Rawson's Top 5

Like most years since I turned 30, 2010 flew by for me. It was an exciting year, I met and interviewed more than a few of my idols, helped revive a magazine, and started writing reviews along with pumping out fiction. The other thing that set 2010 apart for me was that I read 80 novels this year. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a prestigious reader, but this year there didn't seem to be moment that went by when I didn't have my nose in a book.

I enjoyed most of them, but there were more than a few that left me shaking my head and performing a sky hook into the garbage can with them and even more that left me saying Meh. But there were some truly great reading moments with novels where time stopped moving and I was so absorbed by story that nothing existed outside of it. The following lists are the best of what I read this year.

Quick note, folks. I know I said I would be writing individual reviews for each of my picks, but time managed to sneak up on me and kick my ass. Plus I had a hell of a time narrowing down my choices and I liked so many different novels that I decided to include a top five of my non crime reads and five notable crime titles along with my top five.
Anyway, here we go


My top 5 Non-Crime novels of the year

Yes, I read a lot of non crime fiction. For every two crime titles I read, I dip my toes into another genre. With 2010, I found myself reading a boat load of Urban Fantasy and Apocalypse fiction. In case you didn't notice, there was tons of both.

5) Rut by Scott Phillips
Phillips told me about this book when I was conning--I mean arranging for him to contribute his 'Under the Influence' piece for issue #1 of Crimefactory. Phillips has been one of my favorite novelists for a number of years and I was chomping at the bit to read his take on science fiction. Rut is very much an apocalypse novel, but it's a realistic take on Armageddon, where the end of the human race is slow and drawn out over decades as opposed to a sudden blinding flash of death and chaos. And, of course, the book is hilarious.

4) The Stairway to Hell by Charlie Williams
When I received this novel, Russel Mclean commented on how brilliant he thought the book was. In fact, he called it 'genius'. And Russel, he was right, this is not only a brilliant read, but is Williams best novel to date. Normally I'm not a huge fan of novels about musicians or the pursuit of fame, but Stairway to Hell is so damn funny my predisposed prejudice towards the subject was completely shed. Highly recommended to fans of Neil Gaiman's more vicious novels.

3) Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Like I said of Victor Gischler, if there was a Kadrey fan club, I'd be the president. (Okay, vice-president, A.J. Hayes would probably be the president) I've put this book into the hands of more people this year than any other. And, yes, crime fiction fans will love it because along with being one of the best examples of Urban Fantasy released this year, it's also one hell of a hard-boiled read. Also on an only interesting to me note, Kadrey is the one author who I own entirely as e-books.

2) The Passage by Justin Cronin
This one got tons of ink this year, but there was a reason for it. The Passage is a fully realized, emotionally complex epic and outside of Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt novels, the Passage is one of the most original takes on the vampire novel I've ever read. It's also one of the most original takes on the Armageddon, where Cronin advances the remains of civilization not five or ten years into the future, but 80. Great read.

1) The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody
This was a bold move by a writer whose previous novels mostly dealt with the malaise of suburban America. Much like Rut, Moody portrays the end times as a slow burn, a culture ravaged by out of control consumerism, short attention spans, and bastardized politics has doomed us. This is a novel within a novel and both story lines are utterly compelling.

My Five Crime Fiction notables:

5) The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson
A slickly written, meticulously researched mystery with heavy noir elements. Davidson's first novel length effort is far from a perfect novel, but it is a highly enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to further entries in the Lily Moore series and where she takes her characters

4) Bad Juju and Other tales of Madness and Mayhem by Jonathan Woods
My favorite single author short story collection of the year. Woods is a master of the short form and each story in the collection is a insane nugget of desperation and over the top violence.

3) Broken Dreams by Nick Quantrill
What I like most about Quantrill's PI Joe Geraghty is that, yes, Geraghty's past life is fraught with tormented moments, but he is not over burdened by them. Geraghty has dealt with his pain and has moved on and is dealing with day-to-day life as opposed to letting it turn him into a self serving prick like most fictional PI's. Broken Dreams is a gripping, atmospheric read and like the Damage Done, it's not perfect, but it is highly readable

2) Print the Legend by Craig McDonald
My favorite ongoing series. Each entry in the Lassiter series keeps getting better and better. I can't wait for One True Sentence.

1) Requiems for the Departed edited by Gerard Brennan and Michael Stone
My favorite anthology of the year in a year over flowing with truly amazing anthologies.

I know this has been one long winded bastard of a post, but finally, here are my top five novels of the year.

My Top Five

5) Pike by Benjamin Whitmer
I commented on Facebook when I first started reading Pike that I felt like I needed to take a scalding hot bath every 50 pages or so. I still hold to this opinion. Pike is stripped down, working class noir. Each chapter is like a punch to the face and is one of the most carefully constructed novels of the year.

4) Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski
This genre bender is classic Swierczynski. Whip crack plotting, near nonstop action, and some of the most intelligent, personal writing of Philly's reigning king of pulp's career. One of the few novels I read multiple times this year.

3) Late Rain by Lynn Kostoff and Johnny Porno by Charlie Stella (tie)
Kostoff and Stella seem to be attached at the hip this year and with good reason. Both authors have produced the two best and, far from easily defined novels, of their careers. Yes, both are crime novels on the surface, but there's so much more going on in each of them. Both are tightly drawn character studies without an ounce of fat on either of them.

2) The Wolves of Fairmount Park by Dennis Tafoya
Tafoya's sophomore effort can be easily compared to the best of Richard Price and George Pelacanos. Tafoya skillfully handles this weighty, character driven tome with the deft skill of a far more experienced novelist. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Tafoya is the novelist to watch in the years to come.

1) The Cold Kiss by John Rector

The moment I cracked the ARC of the Cold Kiss open, I knew I would be including it on my ten best of list. Two hours later as I turned the last page, I knew it would be my number 1 pick. The Cold Kiss is a perfect balance of character, plot, and action. No, the plot of a young couple coming across a shit load of dirty cash and then being hunted down for it isn't the most original, but Rector manages to make it fresh by combining it with an intense locked room style mystery. By the way, if I was a betting man, I'd put money down that five years from now, Rector will be ranked as one of the most renowned thriller writers in the states. The Cold Kiss is an amazing, can not be missed novel

Rawson’s Best of Whatever—the Short Stories

I think the best way to describe the year of 2010 for short fiction is flux.

The flux of new publications such as my dear sweet Crimefactory, Needle Magazine, Title Fights, Pulp Metal Magazine, and the exceptional All Due Respect (If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s a sleeper of a zine, only publishing one story per month, but the stories are top of the line.) I’m sure I’ve forgetting one or two or a dozen, but you can check out Sandra Seamans essential blog, My Little Corner, for updates of new publications coming down the pipe.

The flux of stalwart publications such as Pulp Pusher, Thuglit, and Thrilling Detective sadly coming to a close.

The flux of new short story writers such as Chris Benton, Matthew C. Funk, Graham Bowlin, Chris Deal, Matthew McBride, A.J. Hayes, Nigel Bird, and Ian Ayris making waves (If I’m forgetting anybody you’ll have to forgive me, there are a lot of you mothers out there)

But with all this new stuff coming out—and great new crime fiction coming from tried and true publications such as Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, A Twist of Noir, Thrillers, Killers, ‘n’ Chillers, Flash Fiction Offensive, Spinetingler, Crimespree, and Out of the Gutter—how do you narrow it down to a handful of short stories?

Well, what I’m going to do is fling a great big bunch of links out there of the stuff I dug and let you roll with it. (By the way, folks, I’m not a machine—as popular myth indicates—and I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t read every story that comes out. It’s impossible, so if you have your favorites, leave links to ‘em in the comments section of this post)

Before I start this thing, I should mention that I think the best stories of this year have all come out of Crimefactory.

I’m not just tooting our own horn here, but seriously, have you read the Suitcase by Dave White, or How to Jail by Dennis Tafoya, or Thin Mints by Dan O’Shea, or the Old Man by Jonathan Woods, or Five Ways Your Mom was Worse Than You’ll Ever Be by Sophie Littlefield, or Straight Razor by Scott Wolven, or the Darkest of the Debbies by Garnett Elliot, or Sparrows & Crows by John Weagly, or My Brother, the Asshole by Eric Beetner (forthcoming, but originally it won Jason Duke’s red hot writing competition in 2010)….

Okay, I’ll shut up now.

Here’s some of the best stories and short story related stuff I ran across this year and in no particular order

10) Indirection, In Wait by Kieran Shea, Thuglit #37

My favorite Kieran Shea story. Yeah, Irish has pushed a lot of ‘em out into the world, but this one.... vicious, compulsively readable, and one I was lucky enough to read as an early draft.

9) Blood and Bone in Bambooland by Cameron Ashley, Plots with Guns #9

I’m not being nepotistic with this one, Ashley is a fucking artist. I’m not kidding. Yeah, it’s a story about turning a corpse into fertilizer (literally), but damn, Ashley’s ear for dialogue and the natural rhythm of speech is stunning. Great read no matter how you slice it

8) The 600-to-700 challenge, A Twist of Noir

When Christopher Grant wrote me asking what I thought of the 600-to-700 challenge (at the time it was going to be the 500-to-600 challenge) and if I was willing to participate, I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t know how well the experiment would pan out? Getting 2 or 3 writers to be on the same page about anything is a huge pain in the ass, but getting 75 or 80 of them to agree to do something and then getting them all to do it, well, that seemed just about impossible to me. But it’s worked, ATON is half way through (or pretty damn close) and there’s been some pretty strong work coming out of it. If you haven’t checked it out yet, make sure to right HERE.

7) Pulp Press

Yeah, I know it’s a book line, but what Danny Bowman and his crew are turning out are Novellas and they’ve been pretty fun reads. Highlights have been Alan Kelly’s Let Me Die a Woman and Danny Hogan’s brutal revenge tale The Windowlicker Maker. I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings for this excellent independent press.

6) The Great Whydini by David Cranmer, All Due Respect #2

Cranmer is a perfectionist, each word carefully measured and examined and re-examined. To be honest with you, Cranmer is the kind of writer who makes a pulp writing hack like myself a tad bit jealous, because just about every story he puts out into the world can easily make it onto any ‘best of’ list. Great Femme fatale tale, and pure pulp at its finest.

5) The Whole Buffalo by Jedidiah Ayres, Needle Magazine #1

What can I say, I dig civic minded morticians.

4) King by Dave Zeltserman, Beat to a Pulp

Not crime, kind of horror, but really more of a societal examination of what we consider normal behavior and what constitutes happiness. It’s your typical Zeltserman feel good kind of story

3) Cheap Bastard by Hilary Davidson, Spinetingler Magazine

I hate hitman stories. Seriously, the whole convention has had its dick beaten into the dirt. But a hitman going through a mid-life crisis and absolutely hating his chosen career path, this one resonated and left me nodding my head in sympathy.

2) Ghostman on Third by Chad Eagleton, the Drowning Machine

There’s something to be said about quiet stories. The slow burn, the anticipation. This one took third in the Drowning Machine’s second annual Watery Grave Competition, but in my opinion, it should have taken 1^st. I know, I know, Beat on the Brat by Nigel Bird was all kinds of awesome, but this one was so well measured, the dialogue so spot on. Plus, Eagleton’s another one of them ‘perfectionist’ writers. Bastard.

1) The Little Boy Inside by Glenn Gray, Beat to a Pulp and For the Children by Stephen Blackmoore, Needle #2 (tie)

I know, having a tie is a fucking cop out, but deal with it.

Dr. Gray is a freakin’ weird-o, but he’s my kind of weird-o. No, this isn’t crime, it’s just a straight up bizarro tale of a guy throwing up a little boy. Literally throwing him up. Give it a go if you haven’t already.

And with Blackmoore, damn. A teenage girl dead from a seemingly random shooting and all her friends and classmates gather around her snapping pictures and taking videos of her death throes sent chills down my spine. The rest of the story—narrated by a journalist, which for me is another one of those crime fiction conventions that can go the way of hitmen as far as I’m concerned, but it works for this one—is a brilliant investigation into the girl’s death. I liked this one so much that I politely suggested to Weddle that he needed to submit it to some of the ‘best of’ anthologies out there. Great read.

Video interview—Hilary Davidson

You can’t help but like Hilary Davidson. As a person, she’s a warm, inviting presence and like most crime writers, a stark contrast to her menacing fiction. I discovered Davidson’s writing through her Spinetingler award winning short story, “Insatiable”. The story of sexual dysfunction was one of my favorites of 2009 and I eagerly anticipated her debut novel, the Damage Done. On November 2^nd, I was lucky enough to sit down with Davidson before her appearance at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ to discuss the Damage Done, her writing process, the Gluten Free guidebook, and her future writing projects.

I hope you enjoy.

Hilary Davidson interviewed by Keith Rawson from Keith Rawson on Vimeo.

The Hilary Davidson Challenge

The always crafty Steve Weddle is throwing down with another flash fiction challenge. Here's what the red headed stranger of crime fiction had to say:

Not long ago I had the chance to chat up Hilary Davidson about her debut, THE DAMAGE DONE. This is one of my favorite books this year -- taut, determined, and so confident. The podcast is here.

My copy of THE DAMAGE DONE is signed by Ms Davidson herself. I don't have it in front of me, but I seem to remember it says something like, "Hey, you're not as big a jerk as everyone says, Hilary."

Jealous? Don't be. You, too, can have a SIGNED copy of THE DAMAGE DONE. Ms Davidson has graciously agreed to sign a copy for me to give away.

So, here's the deal:

Flash fiction. 500-ish words.

As Ms Davidson bleeds Canadian red and keeping in mind the book's title, the story must include something -- lyric, title, wardrobe choice -- to do with Neil Young.

And that's not all. Because I'm a sadist, the story must also include something to do with the shadowy ghost in the book, Ms Ava Gardner.

Post your story link here by November 3 (Wednesday) and Ms Davidson will have a chance to sign and personalize your very own special copy at NoirCon.

Recap: 500 words. Post a link here. Neil Young AND Ava Gardner. Yeah, that does sound tough. Maybe I am as big a jerk as they say.

Good luck and get moving. Rust never sleeps.

Make sure to post your stories right HERE at Channel Noir