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Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski: Down These Mean Streets People Must Still Go

Cover of Where the Bones Lie by Nick KolakowskiWhere the Bones Lie

by Nick Kolakowski

DETAILS:
Publisher: Datura Books
Publication Date: March 11, 2025
Format: eARC
Length: 304 pg.
Read Date: February 26-Narch 1, 2025
Buy from Bookshop.org Support Indie Bookstores

What’s Where the Bones Lie About?

Dash Fuller used to work for a man he compared to Mr. Wolfe from Pulp Fiction, and in his employ would clean-up various messes by celebrities and other movers-and-shakers in L.A. Eventually the work got too much for him and he walked away. He tried to find a new career in Stand-Up comedy, but that’s not going so well. He’s doing better at drinking copious amounts of bourbon to numb himself, and then scurrying around picking up money from delivery driving and other gig jobs at the end of the month to pay his bills.

After one, shall we say, not-good night at a local comedy club two significant things happen for Dash. First, his old boss, Manny, shows up to badger him into doing one more job for him (he’d like more, but will settle for one, for now).

The other spins off of both—another audience member there picks up on some of what Dash does that night (but not all of it, he’s pretty good at what he does) and offers to hire him. After several years where the family had to assume he was dead, Madeline Ironwood’s father’s body has recently been discovered in a barrel found as a nearby lake has receded thanks to water shortages in the state. She’d like Dash to look into it and see if he can figure out what happened to him.

Ken Ironwood was a smuggler, and probably other things. He’s been missing since she was a young girl. He’s noteworthy enough that a true crime docuseries has started recently streaming about him, but not so noteworthy that Dash would’ve heard of him without the billboards all around town (that Madeline had to point out to him). The suspect list was so large that the LAPD and FBI gave up trying to pare down without more to go on than a missing man.

It’s not a lot for Dash to go on, but the money is okay, and it’s something that gets him out of town for a little bit.

The Traumatized Knight

I think it’s pretty obvious that Dash is supposed to be in the Hammett model more than the Chandler, but I’m more familiar with Chandler, so I’m going to lean on what I learned from L.A.’s hardboiled detective/detective-like characters from him.

Dash is a knight—a knight in tarnished, battered, and filthy armor. But a knight nonetheless—he knows how many of his choices didn’t match his ideals and ethics. His ex wondered if the good person inside him could be found—and Dash wonders the same.

This has taken a toll on him—one job in particular, but there’s also the cumulative effect from years of this—and has left him traumatized and self-medicating. This is also common to the hardboiled investigator, but given Dash’s cultural context it seems more apparent (and something he’s more willing to reflect on).

The job that Manny sends Dash on at the beginning brings all the trauma to the surface (it was close to it already, but this gave it the needed nudge). While the focus of the novel—and Dash’s attention—is Madeline’s case and her father’s fate, Dash’s struggles are a shadow over everything he does, over many of his choices (like the one to take the case), and will even interfere with his thinking on occasion.

Again, you see this all over Marlowe’s adventures—but it’s between the lines—I expect the same could be said about Hammett’s characters. But with Dash it’s clearer, it’s acknowledged, and understood—at least by some of the characters.

The Environment

California’s repeated droughts lay the foundation of the investigation into Madeline’s father’s death. The heat in L.A. as Dash and Madeline drive northward is oppressive. Wildfires threaten that city, close in on Dash and Madeline at important junctures in their search—and play a significant outcome in the endgame of that storyline.

This is possibly the most environmentally aware detective novel I’ve read. I’ve read “eco novels” that do a less effective job of addressing these issues. Part of what makes it so effective is that Kolakowski doesn’t get preachy with it, he doesn’t beat you over the head with it—it’s just seamlessly woven into the tapestry of this novel, no more noteworthy than Dash’s bad jokes, or the threat of bent cops. But it’s there. Everywhere.

I’m Glad Someone Asked

One question that had been running in my mind throughout was why Dash turned to Stand-Up, and his narration didn’t choose to reveal it, while it revealed so much about other things.

By the time that someone asked him, I was overjoyed that someone else (even if they’re fictional) had to know. The answer was satisfying enough, and in many ways didn’t tell us anything we couldn’t have/shouldn’t have figured out on our own (especially by that point in the novel), but hearing it from Dash was good.

So, what did I think about Where the Bones Lie?

This just might be the best thing Kolakowski has written so far. Which is likely a sentence I’ve written before—and I meant it then, but time has gone on and Kolakowski has gotten better.

I didn’t end up saying anything about the job that Manny hired Dash for that kick-started this whole novel, it doesn’t take long for Dash to take care of it, and we get an idea of some of the things he’s done in the past (more importantly, some of what he hasn’t done). Some of what he’s seen. This is developed through the course of the novel, too. But it gives us a taste of his old life and shows that he has the tools to build on.

Madeline’s case is the first job he’s ever had for a positive goal—to accomplish something. He’s not trying to prevent embarrassment or scandal—he’s not trying to save some studio a bunch of money, or rescue someone’s reputation, or prevent someone from facing legal charges. Sure, he has the skills—but he has to learn to use them in a different way. Which is a great place to put a character.

The supporting characters are great—particularly the “bigger bad”s (which is all I’m going to say about them). I would love to spend more time with the closest thing that Dash has to a friend, in particular.

With Chandler—like more modern writers like Ellroy or Connelly—you get a real sense of L.A. or California. And Kolakowski delivers the same here. He’s done some really specific geographic work in the past, but outside of geographic markers, I don’t know that I “felt” the area like I do here. (I want to stress that this isn’t intended as a criticism of his earlier work, it’s a compliment and observation about this one).

As far as the ending or resolutions to the various plotlines—some I saw coming, because Kolakowski prepared the reader for them. Some hit me like they came out of the blue (they didn’t, really, but they felt like it). All were satisfying in ways I didn’t expect really. There were lines that you could see Chandler writing—if not word for word, at least close paraphrases. The spirit of that age lives on in these pages.

His history suggests that the next work by Kolakowski will be something else entirely—probably not a cozy, but something he hasn’t delivered yet. But if he wants to do more like this, I’ll be first in line for it. Meanwhile, you should focus on getting this book in front of your eyeballs.

Disclaimer: I was provided with this ARC by the author in exchange for my honest opinion. The only impact this had on what I said about the book was that I could say it before I could buy a copy.


4 1/2 Stars
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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REPOSTING JUST CUZ: Payback Is Forever by Nick Kolakowski: There’s a lot of opportunity in doom.

I didn’t quite finish my post about Kolakowski’s upcoming release last night (read: I wrote 2 paragraphs that probably need revision/expansion). So, let’s revisit this bold crime novel instead.


Payback Is ForeverPayback Is Forever

by Nick Kolakowski

DETAILS:
Publisher: Shotgun Honey Books
Publication Date: March 24, 2022
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 170 pg.
Read Date: March 29-30, 2022

What’s Payback Is Forever About?

Miller’s a thief, a fairly successful one. This comes in handy because he’s not as successful when it comes to gambling. He needs to pay a debt, so he takes a job with a couple of strangers. They betray him, the job goes wrong, and Miller (and the cash) escape without his partners. They don’t know his name or home base, so he figures he’s safe for a little bit.

He’s soon contacted by a figure from his past, Rick Redfield:

“I’ve entered into an arrangement with some… men of violence, shall we say. Which means I need the services of the most violent man I know. Which is you.”

“I’m no bodyguard.”

“No. You’re capable of terrible acts, and that’s the necessary thing here. Besides, bodyguards ask too many questions.”

With the promise of a large payday on the horizon, Miller’s in—and soon finds himself involved with some Nazis who escaped from Germany in the waning days of the war, Nazi hunters, and a few more dead bodies than Miller was prepared to deal with.

Supporting Cast

Miller and most of the characters that he deals with are of a fairly typical sort—you’ll recognize the types easily. They’re interestingly-drawn and well-used, but they’re types.

Then there’s Jill Reilly—she’s Miller’s love interest and is a secretary in the Medical Examiner’s office. Given the proper circumstances, she’d probably make a pretty good Examiner herself—but between the education, she’d need, and the rampant chauvinism in the office, that’s probably not going to happen. Reilly feels like she’s got one foot in the Girl Friday type, but with a rebellious streak that keeps the other foot out of the type.

The other character that stands out as not fitting into a typical mold is Scott, Redfield’s friend who acts as a liaison to the outside world when Redfield needs to stay out of the light. He’s a timid, uncertain man—who needs to use a ventriloquist’s dummy, Colonel Longshanks, to communicate those things that are too much for Scott to handle. Miller has no patience for either of them—but can force himself to work with Scott. The Colonel on the other hand…

There was a moment where I wondered if Scott/Colonel Longshanks would over-take Monkey Man as my favorite strange Kolakowski character. He didn’t, but that he was in the running says something about the character development in this short novel.

The Hidden Agenda

If what I’ve described seems pretty straight-forward, it is. If anyone’s read Kolakowski before, that’s not how he rolls. Right?

There is something else afoot here. I don’t know that it added much (if anything), but it didn’t hurt anything either. Maybe if I was in a different mood when I read this I’d have a more positive take on the “something else,” but right now, I can take it or leave it.

The material with Miller, the Nazis, Nazi Hunters is enough to focus on and keep you entertained. If you happen to get the rest of it, that’s gravy.

So, what did I think about Payback Is Forever?

This feels like the kind of pulpy thrillers from the 1960s and 70s I’ve read—just in a post-WWII setting with a dash of Nathanael West thrown in. It’s a surprisingly effective combination, and I’d have read another 200 pages of it without blinking. Although I do think this lean, mean, streamlined approach is far more effective.

Miller’s absolutely the kind of character you want in this setting—his morality is stuck in the gray—it’s a pretty dark gray, but he’s not a full-on villain. And he’s thinking about reforming, at least a little.

There were two scenes—or parts of scenes—that make this more than a quick, fun read. There’s a visual in the last big gunfight that’s so ridiculous, so comical, in the middle of a big action scene that makes you want a film version immediately (but it may be better in your imagination).

Before that there’s another scene that I can’t describe—you start it assuming X might happen, and yet when X does happen you still sit up and pay attention because you can’t believe that Kolakowski actually did that. And then over the next 3 or 4 paragraphs, the shocking scene becomes something so unexpected that you have to read it a couple of times to make sure you read it right. Cackling while you read it every time makes the comprehension a little difficult.

A solid, stylish thriller with Kolakowski’s style and sense of character is exactly what I needed to read last week, and Payback is Forever delivered. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.


4 Stars

The Friday 56 for 9/2/22: Hell of a Mess by Nick Kolakowski

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
Hell of a Mess

Hell of a Mess by Nick Kolakowski

“Where are we going?” Fireball asked as he escorted Jen down the steps, careful on the wet concrete. His heavy back. pack bounced against his spine, the straps too loose.

“No idea,” Fiona said. The station would protect them from the rain and wind, at least. With no trains running, they could safely walk the tracks to another station. Hell, it wasn’t impossible they could make their way back to the house while staying underground.

But what if the system floods?

You have a point, she told the treacherous demon in her head. Past hurricanes had ruptured tunnels and retaining walls, filling half the subway system with toxic water. For years, politicians insisted they were spending the money to ensure such a thing never happened again, but since when could you trust anything they said?

She would just have to risk it. And yet she hesitated at the top of the stairway, frozen by a vision of whitewater foaming down a tunnel, sweeping away anything in its path, drowning anyone foolish enough to try and take refuge deep in the earth…

PUB DAY REPOST: Hell of a Mess by Nick Kolakowski: A Whole Bunch of Plans that Don’t Come Together

I also did a Q&A with the author about this book, give it a look!

Hell of a MessHell of a Mess

by Nick Kolakowski

DETAILS:
Series: Love & Bullets, #4
Publisher: Shotgun Honey Books
Publication Date: August 26, 2022
Format: eARC
Length: 234
Read Date: August 1, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

What’s Hell of a Mess About?

Well, isn’t that a tricky question? There is too much. Let me sum up. There are multiple people who start off intending to commit one crime and end up doing something entirely different.

Fiona’s been hired to steal something, and it’s a timely thing (and she’s not deterred by much), so despite an impending hurricane, she goes for it. Sure, the Inside Man tries to wave her off, but, again—she’s not deterred by much. Which is a shame—she should’ve paid attention to either the weather or the Inside Man. She ends up with a price on her head and multiple people around the city.

While she’s busy, Bill’s trying to prep for the storm in the home they’re squatting in when some police break in looking for the man who lives there. One thing leads to another, and they kidnap Bill, believing he can lead them to the millions his former employer had hidden away.

Thankfully. that assassin they thought Fiona killed at the end of A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps survived—readers knew that, but Fiona and Bill didn’t. Not only did he live, but he’s been keeping tabs on them. He’s been trying to live a different—less lethal—life and he has a chance to help them. Will he be enough?

(I have no idea if the above makes any sense—trying to cram it into three brief paragraphs doesn’t do the plot any favors. In the non-condensed version, it works. Trust me.)

The Unnamed Assassin

Up to the point where it looked like Fiona killed him (maybe a little sooner), I thought that the hitman who was sent after Bill in the first book was the protagonist. His is the only first-person perspective we get through the series—almost like he’s relaying what he knows and hears about this crazy couple while he’s dealing with his own problems like they’re a diversion for him.

His personal arc is very different from theirs—they claim to be trying to get out and live a straight life, if only they get one more decent score to set them up. The unnamed assassin is going a different path, he’s still a violent criminal, but like Jules Winnfield, he’s looking for something more. There are lines he won’t cross anymore (he seems to be making those rules up on the fly, but at least he has them.

As you can probably tell, I find it difficult to articulate his development and role in the series—but using him (sparingly, on the whole) and his arc throughout in juxtaposition to Fiona and Bill adds a layer to these books that few authors would have utilized, but make the whole thing better.

Be sure to check out my Q&A with Kolakowski (posting later today) for more about him.

Unanswered Questions

The thing that really kicks off the Fiona storyline is her stumbling across something she wasn’t expecting while discovering the thing she came to steal wasn’t there. Her discovery of the other nefarious action—and the way she prevented it from being completed*—is what starts the manhunt for her, more than the attempted heist. If she’d just walked away, I think it’s likely no one would’ve come after her.

* It is so tricky to discuss this obliquely.

Then when it comes time for Fiona to go save Bill, that storyline is dropped. Which is actually fine and good, because ultimately what it’s replaced by is more interesting. But in the back of my mind couldn’t stop asking—and, a week later, still can’t—what happened? What led up to Fiona’s discovery? What happened after she and the unnamed killer ran off to rescue Bill?

Typically, leaving these threads hanging would annoy me enough that I’d downgrade a novel over it—but Kolakowski pulls it off. If you’re going to abandon a plotline, this is the way to do it.

That said, I’d pony up twice the typical Shotgun Honey novella price today to get Love & Bullets #5 if it picks up right after this to tell the rest of that story. Maybe thrice.

So, what did I think about Hell of a Mess?

The previous three installments were novellas, but this is a novel, clocking in at 50-100 pages longer than the rest. And it didn’t feel like it at all. It was the same adrenaline-fueled, not-quite-frenzied pace and was over before I was ready for it to be. My daily schedule kept this from being a one-sitting read, but I think I could’ve done it in one sitting without realizing it.

This is pulpy fun. There’s action, there’s heart, there’s comedy (some subtle, some absolutely not), there’s a lot of violence, and you can’t forget the bunch of heartbroken saps that are at the center of things. They’re crooks and killers that really seem like decent people when you stack them up next to the nastier crooks and killers they can’t stop encountering. In the middle of all that chaos (and you can’t forget the chaos of the storm), there’s hope, forgiveness, and love. And who can’t use a little of that?

I don’t know if Kolakowski is going to come back to these characters in the future—I’d be content with what he’s given already, but I also know that I’d jump on any future installments, too. I encourage you to do the same.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

A Few Quick Questions with…Nick Kolakowski (2022 edition)

He’s back for the sixth time, now to talk about the fourth installment of this Love & Bullets series of hookups, Hell of a Mess (I posted about it earlier today). I look forward to these Q&As a lot, I know that when I get the responses I’ll learn a few things, understand the books better, and will grin at least twice. Not only does he write a good book, he writes a good answer. The novel comes out at the end of the month, get your orders in today!


So what brought you back to Bill and Fiona? Did you get a hankering to do something new with them while putting The Megabomb Edition together or did you get the idea for a heist in a hurricane (or something like that) and decide they’d fit better than someone new?
I’d always wanted to do a heist in a hurricane. When I was a teenager, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I was really into the movie “Hard Rain” with Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater, which centers on an armored truck robbery in a flooded town. It’s a pretty mediocre flick, but I really dug the idea of taking two distinct genres—crime and natural disaster—and slamming them together.

So, the basic framework of heist-in-a-hurricane rattled around in my brain for years. I thought about it more after Hurricane Sandy smashed through New York ten years ago, which came with all the chaos you can imagine—no power, flooded buildings, chaos in the streets. I even wrote some crime-themed short stories that took place during Sandy, but the itch to turn it into a full-fledged novel didn’t grip me until 2020.

Originally, it was supposed to involve all-new characters, but I really like Bill and Fiona, and I thought: why not? I know how they think. I know what they’d do. It seemed more organic to make it another Love & Bullets adventure.

This question might have fit better for the first Love and Bullets novella, but it still applies here. Can you talk a little about your decision to have the unnamed-assassin as your first person narrator rather than one of the protagonists, or a third-person omniscient narrator? He’s important to this novel, and the first novella—but not as important to the rest of the series—but he’s not a John Watson or Nick Caraway kind of non-protagonist narrator, either. Maybe you can describe his function in the series as well (I clearly can’t do it concisely). Also, was leaving him nameless a conscious decision, or just something that happened along the way that you stayed with it?
Leaving him nameless is just something that happened along the way. The assassin is human, obviously, but I also think of him as a supernatural or mythical force—almost like a Loki, a spiritual trickster who’s not firmly implanted in this world. Giving him a name seemed to reduce him somehow, at least in my mind.

I can’t explain why he’s written in the first person, and the other characters are shoved into the omniscient third. Not to give too much agency to a fictional character, but it’s what he wants; when I sit down and write from his perspective, it just spools out effortlessly. When I started Hell of a Mess, I very briefly tried writing him from the same third-person perspective as the other characters, and it simply fell flat.

There was also a version of Hell of a Mess where he didn’t appear at all, and it didn’t work, either. He’s the levity that differentiates the series from other crime fiction, in my mind; he’s the crazy element, the secret sauce, the glue that binds the narratives together on a subtextual level. Maybe that’s because he’s always articulating the book’s themes as he wrestles with his own feelings and coincidence; maybe it’s just that I find him funny as hell.

How do you balance the threat of a hurricane with the various human threats running around this book? Are there special challenges involved in using a natural disaster like this in a book, or is it a gift—allowing a random tree branch or torrent of rain to come along and interrupt things when you want?
It’s a gift and a curse. If you’re jammed up in the plot, yeah, you can send a tree branch or a flood through to shake things up—it’s the nature equivalent of Chandler’s old adage about how if you’re stumped on how to advance the plot, just have someone walk in with a gun. Living through Sandy, I learned firsthand how a big storm can really impact even the most mundane physics; at one point, I had to open a door with another big guy, and it took all of our strength to crack it open even a few inches against the wind and the air pressure. You throw those physics into a fictional narrative, and you generate some really interesting potentials for suspense.

At the same time, especially when you’re using a hurricane, you have to make sure the tempo of the storm aligns with your action—for example, as the storm intensifies, your characters really can’t do anything outside, which is why I decided to have the climax of the book take place just as the eye passes overhead, cutting out the wind and rain.

Let’s take a break from your work for a moment—you’re a reader/viewer as well as a writer, what’re some of the books/movies/shows this year that you’ve been enjoying?
I loved Heat 2. I was lucky enough to get an early copy, and I had some trepidations about how well Michael Mann would carry off that shift from cinematic to novelistic, but I needn’t have worried—the book is fantastic. Meg Gardiner, his co-author, layered it with her trademark suspense, and the whole thing really works.

I’m also reading Jordan Harper’s Last King of California, which is coming out in late September in the UK (although U.S. readers can find a copy via Amazon.co.uk pretty easily, I think). It’s a real treat because Harper is one of the best wordsmiths working the crime genre, and every sentence is rich and thick. The book itself is in the proud tradition of noirs like Blood Father and Tapping the Source, and it’s wonderful.

You’ve got Beach Bodies coming out on Halloween, right? I understand that’s a horror novella? Do you want to give a quick pitch for that one?
Beach Bodies is a super-short horror novella that began as a potential project for a smaller horror publisher, but when that didn’t work, I decided to dip my toe into self-publishing. It’s a weird book with one bloody moment near the end that will probably excite hardcore horror fans while freaking other folks out (one early reader texted me, “DUDE, WTF, LOL,” when she reached it).

The short pitch for it: Julia and Alec are two twentysomethings paid to “house sit” a billionaire’s luxury doomsday bunker on an isolated stretch of beach. Three strangers invade the bunker on a sinister mission, and very bad things happen. There’s a big twist that’ll have you questioning the nature of the characters’ very reality.

As usual, I’ve got to ask, what’s coming down the pike? Are you far enough into your next book(s) to talk about it/them?
Right now I’m working on an episode of A Grifter’s Song, which is a long-running series (something like 28 novellas and counting) written by various crime-fiction authors, including S.A. Cosby, Hilary Davidson, and Paul J. Garth. The series follows two hustlers as they attempt to cheat bad folks out of their money. The main challenge for me is taking these two preexisting characters with a rich backstory established by other authors… and trying not to mess it up.

And by “mess it up,” I mean, “make it too much like Bill and Fiona from Love & Bullets,” which I’m definitely at risk of doing. But I’ll make it work.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Hell of a Mess—it’s always fun spending time with these characters.
Thank you! I love these questions!


Hell of a Mess by Nick Kolakowski: A Whole Bunch of Plans that Don’t Come Together

Hell of a MessHell of a Mess

by Nick Kolakowski

DETAILS:
Series: Love & Bullets, #4
Publisher: Shotgun Honey Books
Publication Date: August 26, 2022
Format: eARC
Length: 234
Read Date: August 1, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

What’s Hell of a Mess About?

Well, isn’t that a tricky question? There is too much. Let me sum up. There are multiple people who start off intending to commit one crime and end up doing something entirely different.

Fiona’s been hired to steal something, and it’s a timely thing (and she’s not deterred by much), so despite an impending hurricane, she goes for it. Sure, the Inside Man tries to wave her off, but, again—she’s not deterred by much. Which is a shame—she should’ve paid attention to either the weather or the Inside Man. She ends up with a price on her head and multiple people around the city.

While she’s busy, Bill’s trying to prep for the storm in the home they’re squatting in when some police break in looking for the man who lives there. One thing leads to another, and they kidnap Bill, believing he can lead them to the millions his former employer had hidden away.

Thankfully. that assassin they thought Fiona killed at the end of A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps survived—readers knew that, but Fiona and Bill didn’t. Not only did he live, but he’s been keeping tabs on them. He’s been trying to live a different—less lethal—life and he has a chance to help them. Will he be enough?

(I have no idea if the above makes any sense—trying to cram it into three brief paragraphs doesn’t do the plot any favors. In the non-condensed version, it works. Trust me.)

The Unnamed Assassin

Up to the point where it looked like Fiona killed him (maybe a little sooner), I thought that the hitman who was sent after Bill in the first book was the protagonist. His is the only first-person perspective we get through the series—almost like he’s relaying what he knows and hears about this crazy couple while he’s dealing with his own problems like they’re a diversion for him.

His personal arc is very different from theirs—they claim to be trying to get out and live a straight life, if only they get one more decent score to set them up. The unnamed assassin is going a different path, he’s still a violent criminal, but like Jules Winnfield, he’s looking for something more. There are lines he won’t cross anymore (he seems to be making those rules up on the fly, but at least he has them.

As you can probably tell, I find it difficult to articulate his development and role in the series—but using him (sparingly, on the whole) and his arc throughout in juxtaposition to Fiona and Bill adds a layer to these books that few authors would have utilized, but make the whole thing better.

Be sure to check out my Q&A with Kolakowski (posting later today) for more about him.

Unanswered Questions

The thing that really kicks off the Fiona storyline is her stumbling across something she wasn’t expecting while discovering the thing she came to steal wasn’t there. Her discovery of the other nefarious action—and the way she prevented it from being completed*—is what starts the manhunt for her, more than the attempted heist. If she’d just walked away, I think it’s likely no one would’ve come after her.

* It is so tricky to discuss this obliquely.

Then when it comes time for Fiona to go save Bill, that storyline is dropped. Which is actually fine and good, because ultimately what it’s replaced by is more interesting. But in the back of my mind couldn’t stop asking—and, a week later, still can’t—what happened? What led up to Fiona’s discovery? What happened after she and the unnamed killer ran off to rescue Bill?

Typically, leaving these threads hanging would annoy me enough that I’d downgrade a novel over it—but Kolakowski pulls it off. If you’re going to abandon a plotline, this is the way to do it.

That said, I’d pony up twice the typical Shotgun Honey novella price today to get Love & Bullets #5 if it picks up right after this to tell the rest of that story. Maybe thrice.

So, what did I think about Hell of a Mess?

The previous three installments were novellas, but this is a novel, clocking in at 50-100 pages longer than the rest. And it didn’t feel like it at all. It was the same adrenaline-fueled, not-quite-frenzied pace and was over before I was ready for it to be. My daily schedule kept this from being a one-sitting read, but I think I could’ve done it in one sitting without realizing it.

This is pulpy fun. There’s action, there’s heart, there’s comedy (some subtle, some absolutely not), there’s a lot of violence, and you can’t forget the bunch of heartbroken saps that are at the center of things. They’re crooks and killers that really seem like decent people when you stack them up next to the nastier crooks and killers they can’t stop encountering. In the middle of all that chaos (and you can’t forget the chaos of the storm), there’s hope, forgiveness, and love. And who can’t use a little of that?

I don’t know if Kolakowski is going to come back to these characters in the future—I’d be content with what he’s given already, but I also know that I’d jump on any future installments, too. I encourage you to do the same.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Payback Is Forever by Nick Kolakowski: There’s a lot of opportunity in doom.

Payback Is ForeverPayback Is Forever

by Nick Kolakowski

DETAILS:
Publisher: Shotgun Honey Books
Publication Date: March 24, 2022
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 170 pg.
Read Date: March 29-30, 2022

What’s Payback Is Forever About?

Miller’s a thief, a fairly successful one. This comes in handy because he’s not as successful when it comes to gambling. He needs to pay a debt, so he takes a job with a couple of strangers. They betray him, the job goes wrong, and Miller (and the cash) escape without his partners. They don’t know his name or home base, so he figures he’s safe for a little bit.

He’s soon contacted by a figure from his past, Rick Redfield:

“I’ve entered into an arrangement with some… men of violence, shall we say. Which means I need the services of the most violent man I know. Which is you.”

“I’m no bodyguard.”

“No. You’re capable of terrible acts, and that’s the necessary thing here. Besides, bodyguards ask too many questions.”

With the promise of a large payday on the horizon, Miller’s in—and soon finds himself involved with some Nazis who escaped from Germany in the waning days of the war, Nazi hunters, and a few more dead bodies than Miller was prepared to deal with.

Supporting Cast

Miller and most of the characters that he deals with are of a fairly typical sort—you’ll recognize the types easily. They’re interestingly-drawn and well-used, but they’re types.

Then there’s Jill Reilly—she’s Miller’s love interest and is a secretary in the Medical Examiner’s office. Given the proper circumstances, she’d probably make a pretty good Examiner herself—but between the education, she’d need, and the rampant chauvinism in the office, that’s probably not going to happen. Reilly feels like she’s got one foot in the Girl Friday type, but with a rebellious streak that keeps the other foot out of the type.

The other character that stands out as not fitting into a typical mold is Scott, Redfield’s friend who acts as a liaison to the outside world when Redfield needs to stay out of the light. He’s a timid, uncertain man—who needs to use a ventriloquist’s dummy, Colonel Longshanks, to communicate those things that are too much for Scott to handle. Miller has no patience for either of them—but can force himself to work with Scott. The Colonel on the other hand…

There was a moment where I wondered if Scott/Colonel Longshanks would over-take Monkey Man as my favorite strange Kolakowski character. He didn’t, but that he was in the running says something about the character development in this short novel.

The Hidden Agenda

If what I’ve described seems pretty straight-forward, it is. If anyone’s read Kolakowski before, that’s not how he rolls. Right?

There is something else afoot here. I don’t know that it added much (if anything), but it didn’t hurt anything either. Maybe if I was in a different mood when I read this I’d have a more positive take on the “something else,” but right now, I can take it or leave it.

The material with Miller, the Nazis, Nazi Hunters is enough to focus on and keep you entertained. If you happen to get the rest of it, that’s gravy.

So, what did I think about Payback Is Forever?

This feels like the kind of pulpy thrillers from the 1960s and 70s I’ve read—just in a post-WWII setting with a dash of Nathanael West thrown in. It’s a surprisingly effective combination, and I’d have read another 200 pages of it without blinking. Although I do think this lean, mean, streamlined approach is far more effective.

Miller’s absolutely the kind of character you want in this setting—his morality is stuck in the gray—it’s a pretty dark gray, but he’s not a full-on villain. And he’s thinking about reforming, at least a little.

There were two scenes—or parts of scenes—that make this more than a quick, fun read. There’s a visual in the last big gunfight that’s so ridiculous, so comical, in the middle of a big action scene that makes you want a film version immediately (but it may be better in your imagination).

Before that there’s another scene that I can’t describe—you start it assuming X might happen, and yet when X does happen you still sit up and pay attention because you can’t believe that Kolakowski actually did that. And then over the next 3 or 4 paragraphs, the shocking scene becomes something so unexpected that you have to read it a couple of times to make sure you read it right. Cackling while you read it every time makes the comprehension a little difficult.

A solid, stylish thriller with Kolakowski’s style and sense of character is exactly what I needed to read last week, and Payback is Forever delivered. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.


4 Stars

The Friday 56 for 3/25/22: Payback is Forever by Nick Kolakowski

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done one of these (a streak of books with hard-to-quote or oddly-dull-to-quote 56s), but you can always count on Kolakowski to be quote-worthy.

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
Payback is Forever

Payback is Forever by Nick Kolakowski

Creak-creak-creak-creak.

Miller pictured a lightning bolt shooting from the top of his head, through the ceiling, and incinerating the old man in his irritating chair. Like something a Greek God would do to a peasant who was preventing him from mating with a beautiful swan. Wasn’t that how the legend went? He was a little drunk.

Jill laughed. “You have to admit, it’s sort of funny.”

“Sure, unless I’m trying to sleep.”

The Friday 56 for 12/3/21: Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition by Nick Kolakowski

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it

from 56% of:
Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition

Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition by Nick Kolakowski

His eyes rolled from side to side, trying to lock on me, but I made a point of standing directly behind him.

“What now?” he asked.

I scanned the empty corridor. “Where’s your partner?”

“What?”

“The guy you’re on shift with.” He shook his head. “Had to leave.”

I would choose to believe that for the moment. “Where’s that FBI guy?”

“He had to leave, too.” Another swallow. “Somebody called something in. Something big.”

What was bigger than me wiping out most of this county’s police force, along with its corrupt sheriff and probably a few townies? Suddenly I understood how Elvis must have felt when he heard about the Beatles for the first time, overshadowed by something far bigger. I was tempted to ask about the nature of the emergency, but my soul would have been crushed if he’d said my infamy was eclipsed by a shootout at the local meth lab.

PUB DAY REPOST: Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition by Nick Kolakowski: A Supersized Fast, Fun, and Bullet-Ridden Adventure

Be sure to check out the Q&A with the author fromlast week!

Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition

Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition

by Nick Kolakowski
Series: Love & Bullets

eARC, 300 pg.
Shotgun Honey, 2021

Read: November 8-12, 2021

A Little Background

Regular readers of this blog should recognize the name Nick Kolakowski, a couple of years ago I talked about a trilogy of novellas he wrote: A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps, Slaughterhouse Blues, and Main Bad Guy. Next week, these novellas, along with some additional material to tie them together and add a little something extra, are being published as one novel (you can read a bit about the circumstances behind that in the Q&A we did).

What’s Love & Bullets About?

Bill’s a con artist, a hustler with a hint of tech-savvy (and the sense to employ someone savvier) who has gotten comfortable doing small-time work for the Rockaway Mob. An encounter with a similar grifter delivers a swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters his reality and he decides to get out of the business and retire somewhere far away. After he helps himself to a sizeable amount of money from the Mob.

Unsure of his girlfriend’s intentions or loyalty, he doesn’t tell her or bring her along. This is an understandable move, but also a bad move, because she’s an assassin for the Rockaway Mob and one of the few that is sent after him. Fiona’s in a forgiving mood when she catches up to him (probably helped by the fact that she’s fairly incapacitated at the time and can listen to him). The two of them extricate Bill from some trouble that he stumbled into in Oklahoma on the way to the southern border, take care of a couple of other Rockaway employees, and head to Central America for a quieter life.

Which absolutely doesn’t work for long—they find themselves indebted to another criminal organization and the Rockaway Mob isn’t done with them, either. So we get to travel with them as they narrowly escape death in Nicaragua, slip away from a garotte (or worse) in Havana, and get into a much more hazardous situation or five back in New York.

The Rockaway Mob

Every named character, with one exception, in this book is a criminal (the overwhelming majority of unnamed characters, too). So you really can’t say something about “bad guys”*—it’s protagonists and antagonists, and maybe an ally or two.

* Difficult, but not impossible, the third novella was called Main Bad Guy, after all—although there are a couple of candidates for that title.

The main antagonists for Bill and Fiona are the Rockaway Mob. The Rockaway Mob is a wholly modern take on organized crime. There’s no family history, no tie to an ethnic/national origin overseas, nothing that Scorsese or Coppola would make a movie about. Instead, they’re a conglomeration of shady businessmen (and an academic) who started working together and then turned things up to 11.

A handful of hitmen are brought in by the Rockaway Mob to take care of Bill (and, later, Fiona)—some are more colorful than others (and at least three of them could make great main antagonists in any number of PI/Police Procedural novels). But all of them pale to the academic who finds himself leading the Mob (at least as far as we see), he goes by The Dean.

He’s an annoying, pretentious, fastidious man with the kind of vocabulary that people notice. Nothing about him suggests criminal—of any variety, much less an organized crime head. But when you see him with his temper flaring, when he’s pushed to the limit? Well, there’s a beast under all that civilization…I could easily read more about The Dean at the drop of a hat.

The New Material

Not unlike Boyd Crowder when they decided to turn Justified into a series, someone who was killed in the original story has their fate changed in the new material. Also like Boyd Crowder, keeping them alive and running around made the whole thing a lot more interesting.

It’s a little tricky to describe, without spoiling something for new—or old—readers. But I had a suspicion about who survived—and was very happy when I discovered I was right. I’d really started to enjoy the character when they’d been killed, and getting to see them in action some more was a real treat.

It’s hard to describe the new arc for that character—it’s not really a redemption arc (although it’s adjacent to one). It gets to show them in a slightly different light than we saw originally, but the effects from the events surrounding their initial appearance definitely leave their toll on their psyche, if not their health.

I loved the new material—I wouldn’t have minded a little more, but I didn’t need it to be satisfied. It fit perfectly into this world but was so unlike the original material that it felt even fresher than it was. Definitely worth reading the new edition just for it (but really, the whole thing in one package is justification enough)

Reading the Megabomb Version

It’s been years since I read the original trilogy—January of 2019—so my memory for the details is a little hazy. Sure, most of it came back right away—but I will admit to checking with my hard copies of the originals to see if I’d forgotten something if was new or not a couple of times.

But without the pressure of wondering what was going to happen to Bill and Fiona, I was able to soak in some of the other details that I’d just glanced at before. This was as rewarding as I’d hoped—particularly with the second novella’s material, I didn’t initially rate it as highly as the other parts and I think that was a mistake.

The important thing to take away from the rereading process (at least for me) is that it totally holds up to a re-read.

So, what did I think about Love & Bullets?

I struggled the first time around, and I’m struggling now to capture the feel of this book. When I wrote about, Main Bad Guy, I said, “This is the literary equivalent of a Martin McDonagh film (when he’s in a more playful mood)—or, if that doesn’t work for you, think Fargo meets Tarantino, but not as long-winded.” Which isn’t bad (and I’d forgotten I mentioned McDonagh, which is really apt)—this time I’m going to add that it has a Shane Black, but more violent, feel. Maybe if you average the two comments—and throw in what I said about the first novella “think Edgar Wright action scenes, but more lethal.”

Even as the 300-page Megabomb it is now, this is a fast-moving thrill ride. It’s funny. It has occasional moments of sweetness (very transient). The story and characters are visceral—you can see the action, you can practically hear Bill’s quips and feel Fiona’s patience evaporating at them (while she does love him for them). It will get a much-beloved (or much-disparaged) band’s music stuck in your head during one fight scene. Really, it covers almost all the senses—and given where they spend a lot of time, you’ll be glad it leaves the other two out.

Has Kolakowski written novels/stories that are technically better? Probably. Has he written something with greater entertainment value? Nope. Love & Bullets is just a blast from the opening lines through to the final image. Be sure you don’t miss it.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the novel from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion, and I thank him for that, but it did not affect my opinion of this work.


4 1/2 Stars

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