Saturday 15 February 2020

'Our Lady of the Red Hands'

The next story in Tom Johnstone's themed collection Last Stop Wellsbourne features a hard-boiled private eye. The gumshoe takes on a missing person case from a grubby, decrepit guy. Turns out the dame he's asked to find is an old squeeze of his called Mary Bell. Or is it Myra? And just how unreliable is this narrator? 

The story has a nice Chandleresque feel, which is apt enough as Chandler was British (look it up). As always, grottyness and grubbiness are well evoked, and the hit-and-miss sleuthing approach sits well with the overall theme of obsession. The client, Whybrow, is seedy enough to be a Chandler character and Mary/Myra is a modern femme fatale - in a way. Overall, this a nice blend of modern psychological horror and pastiche film noir is nicely-turned prose.
'Sounds simple, don't it? But in a town like this, a guy like me's bound to bump into a doll like her someplace, sooner of later. And one day, there she was, just walking past me, almost through me. Preoccupied, I guess.'


1 comment:

Unknown said...

In this manner my friend Wesley Virgin's story launches in this SHOCKING and controversial VIDEO.

You see, Wesley was in the military-and shortly after leaving-he discovered hidden, "mind control" secrets that the CIA and others used to get whatever they want.

These are the EXACT same secrets many famous people (notably those who "come out of nothing") and the greatest business people used to become wealthy and successful.

You probably know how you use less than 10% of your brain.

That's really because the majority of your BRAINPOWER is UNTAPPED.

Perhaps this expression has even occurred IN YOUR very own brain... as it did in my good friend Wesley Virgin's brain about seven years ago, while driving a non-registered, beat-up bucket of a car with a suspended driver's license and $3.20 on his banking card.

"I'm absolutely frustrated with living paycheck to paycheck! Why can't I turn myself successful?"

You've taken part in those types of questions, isn't it so?

Your success story is waiting to start. All you have to do is in YOURSELF.

WATCH WESLEY SPEAK NOW

LET YOUR HINGED JAW DO THE TALKING by Tom Johnstone (Alchemy Press)

ST 55 features a tale by Brighton's finest purveyor of contemporary horror, Tom Johnstone. And it just so happens that Alchemy Press is...