“Noir with a Social Conscience: Ride the Pink Horse (1946)” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “Using a distinct setting, a complex anti-hero, a series of unsavory, as well as empathetic characters, and most notably, a social heartbeat, Dorothy B. Hughes’ Ride the Pink Horse offers an extremely compelling journey.”

“Jim Dandy to the Rescue” by D. V. Bennett

FICTION: “Seeing her in silhouette, my reaction plummeted to the low level of a lonely, recent dumpee, but when she stepped into the light, my imagination ventured into the realm of shame….”

“Kakure Kirishitan: Our Sacred Oribe” by David Ryan

POETRY: “Hundreds dead outside our garden…Fear marks our quiet burden….”

“Street Sweeping in the City that Works” by David Hagerty

FICTION: “A fresh breeze off the lake carried away the roar of cars and the decaying scents of the city. Yet before he’d passed the trinket shop, two police officers blocked his way….”

“Uncanny Valley” By Gary D. Rhodes

POETRY: “I had to remind myself, / uphill or down, / never to speak of this again….”

“No stupid moves: Frank Oz’s The Score” By Anees Aref

REVIEW ESSAY: “Thieves should respect their elders, too.”

“Retribution, with Extreme Prejudice” by Glen Bush

FICTION: “I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. That made me even more nervous, so I started to turn around and answer him but that’s when he hit me with a hard punch to my kidney….”

Jonathan Latimer, Skilled Artisan of the Crime Genre: Headed for a Hearse (1935)

BOOK REVIEW: “Demonstrates a degree of mastery of plot, character, and structure as the mystery is solved with all twists and turns readers have come to expect from the genre….”

“Jim Thompson’s Cropper’s Cabin” by Jay A. Gertzman

NONFICTION: “There are three outstanding features of Thompson’s novel: (1) the Shakespearean intensity of love and hate depicted in closely bound men and women; (2) the simmering resentment, shame, and fear existing between Oklahomans and Native American descendants of the Five civilized Tribes; and (3) Thompson‘s and Caldwell’s versions of Southern Gothic melodrama.”