body his friend becomes paranoid and haunted by this face painted on him and it haunts him through the night. Does he have just cause? Well let's say that the tattooed friend goes from worse to worser and its going to be one hell of a wet rainy night. Short and well written story from Rossi a little sample of his writing that's dark and impressive. ...more
A wacky tale of the mentally ill, the story was creative and strange amidst an apocalypse. This story could easily fit into the bizarro genre. There wA wacky tale of the mentally ill, the story was creative and strange amidst an apocalypse. This story could easily fit into the bizarro genre. There was a few elements missing for me that made me really like it more. ...more
Charlie Pronovella Golden Gloves retired boxing champ is like the title says going through a Separation with his wife. He just does not want to let heCharlie Pronovella Golden Gloves retired boxing champ is like the title says going through a Separation with his wife. He just does not want to let her go. He's loosing a grip on reality, he complains that everything has shifted to the left a bit displaced off-center. Two pals one a Doctor try desperately for him to snap back to reality and get him out of this dream state of consciousness he is slowly loosing his mind. Malfi proves again at how well he can write. This was a good melancholy tale. http://more2read.com/?review=the-separation-by-ronald-malfi...more
An engrossing, visceral first person story that really hooks you in, and intrigues you with the need for an answer to, Who is He? This story is writtenAn engrossing, visceral first person story that really hooks you in, and intrigues you with the need for an answer to, Who is He? This story is written so well and has some really good passages incorporating the protagonists thoughts and feelings. The main protagonist finds himself in a dilemma that he cannot remember who he is and failing to recollect memories except a few snippets here and there and an address written down on his arm. It must be a harrowing experience this Amnesia state of mind, the story is in the similar vein as Before I got to Sleep and just and as much depth it creates a psychologically tense setting of tempo. Also this story made me recollect the Bourne identity movie where Matt Damon tries to piece together his identity, it all makes interesting reading. The authors other work Snow and Ascent, I am eager to give one them a try as I enjoyed his writing prose, this story comes highly recommended as one to read easily available on ebook. The excerpts below that I liked should provide a good taster of the story quality.
"The whole building is silent. Then I am here: the third floor landing. I stand at the far end of the hall, taking in the doors of either side of the hallway and the single door at the opposite wall facing me. The oaken, musty smell f the aged wood and grime infiltrate my senses-not just my sense of smell, but all my senses, to the point where I can acutely see the oldness of the hallway in detail, can hear the floating of the stagnant dust through the motionless air and feel the weight f the oldness, all of it, like a force against my skin, pushing down. It is a wellspring of power, of overpower, the amplification tantamount to overdriven stereo speakers. It is my imbecilic, useless mind desperate to grasp at all my surroundings in an attempt to fill the void where my memory was once stored. An empty, voiceless void; a rip in space and time. Because if you can't fill it with memory, you will fill it with senses. My memory.... How does someone forget who they are? How does someone wake up on a city bus as if fresh from the womb? This waltz therapeutic- cut it out, I think. End the dance."
" The funny thing is I've been here before. The funny thing is, it starts with the disremembered but, strangely enough, it starts with deja vu. The memory of the memory. It starts with the confidence of subconscious recollection. Time immemorial. looping, soundless footage projected straight into space. Dust motes spiralling dizzy in the spotlight"
"These bills have been passed through countless hands, stuffed into pocket after pocket after pocket, tipped to strippers and used to snort cocaine. These bills have touched the lives of countless people involved in countless activities. They are real, tangible. And feeling this only makes me aware of how alone I am. Utterly; completely."
"There's a million places you can sell junk. This city, man, it's built on junk, selling junk. The whole place revolves around junk being moved from one shitty location to another. Relocation, that the game. Its all the same no matter how you cut it- wether you be moving someone's junk from the curb to a junk shop, whether you be a taxicab moving junk-head people's from one part of the city to another, or whether you been taking junk straight from a needle and burying it right in your arm. That Baltimore, and that's what makes the city move-the transporting of junk. We built on it."
"I drive and let up on the accelerator as the road condenses to a single lane. Trees file by on either side. It is a long, straight stretch of blacktop, straight out to the horizon. Suddenly, i am in a painting by someone named Courbet. Suddenly, i am in the one memory I have managed to retain throughout all this... Both feet slam on the brake. The truck tyres screech and the truck itself fishtails to the right, kicking up gravel like marbles, the stink of burning rubber overpowering the world. The truck bucks and convulses before quivering to a halt. A second later, as if in need of oxygen, I spill out of the cab and stagger, zombie-like, toward the centre of the street. The world is silent. The trees don't even appear to sway in the breeze. It is cold up here, damn cold, but my adrenaline is pumping like thunderous applause, my clothes drenched in sweat. Piano sonata 14 plays through the open door of the truck. Standing in the centre of the roadway, I am just as lost as I have been all along. The needling has increased at the base of my skull, but there are no memories here, nothing to pick up and dust off. Yet this place.... This place......"
When it comes to Maberry and dark tales I always am satisfied with his stories. This one is short and you can't find any faults in it, no word wasted When it comes to Maberry and dark tales I always am satisfied with his stories. This one is short and you can't find any faults in it, no word wasted and keeps you thinking afterwards. Fences, Walls people build them to divide and protect you have The Wall of China, London wall, Berlin wall and wall in Israel to name a few and now you have a fence in this story to protect from the death.
"Why? Are they in pain? Is it some kind of weird-ass hunting cry? Are they trying to communicate in the only way they know how?"
"The dead moaned. The wind from Hell breathed out through the mouths of the hungry dead."
Pound for pound the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was a champion across weight divisions his skill and class was unmatched. In writing you could say there Pound for pound the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was a champion across weight divisions his skill and class was unmatched. In writing you could say there are pound for pound or should I say Genre for Genre writers that hit home runs and pack a punch with stories across different genres. Writers such as Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King, and I must say also with Jonathan Maberry. He is writing top notch novels with the likes of The Pine Deep trilogy, The Joe ledger Series and Benny Imura series and now we have a short story of the Urban Fantasy genre.
Sam Hunter is a Private Investigator, his new client wants him to take the heat off from and ex-husband who’s making death threats. This ex-husband has been said to have charisma and owns a groovy bat-like urban club down town. Sam pays him a visit to see what pedigree of heat he is dealing with and oh boy does Sam discover a whole new class of jackass. Sam is a P.I that has all the hallmarks of a character built to last and is going to take the investigation scene by storm. He has an extra edge a surprise weapon of defense that should help him through the rough and a charisma to deal with the smooth. This is story presents a taster of the man Sam Hunter and will leave you with a thirst for more of his stories. Maberry’s writing was sharp and packed a solid punch with a couple of surprises. Short and one not to miss. I am waiting eagerly for a novel length story with Sam the P.I as the main protagonist.
Joe Ledger and the DMS on another mission. This time it involves a neo-Nazi, eugenics, pathogen,twins and genetics. As the clock counts down to a deadJoe Ledger and the DMS on another mission. This time it involves a neo-Nazi, eugenics, pathogen,twins and genetics. As the clock counts down to a deadly weapon being released the team is on the search for the source. The story is well researched with many military specifics. It's written well. I preferred Patient Zero the first Ledger book, when it comes to stories involving combat and espionage I tend to struggle in keeping interest. This is not a short read and just found myself wanting it to end if it was shorter I might have liked it even more....more
A woman in her 80's found found raped, sodomised, kicked, then burned and shocked with wires. Why? The story opens with this heinous crime and the seaA woman in her 80's found found raped, sodomised, kicked, then burned and shocked with wires. Why? The story opens with this heinous crime and the search commences for a serial killer that gets called The Bay Killer who is he and what is his next move? The FBI Behavioural Analysis Unit headed by Profiler Karen Vail, need to find out. This story runs with chapters that go back to 1950's and the story of a man whos a father and a husband his wife has been killed and he becomes the main suspect. He gets released due to not enough evidence but still the finger gets pointed to him, with a son to care for the odds are stacked against him. You feel for him as life gets tougher and he finds it hard to get work and make ends meet, because of the accusations against him of murder. There are big choices to make, he makes the choice to make things happen and pulls off two armed bank robberies which in time will prove to cost him more than he bargained for. He finds himself eventually behind bars and with one failed escape he lands himself with a one way ticket to Alcatraz, thee maximum security prison. Who he was a year ago and who he was now were as different as summer in Spain and winter in Siberia. He has a son out there that he needs to take care of and by any means necessary needs to break free from the rock Alcatraz and tend to him, will he make it?
He Walton MacNally was pegged as a very bright guy, scored a 135 on a prison IQ test. Resourceful, motivated, hard worker. Did fifteen months at Leavenworth Prison but was involved in two escape attempts and was suspected in the violent assault of two cons. After the second attempt he was transferred to Alcatraz, where his history of violence continued. Behind bars makes you or breaks you Walton really finds himself backed against the bars from the offset and as they take their pickings the sodomizers unleash a fury and vengeance that become the source off his violent escalation. The heinous murders pile up and the investigation team try to find the killer. Why visit the past and Walton MacNally is there a link? This was an informative and tense story that keeps you hooked.
"Behavioural analysis was a science yes, but it was also dynamic, based on the totality of what you know at the time. You took the information, compared it to what you knew of other crimes and behaviours and killers, analysed the psychology behind the actions taken by the killer and the victimology of your victims, and drew conclusions based on your assimilation of all those factors."
"Murderers, sex deviants, rapists, child molesters, kidnappers, drug addicts, armed robbers, mobsters, bikers. Bad shits gonna happens when you put crap Iike that under one roof. All trying to prove how tough they are, who's go the most power."
"MacNally would soon find out, his failure to heed the wisdom Officer Voorhees had given at Leavenworth-the part about making the correct choices in life-would once again have catastrophic effects."
Hell and Gone an apt title, Hell for a place comparable to hell, and Gone as in gone of the Grid a ghost vanished. Think in the lines of a rendition aHell and Gone an apt title, Hell for a place comparable to hell, and Gone as in gone of the Grid a ghost vanished. Think in the lines of a rendition a removal of a subject/person and gone as-well as dead. There is a lot out there that we don’t know about, Ghost planes and Ghost prisons to name a few, locations unknown to but of few pen pushing top executives. Charlie Hardie the man who is the best at guarding Homes possessions and people now finds himself in the tightest jam to date prison guarding, but Where? And Why? And Who sent him there? You going to have to read this novel to find out. Yet again an explosive story from the likes of Duane Swierczynski the author. I loved the first Hardie installment, Fun and Games and this is another treat of a story intricate plotted and cleverly put together in the most interesting locations yet. We have all heard of Alcatraz, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. There are psychological experiments out there that studied the way humans behave in captivity and how power control shifts amongst prisoners and prison staff. Someone is pressing the buttons in this prison that Charlie Hardie finds himself in and playing one against another. The problem with these hard ass guys like Charlie is that they have baggage, strings attached a weak spot, with family in the balance he is going to have to tread carefully.
Check out thefirst and third installments, all great thrillers.
Before I begin what is your IQ rating? Is it important? These categorizations are important in our hum drum of life especially to the walks of life whBefore I begin what is your IQ rating? Is it important? These categorizations are important in our hum drum of life especially to the walks of life who have had shall we say a less exterior normality for instance one character in this story Wyatt Huddy. He has a facial disfigurement and disorder from birth. The grave truth of us the human race is we label, point, snicker and gossip. We discriminate for race, for abilities and disabilities, appearance and size. In this case this gem of a story you are put amongst the lesser fortunate they are not children but their brain functionality is hindered.
The forest is the setting for campers in one particular camping season they are 104 adults with mental disabilities including down syndrome. Wyatt is one of the forest camp complex workers and is put in charge of camp 2, a quite outrageous group of men that get up to no good with each other during the night. But Wyatt is more than capable and can handle the situations that arise in a good calm manner. He almost finds himself feel more accepted by the adults that have disabilities and recognized more than the workers. They notice him in distress and reach for his help but some new workers behave the opposite and mistake him for the campers due to his facial looks. This story is quite deep and poses many issues and dilemmas we face, i found the story quite heartbreaking and as I revisit the story writing this shed a tear. For we judge to quickly with appearance and first impressions, we give the supposedly able, sane, normal looking a free pass and find they become the ones that commit worst injustices and crime to people. This is story brings me back to Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and how the ugly creation just wanted to assimilate and the rejection he faced is what pushed to him to violent behavior. Repulsion causes reactions of a negative force at times.
Without giving too much away and spoiling the story if you want a touching, meaningful story where the less fortunate take the story to another platform then this is it, engrossing, shocking and a very human story.
“The displacement of his features-the left half of the face higher than the right, the eyes offset by nearly an inch, the nose a bit mashed, the right side of his mouth sloping down had a name, and that those unfamiliar with disorder always assumed its sufferers were mentally retarded, when, luckily or unlucky, they were often average intelligence.
He wasn’t retarded, a fact to be carefully and painfully imparted to every stranger he met. Not disabled. Not handicapped.”
“He attended every staff meeting. He wasn’t retarded. But what was he then? Disfigured maybe. He had a queerly shaped head, a sloping face. Each afternoon he’d guided his campers, one by one, down the pool steps and then sat cross-legged on the deck while they tottered around the shallow end. He wouldn’t take off his shoes and dangle his feet in the water. An odd young man hulking ad private. But he was as aware and capable as any other member of the Kindermann Forest staff.”
“You can’t pick and choose which kids come to your camp. You all sorts. All kinds of campers. All kinds of counselors.’ He shook his head, dismayed. ‘You can’t control it as well as you hoped,’ Schuller said.’After a while, it all gets away from you. It all goes….’ He held out his thin arms.’Beyond your reach.’”
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