A Bouquet of Bullets

by Eric Beetner

From Award-winning short story writer Eric Beetner comes a collection of hardboiled crime tales about losers, punks and wanna-be criminals. These gritty stories bleed and sweat all over the page, but always with a pitch black sense of humor. For fans of Victor Gischler and Duane Swierczynski as much as Cornell Woolrich and Raymond Chandler these crime tales represent the new wave in pulp writers at its best. Winner of the 2012 Stalker award for Most Underrated Author, a finalist in the Derringer Awards, the Watery Grave International and the Million Writers Award, Eric Beetner's short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Needle Magazine, Crimefactory, A Twist Of Noir, Beat To A Pulp, Pulp Pusher, Powder Burn Flash, Darkest Before Dawn, Thrillers, Killers N Chillers, Flash Fiction Offensive and more. "It's all in the voice, and Eric Beetner's got a live one. I look forward to hearing more of it." -- Sean Doolittle, author of The Cleanup and Lake Country "the product of a diseased mind, and I mean that in the very best way." -- Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest and The Adjustment Eric Beetner is the author of Dig Two Graves and co-author (with JB Kohl) of One Too Many Blows To The Head and Borrwed Trouble. He has also written the Fightcard novellas Split Decision and A Mouth Full Of Blood. His stories have been featured in Pulp Ink, Pulp Ink 2, D*cked, Discount Noir, Grimm Tales, Off The Record and The Million Writers Award:Best New Online Voices. For more information visit ericbeetner.blogspot.com

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 25, 2012

About the author

BIO:
Eric Beetner has been hailed as “the new maestro of noir,” by Ken Bruen and “The 21st Century’s answer to Jim Thompson” by LitReactor.
He has written more than 2 dozen novels and his short stories has been featured in over 30 anthologies and along the way he’s been nominated for an ITW award, a Shamus, Derringer and three Anthony awards. He’s won none of them.
Novels include There and Back, All The Way Down, Two In The Head, Rumrunners, The Devil Doesn't Want Me and many more.
For more visit ericbeetner.com

Reviews

[Nigel Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric Beetner is a brilliant story-teller. Apart from his skill in terms of craft, he possesses a great imagination that can turn almost normal situations into crime stories. He has the ability to draw out the most from an idea by working in the ingredients of situation, gore, violence, tension, character and humour in just the right quantities for each individual piece.

The tales here are varied in terms of situation and voice and there are some rather substantial pieces included here. Each is rounded off with a punch of the correct weight and all of them left me feeling satisfied.

When put together, these stories form a mighty collection that provide ridiculously good value for fans of crime fiction and fans of engaging short fiction.

Jump on and enjoy (but be warned – watch your fingers).

I also happen to love the cover on this one – quite stunning.

Ace.

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great bunch of nasty wee short stories that remind me a lot of David Lapham’s Stray Bullets. Eric Beetner has so many books and I’ve really liked what I’ve read. And anyone mentioned in the same breath as Duane Swierczynski should be read immediately.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really great pieces of crime fiction, not to confused with cozy mysteries.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice short story collection by one of the better of the new breed of neo-noir writers. Almost all of these would classify as short-shorts, so it's a great collection for getting in and reading a story or two as a palate cleanser between longer works.

Unusual in almost any collection, there isn't a single story here that's a dud. While they may not all be home-runs, they are all well worth the short time commitment. Beetner really is becoming a master of the short short and the type of literary "everyman" noir that has been out of style for far too long.

[Blondiemem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite not liking short stories enough to seek them out, this book was powerfully good! Each story gave distinct, realistic 3 dimensional characters, so much so that you want MORE!! A novel per character please, yes very greedy of me. Though most of the characters are rough & not always like able, I still wanted to learn more about them, hope danger doesn't befall them (oh it does) and wishing they get"away with it" in the end. Some more so than others. Reminded me of The Sopranos and what a complex anti-hero Tony Soprano was.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Bouquet of Bullets” is Eric Beetner’s excellent 2012 collection of short stories. Told in matter-of-fact narration, Beetner takes the reader on a journey into a world where the reader can meet the most hapless bunch of crooks ever imagined, bloody fingers, lost loot, bloody car seats, incest, jealousy, amateur hour at the liquor store, what passes for friendship, the end of a dirty inside job, why you should not steal from your father-in-law, brotherly love, torn off arms and fingers being presented as proof or evidence or blackmail, how difficult it is to deal with special needs children, what happens when a standoff escalates, who to trust, who not to trust, . . . . After reading this, you may look a little more suspiciously at your nice, friendly suburban neighbors, at their unemployed, drugged out brothers or uncles, at situations in general.

There is not one false step in this collection. It’s all good to the last drop, although there seem to be quite a few bloody appendages in evidence here. Beetner writes in a casual, matter-of-fact style that draws the reader in slowly, almost deceptively. Highly recommended

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like DARKLY comic, CRINGE-INDUCINGLY brutal little tales of twisted noir, then I think that you're going to enjoy Eric Beetner's BOUQUET OF BULLETS just as much as I did. Some of the stories snuck up on me, bringing terrible twists. Some of them were more linear, telegraphing their punches and keeping me wishing and hoping things weren't going to turn out as awesomely awful as I expected. Every single one was a blast. Beetner's an unqualified master of the short story.

Buy this, Read it like I did (slowly, over time, savoring these little installments of awesome) or tear through it in a sitting or two (as I was tempted to do). Just get it (c'mon, it's 3 bucks!) and read it and then tell Eric Beetner he's awesome. Then go buy more of his stuff, and more Snub Nose Press stuff, because they're awesome as well.

[Rory Costello · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had taken in some other works of Eric Beetner's previously, and so I was glad to have his collection of short stories. I do a lot of my reading on the subway, and my ride is typically 20 to 30 minutes, so shorts are accounting for a good deal of my fare these days. It says a lot about the authors I've chosen that they're not all blurring together. A lot of Beetner's are especially inventive and memorable, and none of them is less than good.

I once owned a book called "What a Way to Go" -- a compendium of bizarre deaths that actually took place in real life. Many of them were ironic and/or grimly comical. Beetner offers a fictional counterpart here...he has an awful lot of fun coming up with ways to knock characters off.