THUGLIT Issue Thirteen

by Todd Robinson (Editor), Travis Richardson, Paul J. Garth

We're back, Hepcats and Kittens. ISSUE 13 comes out hissing and scratching, with eight new hardboiled treats to keep you purring.

THE PROXY by Travis Richardson
MOSES ON THE HILL, WITH FIRE FOLLOWING by Paul J. Garth
THE ICE CREAM SNATCHER by Bryan Paul Rouleau
SELFIE by Tim Hall
THIRTY DOLLARS by Kate Barrett
JOE THE TERRORIST by Kevin Egan
TOMMY, WHO LOVED TO LAUGH by Marc E. Fitch
FUNERAL by Michael Cebula

Genres: Crime, Short Stories

120 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 2014

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have never read any of the various Thuglit anthologies, you are in a for a treat. Well, you are in for a treat if you are looking for eight short stories of hard-edged, gritty crime fiction. If you are looking for chick-lit, happy endings, or two dozen people sitting around singing Kumbaya, you might not be in the right in the place, but you might this time, try something a little different from your regular reading menu.

It doesn't matter which Thuglit anthology you pick up first, they are not episodic, not continuations of some earlier stories, and there are no prerequisites for this course. All of these anthologies are consistently top-notch, but this one in particular is solid from top to bottom. There was not one story in this pack that was filler, boring, or not worthwhile.

Without giving away too many details, what you have here are stories about paying debts to drugdealers, about hopping freight trains into the heart of the country, about stealing cars and ice cream cones, about kidnapping and murder, about what is premeditation and what isn't, about crazy old men and going where you are not supposed to, about coffee carts and terrorists and possibly mistaken impressions, about soup kitchens and desperate people, and about paying your respects to good old daddy.

These are stories about values, about what you will do for or to your kin, about what your limits are even as you do some wrongs in this world, about whether there's a point where you will stand up and fight back, about pulling the trigger, and stopping others from pulling that trigger. The characters in these stories are almost all flawed and broken in some manner or other, but they are not simply committing random acts of violence. They do what they believe has to be done to survive whole in this crazy world.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great stories in this issue. The only one I didn’t really care for was “Joe the Terrorist” because I felt like it reinforced negative stereotypes.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think the whole issue deserve 5-stars because five of the stories seemed kind of blah, but three of these stories are just killers and worth the price of admission by themselves: "Thirty Dollars" by Kate Barrett, "Tommy Who Loved to Laugh" by Marc E. Fitch, and "Funeral" by Michael Cebula. These three stories reveal contemporary crime/noir at it's best: brutal and heartbreaking with strong narrative voices. But don't expect redemption.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, ended strong and harsh. Definitely checking out more of these!

[Chris Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gnarly sheeit here.
Short, not so sweet stories with a bang or a whimper.

[Paul Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another collection of great stories with some fine writing.This series never disappoints.