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Small Change: A Casebook of Scherer and Miller, Investigators of the Paranormal and Supermundane
While chain-smoking Roy Scherer might aspire to fill loafers better worn by Marlowe, Hammer and Spade, reality wears such a whim thin. His clients veer from immortal to monster-brow-beaten, and he s up against foes that howl at the moon, one case of Lazarus Syndrome, dismembered talking heads, and a vengeful Japanese spirit. Scherer's only allies? Ditzy, bookish assistant Suzie Miller, her gung-ho, mostly inebriated father Art, an ageless ballet dancer with martial-arts skills, and a Smith & Wesson boasting silver-plated rounds."
144 pages, Paperback
Published December 11, 2015
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Andrez Bergen
31 books87 followersAndrez Bergen is an expat Australian writer, journalist, DJ, artist and ad hoc saké connoisseur who's been entrenched in Tokyo, Japan, for the past 15 years.
Bergen has written for publications such as Mixmag, The Age, Australian Style, VICE, and the Yomiuri Shinbun. He has published six novels, wrote and illustrated three graphic novels, and published five comic book series.
Bergen's fiction previously appeared through Perfect Edge Books, Shotgun Honey, Snubnose Press, All Due Respect, Roundfire Fiction, Dirty Rotten Comics, Crime Factory, Open Books and Another Sky Press, and he occasionally adapts scripts for feature films by the likes of Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) for Production I.G in Japan.
He also makes music as Little Nobody.
Bergen has written for publications such as Mixmag, The Age, Australian Style, VICE, and the Yomiuri Shinbun. He has published six novels, wrote and illustrated three graphic novels, and published five comic book series.
Bergen's fiction previously appeared through Perfect Edge Books, Shotgun Honey, Snubnose Press, All Due Respect, Roundfire Fiction, Dirty Rotten Comics, Crime Factory, Open Books and Another Sky Press, and he occasionally adapts scripts for feature films by the likes of Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) for Production I.G in Japan.
He also makes music as Little Nobody.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 27, 2016
Roy Scherer and Suzie Miller run a detective agency. Though their clients are a little different from what you see in the usual Film Noir. They’re hunting the werewolves, resolving the hauntings, dealing with angry spirits and tripping over the odd vampire
Well, usually. It doesn’t always go to plan. Usually it doesn’t. But with copious alcohol and few resources, who else are you going to call?
I can see what this book is trying to be. It’s trying to be a zany, funny collection of irreverent short stories, taking the grittiness of so many hunter stories we have out there and throwing in a heavy dose of the silly, sarcasm and general hilarity to make it a whole new thing. Still a little dark, with the heavy drinking protagonists and more than a few jokes, but comedic and silly – the slightly inept hunters flailing through a series of encounters with monsters and leaving (sort of) success and hilarity in their wake
I’ve seen this attempted before in other books – and I’ve utterly loved it. The horror and the humour, the grittiness and the silliness it can mesh so well and has literally created some of my favourite stories.
But… in this case it didn’t really achieve that. Mainly because I simply didn’t find it funny enough. I mean it was amusing and had moments of laughter, but there were nuggets within a story that as a bit meh. The thing is, without the hilarious quips and fun, this kind of story falls flat because there’s not much else there really to sell it
There is a story behind there. The origin story of Roy and him working for Miller, Suzie‘s father who then joined the firm. The two of them coming together, him resenting her, grudgingly starting to respect her and them moving their way down to romanceville. And I really loved how Suzie went from naive ingénue harder than Roy by the end. But this plot line and the world (which is more a series of random encounters than a world) aren’t really there for their own sake. I don’t think the author intends me to be super invested in these characters any more than I’m supposed to be super invested in characters from a comedy sketch. Nor do I think I’m meant to marvel at the world. These characters and this world is supposed to provide a good framework, a decent backlot, against which the hilarity can happen. But there isn’t enough hilarity so I’m left looking at the backlot a bit too much which is… fine, I guess. I mean, it’s not bad but not enough to sell it on its own.
The grittiness is actually pretty well done. The seediness of their lives, the heavy drinking, Miller succumbing to alcoholism, Roy clearly walking the same road, the grim darkness of it all isn’t bad – but, again, not enough.
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Well, usually. It doesn’t always go to plan. Usually it doesn’t. But with copious alcohol and few resources, who else are you going to call?
I can see what this book is trying to be. It’s trying to be a zany, funny collection of irreverent short stories, taking the grittiness of so many hunter stories we have out there and throwing in a heavy dose of the silly, sarcasm and general hilarity to make it a whole new thing. Still a little dark, with the heavy drinking protagonists and more than a few jokes, but comedic and silly – the slightly inept hunters flailing through a series of encounters with monsters and leaving (sort of) success and hilarity in their wake
I’ve seen this attempted before in other books – and I’ve utterly loved it. The horror and the humour, the grittiness and the silliness it can mesh so well and has literally created some of my favourite stories.
But… in this case it didn’t really achieve that. Mainly because I simply didn’t find it funny enough. I mean it was amusing and had moments of laughter, but there were nuggets within a story that as a bit meh. The thing is, without the hilarious quips and fun, this kind of story falls flat because there’s not much else there really to sell it
There is a story behind there. The origin story of Roy and him working for Miller, Suzie‘s father who then joined the firm. The two of them coming together, him resenting her, grudgingly starting to respect her and them moving their way down to romanceville. And I really loved how Suzie went from naive ingénue harder than Roy by the end. But this plot line and the world (which is more a series of random encounters than a world) aren’t really there for their own sake. I don’t think the author intends me to be super invested in these characters any more than I’m supposed to be super invested in characters from a comedy sketch. Nor do I think I’m meant to marvel at the world. These characters and this world is supposed to provide a good framework, a decent backlot, against which the hilarity can happen. But there isn’t enough hilarity so I’m left looking at the backlot a bit too much which is… fine, I guess. I mean, it’s not bad but not enough to sell it on its own.
The grittiness is actually pretty well done. The seediness of their lives, the heavy drinking, Miller succumbing to alcoholism, Roy clearly walking the same road, the grim darkness of it all isn’t bad – but, again, not enough.
Read More
December 28, 2015
Bergen doesn't disappoint. Enjoyed this little nugget of a book and wished it were longer. Sci-fi-ish noir gets me every time. Especially when in Bergen's capable hands. He continues to rise on my favorite author list.
January 21, 2016
A fun, rompy sci-fi noir with aussie attitude.
Full review to come
Full review to come
June 8, 2016
Andrez Bergen's work is a crazy-quilt of pop culture influences and references. The bedrock for much of it is the hardboiled private-eye tradition, but with a pronounced screwball comedy flavor.
Here there are two prime influences, both from U.S. TV of the '70s. First is "McMillan and Wife" and second -- as Bergen freely points out in his afterword -- is "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". I was (and am) a "Night Stalker" fanatic, so I know what Bergen was aiming for here: a mixture of supernatural horror and comedy, with monsters from various cultures.
The sensibility is right, but I think the stories needed more development. They're vignettes. My two favorites (the "Japanese" ghost and especially the Beer Monster) could have been brilliant TV episodes or novellas if they had been fleshed out. But after the Beer Monster got off to a very promising start, it ended all too quickly.
I wish Bergen had made this a series and rolled out full stories over time instead of putting all these pieces in one small bag. It would have been more in keeping with the inspiration.
Here there are two prime influences, both from U.S. TV of the '70s. First is "McMillan and Wife" and second -- as Bergen freely points out in his afterword -- is "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". I was (and am) a "Night Stalker" fanatic, so I know what Bergen was aiming for here: a mixture of supernatural horror and comedy, with monsters from various cultures.
The sensibility is right, but I think the stories needed more development. They're vignettes. My two favorites (the "Japanese" ghost and especially the Beer Monster) could have been brilliant TV episodes or novellas if they had been fleshed out. But after the Beer Monster got off to a very promising start, it ended all too quickly.
I wish Bergen had made this a series and rolled out full stories over time instead of putting all these pieces in one small bag. It would have been more in keeping with the inspiration.
January 5, 2016
I love Andrez Bergen books.
After (luckily) stumbling across them last year I flew through the first 4 and found them engaging, with good character development, great dialogue and well built worlds. Cool without being pretentious and littered with pop references what was there not to enjoy!?
This new book was good, it is a collection of short stories which again showcase The authors talent with the character interaction (I hate the word banter but that is what it was) was witty and rattled off the page with the insults and one liners flying everywhere.
I would give this five stars but being a collection of short stories I feel a bit of the world building and wider scene was lost out upon. Apart from that a top notch effort and would love to see a novel based around the two characters.
After (luckily) stumbling across them last year I flew through the first 4 and found them engaging, with good character development, great dialogue and well built worlds. Cool without being pretentious and littered with pop references what was there not to enjoy!?
This new book was good, it is a collection of short stories which again showcase The authors talent with the character interaction (I hate the word banter but that is what it was) was witty and rattled off the page with the insults and one liners flying everywhere.
I would give this five stars but being a collection of short stories I feel a bit of the world building and wider scene was lost out upon. Apart from that a top notch effort and would love to see a novel based around the two characters.
February 15, 2016
Remember the gum from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? The one that made Violet turn violet? It was an entire three-course meal concentrated into one stick of gum. That’s kind of what Small Change by Andrez Bergen is like; its a book that reads like an entire season’s worth of TV episodes condensed into a 25 minute sizzle reel, and I mean that in the most honorific way possible.
This slim novel is a ‘casebook’ of its two main characters, Roy Scherer and Suzy Miller who are self-titled investigators of the paranormal and super mundane. These are characters Bergen has worked with before in the comic book medium and, thus, he is very familiar with them. Many of these stories were comics until Bergen decided to replace the artwork with prose. Typically, I’m not a big fan of a novel becoming a comic or vice versa, but Bergen manages to avoid the cardinal sin of writing a lazy adaptation that just rehashes what was already written and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. This noir/horror/fantasy mashup manages to tread its own path and view the familiar characters and cases through a new lens.
The genre mashup can be a tricky thing to conquer. Sometimes it is skewed so far in the direction of one of its genres that it leaves the reader wondering why the other is even there. Other times it can be so heavy handed that it leads to unintentionally humorous scenes, characters, and conflicts, and there are few things more terrifying to a storyteller than creating something that is unintentionally funny. But Bergen has come to master the genre mashup story. Each genre (in this case I would consider the main ones to be noir, horror, and fantasy) support each other, working to strengthen the others while also defining themselves. One genre never drowns out the other. Noir may be the overarching genre found throughout the book, but when horror or fantasy elements, like, say, a werewolf or some bitter, sassy talking heads come into play, the tones mold together perfectly. Then, when the scene is done, they break apart and we find ourselves back in the smoky embrace of noir. Think of each genre in this book like a droplet in a lava lamp; they combine to form a larger glob and then break back into smaller separate droplets seamlessly. Like with a lava lamp, I found myself oddly mesmerized by the shift in genres without the accompaniment of a shift in tone.
The dialogue, however, was my favorite part of this novel, which I’m quickly realizing is my favorite aspect of most of Bergen’s writing. The dialogue in Small Change is fantastic. It is sharp and pithy and zips back and forth between the two characters like an olympic ping pong volley (is it called a volley in ping pong?). The repartee between Roy and Suzy is noir through and through. It is clear Bergen has a soft spot (or perhaps a smokey, whiskey-soaked gritty spot) for noir. He is very adept at casting an ambiance over the entire scene he is writing to the point where your mind’s eye seems to be wearing a shadowy, black and white lens.
Although, that is not to say this book is without its faults. Something that wasn’t quite as deftly handled as the dialogue or the genre mashup aspect was the pace of the book as a whole. Each individual anecdote was paced wonderfully, beginning exactly where it needed to and zipping along like a hummingbird in the wind until it reached its necessary conclusion. Unfortunately, the stories don’t fit together with each other quite as nicely. Part two, titled ‘Way Back When’ was paced the best as a whole (and was also my favorite part) but still stood out from the rest of the novel. The individual shorter stories, as well as the longer sections, kind of felt like puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit but someone jammed together anyway. Fortunately, because this is a ‘casebook’ and not a typical novel with a chronological, start-to-finish structure, it doesn’t stand out too much.
Small Change is a difficult book to classify; a comic book adaptation that is part noir, part horror, part fantasy, and all strange. But that is also the beauty of the book, it is, at once, all of those things while never veering into the land of beige-colored boredom. It could have been incredibly easy for this book to garner the label of ‘Not having any clue what it wants to be,’ but it is apparent Bergen never questioned what he wanted these stories and these characters to be. To borrow a line from Dennis Green, they are exactly who he thought they were (yes, I understand that reference is not exactly what would be considered timely). Small Change, which is a fitting title for this slim novel, is a good bit of weird fun with a little bit of heart, copious amounts of well-crafted dialogue, and just the right amount of humor and appropriate references to keep you speeding right along.
Coming in at just under 120 pages, this novel is concentrated noir mashup goodness, despite some of its shortcomings, that can act as a good introduction to some of Bergen’s other works. So, grab a stick of Andrez Bergen’s three-course noir and enjoy, I promise you won’t turn into a blueberry. A werewolf, maybe, but certainly not a blueberry.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Find more book reviews, author interviews and The Serial Bowl blog at Storytimejunction.net.
Or follow me on twitter at @DAM_malone
This slim novel is a ‘casebook’ of its two main characters, Roy Scherer and Suzy Miller who are self-titled investigators of the paranormal and super mundane. These are characters Bergen has worked with before in the comic book medium and, thus, he is very familiar with them. Many of these stories were comics until Bergen decided to replace the artwork with prose. Typically, I’m not a big fan of a novel becoming a comic or vice versa, but Bergen manages to avoid the cardinal sin of writing a lazy adaptation that just rehashes what was already written and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. This noir/horror/fantasy mashup manages to tread its own path and view the familiar characters and cases through a new lens.
The genre mashup can be a tricky thing to conquer. Sometimes it is skewed so far in the direction of one of its genres that it leaves the reader wondering why the other is even there. Other times it can be so heavy handed that it leads to unintentionally humorous scenes, characters, and conflicts, and there are few things more terrifying to a storyteller than creating something that is unintentionally funny. But Bergen has come to master the genre mashup story. Each genre (in this case I would consider the main ones to be noir, horror, and fantasy) support each other, working to strengthen the others while also defining themselves. One genre never drowns out the other. Noir may be the overarching genre found throughout the book, but when horror or fantasy elements, like, say, a werewolf or some bitter, sassy talking heads come into play, the tones mold together perfectly. Then, when the scene is done, they break apart and we find ourselves back in the smoky embrace of noir. Think of each genre in this book like a droplet in a lava lamp; they combine to form a larger glob and then break back into smaller separate droplets seamlessly. Like with a lava lamp, I found myself oddly mesmerized by the shift in genres without the accompaniment of a shift in tone.
The dialogue, however, was my favorite part of this novel, which I’m quickly realizing is my favorite aspect of most of Bergen’s writing. The dialogue in Small Change is fantastic. It is sharp and pithy and zips back and forth between the two characters like an olympic ping pong volley (is it called a volley in ping pong?). The repartee between Roy and Suzy is noir through and through. It is clear Bergen has a soft spot (or perhaps a smokey, whiskey-soaked gritty spot) for noir. He is very adept at casting an ambiance over the entire scene he is writing to the point where your mind’s eye seems to be wearing a shadowy, black and white lens.
Although, that is not to say this book is without its faults. Something that wasn’t quite as deftly handled as the dialogue or the genre mashup aspect was the pace of the book as a whole. Each individual anecdote was paced wonderfully, beginning exactly where it needed to and zipping along like a hummingbird in the wind until it reached its necessary conclusion. Unfortunately, the stories don’t fit together with each other quite as nicely. Part two, titled ‘Way Back When’ was paced the best as a whole (and was also my favorite part) but still stood out from the rest of the novel. The individual shorter stories, as well as the longer sections, kind of felt like puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit but someone jammed together anyway. Fortunately, because this is a ‘casebook’ and not a typical novel with a chronological, start-to-finish structure, it doesn’t stand out too much.
Small Change is a difficult book to classify; a comic book adaptation that is part noir, part horror, part fantasy, and all strange. But that is also the beauty of the book, it is, at once, all of those things while never veering into the land of beige-colored boredom. It could have been incredibly easy for this book to garner the label of ‘Not having any clue what it wants to be,’ but it is apparent Bergen never questioned what he wanted these stories and these characters to be. To borrow a line from Dennis Green, they are exactly who he thought they were (yes, I understand that reference is not exactly what would be considered timely). Small Change, which is a fitting title for this slim novel, is a good bit of weird fun with a little bit of heart, copious amounts of well-crafted dialogue, and just the right amount of humor and appropriate references to keep you speeding right along.
Coming in at just under 120 pages, this novel is concentrated noir mashup goodness, despite some of its shortcomings, that can act as a good introduction to some of Bergen’s other works. So, grab a stick of Andrez Bergen’s three-course noir and enjoy, I promise you won’t turn into a blueberry. A werewolf, maybe, but certainly not a blueberry.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Find more book reviews, author interviews and The Serial Bowl blog at Storytimejunction.net.
Or follow me on twitter at @DAM_malone
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews