“Poor Roy’s Picaresque” by Joseph Hirsch

The myth is that the knight fights the Dragon. The truth is that the Dragon teaches men to breathe fire, Obviating the need for knights. Taking this time machine to Brooklyn now, think of Poor Roy Luck and life against him. No, he wasn’t cross-eyed But other than that, he was fat, small, and bullnecked […]

“Hellbenders” by Chris McGinley

Sheriff Shelby Hines thought about his own burial. He needed a breather before he started the last leg of a climb that ended at a tumbledown trailer high up on Black Owl Mountain. From his position, he could see the side of the single-wide, a beat-up structure with broad lines of soot under the eaves. […]

“Why?” by Gerald So

Allie asked in a stolen moment why I joined up to fly. Leaving the ground for fun was nuts enough, she said. Why do it for war? I didn’t want to fly straight, I said honestly. Straight was too easy. I wanted to buck and roll. So what if cannons and planes shot at me? […]

“A Tragedy of the Common Man: Sam Ross’ He Ran All the Way (1947)” by Jay Gertzman

She, humming: “Got a man, crazy for me, he’s funny that way.” He, blustering: “If I have to live, I’ll [kill to] do it.” Sam Ross’ He Ran All the Way (Farrar Straus, 1947; Lion books, 1950) is one of the best noir crime novels of the classic period and one which offers the deepest […]

“The Myths” by J.D. Smith

One: The gun just went off. People can say what they want, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe them. This is just what people say when they don’t know what they’re doing, or they know damn well what they’ve done and they’re trying to cover their ass. It turns out the same either […]

“It’s a Noir World” by Woody Haut

“It’s a screwed up, bitched up world . . .” (Lou Ford in Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me) Was it always like this? The feeling that nothing is real. Not just ersatz, but a fake of a fake, a photograph of a photograph of the world falling apart. That food you’re eating, it’s probably […]

“Walking Amsterdam” by Patricia Abbott

He was waiting for his luggage at Schiphol Airport when he spotted her. She was wearing the somber, seal-gray coat he had given her last Christmas, and it was only the crimson scarf at her throat that caught his eye. They had decided it was silly for her to meet his plane. He had outlined […]

“Bar Room Butterfly” by Barry Gifford

Roy’s grandfather subscribed to several magazines, among them Time, Field & Stream, Sport, and Reader’s Digest, but the one that interested Roy most was Chicago Crime Monthly. One afternoon Roy came home from school and found his grandfather reading a new issue. “Hi, Pops. Anything good in there?” “Hello, boy. Yes, I’ve just started an […]

“Bail, and Other Bonds” by Joseph Hirsch

1. Order of the Purple Heart It was just like the bastard to not tell me he was in town for all this time, and to wait until something serious happened before he got in touch with me. I don’t know how he got my cell number, but he called me at work, while I […]

“Steak-n-Cheese” by Mike Madden

Deangelo Roccella jerks the classic ‘73 Nova into a space and kills the engine. He draws a comb from the pocket of his Ralph Lauren and runs it through his jet black hair, pausing to admire his Sicilian good looks in the rearview. “Well, Cisco,” Deangelo says. “They got steak and they got cheese. So […]