Eric BeetnerRezensionen

a hootenanny of a hellride with the rumrunning McGraw family. great read.

All the Way Down by Eric Beetner

Fast-paced action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end!

When a dirty cop is sent in to save the Mayor’s daughter from the local gang leader it is more than likely a suicide mission for Dale Burnett BUT he is willing to go for it as he feels he has nothing to lose and perhaps some bad karma to turn the opposite direction. With a multi-story building for Dale and Lauren fighting off bad guys on every floor of the building the situations they find themselves in are hair raising and sometimes lethal...for those they encounter. Little does Dale know that his wife, on the outside, is also contending with bad guys asked to bring her in and the situations she finds herself in are just as lethal as those of those inside the building her husband is trying to escape. With twists and turns and a well laid out plot this is a book I could not put down. I have to say that though this is the first book I have read by this author it will not be the last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Down and Out Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

2 out of 25. The number of stories that I liked in this anthology, which were by Joe Lansdale (probably a good reason why his was the first in the book) and Eric Beetner (editor of this book). Overall, though, it was pretty disappointing.

This was a good read, and I might read something else by the author. The problem was that it was populated with characters who were bad people - I didn't really like any of them. If there is not someone to root for, at least for me, the story is not as compelling. If you want a dismal view of human nature (people using people), this story is for you. If not, then you might not want to read this one.

Beetner's Run For The Money takes an old pulp fiction staple of a crook
on the run from the law and injects it with so much energy that it's like
a freight train on steroids coming right at you. There's no attempt to
sugarcoat here. No attempt to pretend Slick and Bo have any
redeeming qualities. No attempt to write this one as if two innocent
men are wrongly accused and out to fight the dude who framed them.
These are just plain all-out bad guys and they have no compunctions
about anything from highway robbery to locking old ladies in closets to
attacking nuns, waitresses, and anyone else who comes across their
path.
Nor would you mistake this book for being a volume of Victorian
verses. It is solid all-out action on every page and from cover to cover.
Every page is worth reading. Don't skip any.
Dead-end losers, drug addicts, double crossers, vultures circling. This
is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to wild, crazy, well
written crime fiction. Five giant stars!

A staple of crime fiction has always been the man-on-the-run stories, often with both the law and the hoods after him. Yeah, this is one of those stories but it's been twisted and battered and plays out at breakneck speed. Throw in a gay prison lover, a Persian wife with an attitude, a price on his head, half the underworld on the prowl for him, and you've achieved a Hardboiled crime novella on steroids. This thing is carefully crafted and is not for the squeamish. It is dirty, violent, bloody, and will take you outside your comfort zone.

Nine Toes in the Grave is classic noir on speed. Filled with all the old-time pulp motifs from the gorgeous femme fatale, temptation that no man can resist, the sad sack innocent average joe on the run, the
hoods, the bums, the gunfire, there's not a wrong note in this one. Because you think you've heard it all before, you can hear the tongue-in -cheek play on Cain's Postman modernized, but the story doesn't
exactly end there. There are great phrases in here that recall the old pulp masters, but this is just plain lots of fun to read.

Beetner's "A Mouth Full of Blood" is termed a sequel to "Split Decision." Don't let that throw you. The only connection between the two is that the same lead character (Jimmy) is featured in both. "Mouth Full" is not a continuation of an earlier story. This one features some nasty no-holds-barred boxing action, but the meat of the story is about Jimmy's arrival in a new city or rather his return to Chicago where he once grown up in St. Vincent's orphanage. Here, Jimmy isn't as focused on his own rough situation as playing superhero to folks who need his help, including a skinny teenager who is bullied by a group of bigger, stronger kids and a woman trapped by a pimp and his musclemen.

It is a great, well-written story which firmly plants itself in the late post-war forties and is filled with action.

Eric Beetner is the guy who brought us the classic "Stripper Pole at the End of the World" about a one-legged stripper surrounded by hordes of drooling cannibals. So you have to wonder what he brings to the table in "Split Decision." Here, he has crafted a solid boxing tale true to the Fight Card tradition. Solidly set in the late post-war 1940's in Kansas City, this is the story of a boxer who struggles with his ethics and the lessons taught to him by Father Tim at the Chicago orphanage where many of the Fight Card boxers grew up. Of course, if you know anything about boxing and boxing stories, ethics means someone wants him to take a dive. But, Beetner is a terrific writer and this is not just some cliched story that you have heard before. It is filled with period references, with solid boxing action that makes you feel as if you are right there watching the action, and a good, plot line. If you like the Fight Card series, there is nothing not to like about this selection. If you are new to this series, there is no better place to dive in but this one. And, if you are looking for that tough, solid, furious action, you came to the right place.

Eric Beetner’s top-notch novel, “The Devil Doesn’t Want Me,” is proof positive that we have entered another golden age of crime fiction. This book is so good that it is not at all clear what Beetner could possibly do as an encore. It has a hardboiled feel to it, but is firmly planted in a modern electronic age.
It is the story of an old hand at contract killing, Lars, who has been chasing down “Mitch the Snitch” for the family for seventeen years, sometimes coming close to finding him, but always just missing. Lars is the consummate professional killer, calm, cool, dispassionate. He has never wavered from his mission all these years and, in the hot desert land of New Mexico, he may be coming close. Lars had had no life outside the hunt for all these years and musically he is stuck in the early eighties heavy metal era. Curiously, this professional hitman also does yoga to keep limber.

Enter the young gun, Trent, who has no respect for Lars’ professional ways and can only see that through nearly two decades, Lars has not gotten the job done. Within days, iphone earbud-wearing Trent who has no respect for Van Halen or Motley Crue, finds his target and prepares to execute.

There is tension between these two men, one an ancient, withered man from another decade, another an unprofessional goofball bent on using modern technology. Lars doesn’t like being replaced and doesn’t like a hit being done unprofessionally- at the wrong time with the target’s family watching. Lars doesn’t like collateral damage. And, when the smoke clears, Trent may have gotten the kill, but Lars is off and running with Mitch’s not-so-cute, not-so-worldly, teenage daughter. From the old gun-young gun yin and yang of Trent and Lars facing off, you now have added to it the old hitman and young, innocent teenager driving cross-country with all the guns of the family and the FBI trained on them.

This is one terrific book and was an absolute joy to read from beginning to end. The prose is tight. The action is intense. The story is filled with humor. It is hard-edged and gritty and it just works real well. Could actually see this being made into a movie.

Beetner gives it to the reader as advertised. A schlocky horror movie about a one- legged stripper at the end of the world on the run from hordes of cannibals. It should come as no surprise that something so aptly titled should be gross and gruesome. Picture the world of Walking Dead, but replace the zombies with cannibals and center the story on a strip club featuring damaged girls. See, the civilization just collapsed and now it's everyone for themselves. It's difficult to know how to rate such work. As high literature, the merits are questionable. It won't be featured in tenth grade English class. But as a selection of schlocky campy horror, it does well.

J. D. Smith, known to one and all as “The Lawyer” is still in pursuit of Big Jim Kimbrough after recent events in Six Guns At Sundown. Delayed for a bit by that, he is back on the hunt and feels he is finally very close to his quarry. The trail has led him to this isolated spot as a fire ravages the nearby hills. Things are not as isolated as they should be as the trail is a bit busy. First, the local undertaker passes with two bodies in tow. Whether those deaths are the work of Big Jim, he has no way of knowing, but The Lawyer is sure he does not want to help dig the necessary graves no matter what the undertaker offers to pay.

Then there is the man who says his name is Lewis and asks for some water from his canteen. Water is given and Lewis eventually goes on his way.

Ambushed minutes later the bullets should have killed him. To add insult to injury, he is soon bit by a rattlesnake that was disturbed by his hard fall to the ground off his horse, Redemption. Being bit by a rattlesnake certainly will not help matters. Shot, snake bit, and left for dead by the ambushers, The Lawyer is lucky to have survived long enough for any of the locals to try to help him. He may not live much longer between what happened to him, the rampaging wildfire, and the fact that Kimbrough and his current gang are most assuredly in the area.

The Lawyer: Blood Moon is the latest in The Lawyer series begun by David Cranmer. Building on what started in Six Guns At Sundown author Eric Beetner has crafted another fine western tale full of rich detail. While this is a series that should be read in order, one could read this installment without sacrificing too much if new to the series.

The Lawyer: Blood Moon
Eric Beetner
http://www.ericbeetner.com
Beat To A Pulp
http://www.beattoapulp.com
September 2016
ASIN: B01LW0TSTQ
eBook (Print format available)
94 Pages
$1.99

Material supplied by the publisher last month in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

Hard-hitting yet big-hearted, this new series of crime fiction kicks off with a collection of hardboiled tales of corruption, adultery, payback, intrigue and outrage. This issue’s editor is Eric Beetner who is big on contemporary neo-noir, on cynical protagonists and gritty, witty, bitter-sweet storylines. He’s the master of the triple-switch plot-twist so it’s no surprise that his own story – which kicks off this compilation – is simply stuffed full of surprises. Beetner’s skill is in enhancing the action with the moral ambiguity of his characters; delicately demonstrating how easily some humans can shed their skins when it suits them.

The other seven stories are, in the main, similarly sophisticated. You can read them as uncompromising accounts of justified revenge and betrayal, or see past the blood-spatter, baseball bats and bullets to the subtle subtext. Art Taylor does this brilliantly in ‘Restoration’ where he neatly skewers the fear-mongering tactics of insurance industry without so much as bruising a knuckle. The action is similarly cerebral in the entertaining On Tilt by James Queally, where a game of Texas Hold ’Em is played for the highest stakes. Things turn a little lighter in ‘Tuning The Old Joanna’ by Tess Makovesky, while The Line by CJ Edwards is a stylish interpretation of undercover policing, a la The Wire.

Some of these stories are outright violent, explicit both in word and deed, but there was only one instance which felt as if the brutality of the characters was the core of the story. The majority manage to cram complex sub-plots concerning redemption, betrayal and human dignity into their scant number of pages. None are very long, and none out-stay their welcome. An interview with Beetner rounds out the anthology and makes for fascinating reading.

I would’ve preferred there to be a couple more stories in the collection – maybe ten, or even a dozen – because it did feel as if the fun ended just as I was getting into the swing of things. In any case, I’ll definitely be coming back to CSM for second helpings when Issue Two is released…
8/10

There's more detail on this book and other crime fiction over at
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/crime-syndicate-issue-one-p...

Author Eric Beetner continues the excellent The Lawyer series published by Beat to a Pulp with his entry Six Guns At Sundown. The Lawyer, who used to go by the name of J. D. Miller, is on a quest to find those responsible for the brutal murders of his entire family. He now delivers justice by way of the gun and no longer relies on the courts to provide justice to those wronged.

He moves from place to place on his mare, Redemption, as he follows the trail of those responsible. He is currently pursuing a man known far and wide as “Big Jim Kimbrough.” The trail seems to be leading him to the decrypt town of Sundown where every building seems to lean a different way as if the entire town was created by drunks. At least he can find a place for his horse and roof for the night. The Westward Railroad might be coming there to build not only the rail line and their headquarters, but for now the place is clearly in a bad way.

So is the man dragged in on a rope behind a horse early the next morning. The Lawyer had planned to move on until the unfolding spectacle put his plans on hold. According to a Mr. Buchanan who dragged the unfortunate man by way of a rope tied to his horse he is to be lynched. The black man’s crime was that was that he ate a piece of cherry pie Buchanan’s wife made right out of the pan and using Buchanan’s own silverware. Not that dragging the hogtied man on the ground behind the horse the entire way from the ranch to town wasn’t enough Buchanan intends to hang him as fast as possible.

The lawyer hates bullies and won’t stand for them. He also believes in the rule of law and wants to know the full details of the situation. Not only is what the man did not a hanging offense in this period after the Civil War, Buchanan’s attitude seems to be illustrative of a town attitude that needs to change. The hunt for Big Jim Kimbrough will have to wait as the lawyer is going to prevent a hanging in Six Guns At Sundown.

Picking up the mantle laid down by Wayne D. Dundee in The Lawyer: Stay Of Execution followed by The Lawyer: The Retributioners author Eric Beetner has crafted a very good western tale. The Lawyer: Six Guns At Sundown is a western tale of mystery and racism that resonates strongly with events of today. The read does not preach as the storyline moves over a couple days period in the Old West. The result is another excellent tale in the series and yet another very good read from Beat to a Pulp.

I picked this up by way of funds in my Amazon Associate account to read and review back in late February.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

Loved this idea when I first heard about it - a set of fictional adventures for a real-life movie star. And one that even I've heard of!

Making a man like Lee Marvin star in these adventures obviously means that these are going to be noir stories, hard-boiled as a rock, with a dark sense of humour in some cases. Based, it seems, on events from his real life, the stories range through a varied set of scenarios, timeframes and locations, although there is a propensity for hard-drinking and dedicated womanising to show up frequently.

A collection that is obviously going to work better for fans of Marvin, it also worked well for this reader - whose knowledge of the man himself is sketchy at best. Alternatively, if you are a fan of darker, noir styled story telling, this is a clever concept that's executed very elegantly.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-lee-crime-factory

Lars is a hit man for an East Coast crime family, but for the past seventeen years he’s been living in the desert trying to locate Mitch the Snitch who is in the witness protection system. Then comes Trent, an up and coming hit man who has located Mitch the Snitch and together they go after Mitch. But Lars hasn’t conflicting feelings when he sees Mitch and his daughter. Trent wants to kill everyone, including Lars but is too hyper and although gets Mitch, Lars gets the drop on him and takes off with the daughter. He tries to find a safe haven for the teenager while trying to collect money he has stored around the county and keeping one step ahead of the mob.

When I began reading this book, I wasn’t sure if it would be entertaining, but was I wrong? Although Lars is a criminal and Shaine, the teenager gets to be a pain, together they make an interesting couple. And I have to say Trent to wanna-be wise ass hit man is the comic relief. This story has humor, action and feeling. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.