Chris Leek
Independent Reviewer
| Bio Blog |
Today is Criminal Love day in the Gutter, but
before Ryan Sayles starts showing us his jailhouse tats, I don’t mean the kind of back-door prison action that goes
on after lights out. I’m talking about Mike Monson’s new collection,
Criminal Love and other stories.
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| Buy from Amazon |
I have read
many of these stories before and I enjoyed them just as much the second time
around. They range from gritty hard-hitting pulp tales about violence and
revenge to more wistful vignettes full of longing and remorse. What really sets
Mike’s work apart is his ability to find the criminal in everyone. His protagonist is the guy you sit next to on
the subway or the girl who works in the office down the hall. He takes these
regular Joes and Janes and hammers them with the daily grind of their dead end jobs
and unfulfilling lives until they either fold or fight back.
Mr. Monson
is also not afraid to flex his literary muscles and buck convention a little. The
self explanatory “One Long Unrequited Sentence about Love” and the excellent
second person narrative in “Heritage Classic” are fine examples of a writer at
perfect ease with his craft. All of these stories pack a good punch. The
previously mentioned “Heritage Classic” is a great examination of the male mid-life
crisis that stays with you long after you have finished reading it. My favorite
is the classy tale of “An Evening in Sin City,” which as well as having a sexy Cher
look-alike (circa 1975) also throws you a seriously dark curve ball. Mike has recently left California’s Central Valley, which provides the setting for many of the stories in Criminal Love, and he is now kicking it in the Aloha State. Sun and surf don’t come cheap and he could probably use a little scratch while he waits for Steve McGarrett to get back to him on that opening at Five-O, so show him some love (criminal or otherwise) and go buy his book already. I mean, come on it’s less than a buck, jeez…
