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Bishop Rider #1
A Better Kind of Hate: Stories
The world has never been perfect. The world has never been all bad. But there has always been evil and men who drink of it. This ends now.
Enter Bishop Rider and people like him who have had enough and are willing to embrace what most will not. The world will never be perfect. The world will never be all bad. It’s the middle we must embrace. This, a better kind of hate.
Praise for A BETTER KIND OF HATE:
“Hard hitting stories of lives on the razor’s edge.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Too Many Crooks, A Case of Noir, Guns of Brixton, The Last Laugh and Kill Me Quick!
“Beau Johnson is a lawless writer. Several—but not all—of the stories in his collection, A Better Kind of Hate, feature his renegade cop alter ego Bishop Rider, a battered and bruised, world-weary hero forced to operate outside a corrupt system to find justice. And that’s just what these stories have in common: justice, in all its muted, corrupt glory. Whether showcasing Rider or another flawed hero, Johnson operates in shades of gray, where sometimes all it takes is for a bad man to kill a worse one. A stark and sobering reality, and a stellar debut.” —Joe Clifford, author of the Jay Porter Thriller Series
“Beau’s ability to strike at the heart of human emotion is both unnerving, uncanny, and unique. It allows him to wring tears from the darkest recesses of the human experience. A dark chameleon who slides from twisted villain to damaged innocent like a well-tuned master of fiction. A how-to on the craft of short fiction.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle and American Static
“A Better Kind of Hate will haunt you like a specter. An uneasy collection, Beau Johnson crafts each story with masterful precision and an icy cold edge. Each page, each word, escalates the tension, ratchets the foreboding . Dripping with psychological terror, nerve racking suspense and characters unhinged, A Better Kind of Hate is an offering of patience, plans, and revenge. Johnson’s talent is spectacular and terrifying.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12
“Beau Johnson writes from that place inside us all that is nothing but brutal honesty and grit. And while most people avoid this place, Beau milks it for every word he can.” —Ryan Sayles, author of the Richard Dean Buckner series
Enter Bishop Rider and people like him who have had enough and are willing to embrace what most will not. The world will never be perfect. The world will never be all bad. It’s the middle we must embrace. This, a better kind of hate.
Praise for A BETTER KIND OF HATE:
“Hard hitting stories of lives on the razor’s edge.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Too Many Crooks, A Case of Noir, Guns of Brixton, The Last Laugh and Kill Me Quick!
“Beau Johnson is a lawless writer. Several—but not all—of the stories in his collection, A Better Kind of Hate, feature his renegade cop alter ego Bishop Rider, a battered and bruised, world-weary hero forced to operate outside a corrupt system to find justice. And that’s just what these stories have in common: justice, in all its muted, corrupt glory. Whether showcasing Rider or another flawed hero, Johnson operates in shades of gray, where sometimes all it takes is for a bad man to kill a worse one. A stark and sobering reality, and a stellar debut.” —Joe Clifford, author of the Jay Porter Thriller Series
“Beau’s ability to strike at the heart of human emotion is both unnerving, uncanny, and unique. It allows him to wring tears from the darkest recesses of the human experience. A dark chameleon who slides from twisted villain to damaged innocent like a well-tuned master of fiction. A how-to on the craft of short fiction.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle and American Static
“A Better Kind of Hate will haunt you like a specter. An uneasy collection, Beau Johnson crafts each story with masterful precision and an icy cold edge. Each page, each word, escalates the tension, ratchets the foreboding . Dripping with psychological terror, nerve racking suspense and characters unhinged, A Better Kind of Hate is an offering of patience, plans, and revenge. Johnson’s talent is spectacular and terrifying.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12
“Beau Johnson writes from that place inside us all that is nothing but brutal honesty and grit. And while most people avoid this place, Beau milks it for every word he can.” —Ryan Sayles, author of the Richard Dean Buckner series
ebook
Published August 14, 2017
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About the author
Beau Johnson
13 books125 followersI am the author of the Bishop Rider Books. A Better Kind of Hate, The Big Machine Eats, All of Them to Burn, Brand New Dark, Old Man Rider, The Abrum Files and Like-Minded Individuals.
See also: It was never about saving people.
See also: It was never about saving people.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 19, 2021
Beau Johnson's debut collection, A Better Kind of Hate, contains 37 short stories, which sounds like a lot. However, Johnson's writing is lean and mean, and the majority of these stories, many of which were published previously, border on the longer end of flash fiction, with the majority running three or four Kindle pages. I think the longest piece in here was about 15 Kindle screens long, if I recall right. Point is, this is a pretty breezy read and if you're looking for super-dark, compulsively bingeable crime fiction that packs a big punch in short order, A Better Kind of Hate should do you nicely.
Johnson's main focus here is on revenge - cheating spouses getting the upper-hand, drug deals gone awry, the parents of murdered children taking the justice they are owed. We become familiar with a central figure that Johnson has become known for across this and successive collections, a former cop whose mother and sister were raped to death by a human trafficker and who has become a bleak and sadistic Punisher-like figure methodically killing his way through the criminal underworld as he seeks vengeance upon the lowlifes of the world. Rider's a pretty cool figure, and a neat conduit for Johnson's dark and twisted imagination, as are the various and variously-wronged (or just plain wrong) inmates, mobsters, husbands, wives, kids, and cops turned stone-cold killers.
Given the brevity of these stories, it's surprising just how effective the various climaxes for each piece really are, and Johnson nails the landing on damn near every one of them, fully delivering on the sharp, pointy hooks he opens each story with. While we get an incredibly vivid description of the aftermath of a group of people being run through a baling machine, it's Johnson's knack for making his characters (mostly) empathetic in quick fashion. Of course, some of this is built on the shorthand knowledge that readers will bring their own understandings of what it feels like to be wronged by those people turned traitors in our own lives to fuel the narratives, but the author still finds some truly effective ways at twisting his concepts into deranged knots. When he has more room to work with, such as in "Toad Baseball," he exhibits the ability to break down reader's emotions while also setting them up for a savage left hook. This story in particular has an absolutely heart-wrenching moment, and was perhaps too vividly drawn - an impressive feat for the handful of pages it runs.
A Better Kind of Hate is a dark and brutal collection of hardcore crime stories, and showcases Beau Johnson as an expert short story author who uses words like a switchblade. I may be a bit late in becoming acquainted with both him and his series character, Rider, but damn if I don't want to get to know both better.
Johnson's main focus here is on revenge - cheating spouses getting the upper-hand, drug deals gone awry, the parents of murdered children taking the justice they are owed. We become familiar with a central figure that Johnson has become known for across this and successive collections, a former cop whose mother and sister were raped to death by a human trafficker and who has become a bleak and sadistic Punisher-like figure methodically killing his way through the criminal underworld as he seeks vengeance upon the lowlifes of the world. Rider's a pretty cool figure, and a neat conduit for Johnson's dark and twisted imagination, as are the various and variously-wronged (or just plain wrong) inmates, mobsters, husbands, wives, kids, and cops turned stone-cold killers.
Given the brevity of these stories, it's surprising just how effective the various climaxes for each piece really are, and Johnson nails the landing on damn near every one of them, fully delivering on the sharp, pointy hooks he opens each story with. While we get an incredibly vivid description of the aftermath of a group of people being run through a baling machine, it's Johnson's knack for making his characters (mostly) empathetic in quick fashion. Of course, some of this is built on the shorthand knowledge that readers will bring their own understandings of what it feels like to be wronged by those people turned traitors in our own lives to fuel the narratives, but the author still finds some truly effective ways at twisting his concepts into deranged knots. When he has more room to work with, such as in "Toad Baseball," he exhibits the ability to break down reader's emotions while also setting them up for a savage left hook. This story in particular has an absolutely heart-wrenching moment, and was perhaps too vividly drawn - an impressive feat for the handful of pages it runs.
A Better Kind of Hate is a dark and brutal collection of hardcore crime stories, and showcases Beau Johnson as an expert short story author who uses words like a switchblade. I may be a bit late in becoming acquainted with both him and his series character, Rider, but damn if I don't want to get to know both better.
April 29, 2022
A Better Kind of Hate by Beau Johnson is uncomfortable as much as it is compelling.
Bad people don't get off lightly here. That's for sure.
I read this short story collection along with other short stories and poetry by different authors, some milder horror/fantasy, some about love, because I needed that balance. Things get a bit dark here. I mean, these stories are about love, too, don't get me wrong. It's just more in a revengeful way. My only criticism is that they bleed together a little in theme. Not a bad thing. It is what it is. It's what Beau does. It can just be a little too much for me in one sitting. Three or four stories, then I'll pick up something else. I'll always go back to it though. That's what I mean by compelling. One thing that is a plus is these stories don't outstay their welcome. They are short and straight to the point.
If you are looking for horrific revenge stories against paedophiles and rapists and the likes, well you can't go wrong here. This is five star writing with stories running from three to five stars, mostly fours. Five star reads for me would be: I REMEMBER, THE PLACE BEFORE THE PLACE, HEAVY LEGO, ALMA, and OF DREAM SCENARIOS AND PLANS.
Just know what you're letting yourself in for.
These get pretty brutal.
All I'm saying.
Solid four stars.
Bad people don't get off lightly here. That's for sure.
I read this short story collection along with other short stories and poetry by different authors, some milder horror/fantasy, some about love, because I needed that balance. Things get a bit dark here. I mean, these stories are about love, too, don't get me wrong. It's just more in a revengeful way. My only criticism is that they bleed together a little in theme. Not a bad thing. It is what it is. It's what Beau does. It can just be a little too much for me in one sitting. Three or four stories, then I'll pick up something else. I'll always go back to it though. That's what I mean by compelling. One thing that is a plus is these stories don't outstay their welcome. They are short and straight to the point.
If you are looking for horrific revenge stories against paedophiles and rapists and the likes, well you can't go wrong here. This is five star writing with stories running from three to five stars, mostly fours. Five star reads for me would be: I REMEMBER, THE PLACE BEFORE THE PLACE, HEAVY LEGO, ALMA, and OF DREAM SCENARIOS AND PLANS.
Just know what you're letting yourself in for.
These get pretty brutal.
All I'm saying.
Solid four stars.
May 2, 2019
This is a twisted, visceral, brutal, yet eloquent group of short stories. Very dark subject matter written by a very bright mind. Some of the stories are intricately interwoven and there are great moments of realization like, "OH, it's that incident from the other guy's perspective!", and others are standalone. Some characters recur and even have stories separated by long spans of time. A lot of really satisfying grotesquely violent comeuppances for gut-wrenching deeds.
Can't wait to see what he's got in his next installment!
Can't wait to see what he's got in his next installment!
July 16, 2018
Gripping, gritty, and graphic! This book is a hard hitting, and fast paced thrill ride. Definitely not for the faint of heart! You find yourself immersed in the characters lives, and dramas that Beau Johnson creates throughout this spine chilling read. A seedy crime drama, with an imposing main character, that has you cheering him on. By the time you finish reading it, you will be asking for more! I highly recommend A Better Kind of Hate!
July 16, 2018
A fantastic read by Beau Johnson. His writing is as interesting as it is captivating. I have been reading stories by Beau for years from Out of the Gutter online and Molotov Cocktail. This book will change the way you feel about short stories, they are deep, dark, and disturbing. I couldn't put it down.
Long Live Bishop Rider.
Long Live Bishop Rider.
May 25, 2018
Great collection of crime stories. Write some more!
March 4, 2019
Horrifying! Gory! Totally fucked up! ...in every single good way possible!
Beau has a way of writing that draws you in, horrifies you to your core, and leaves you wanting SO. MUCH. MORE. I cannot wait to find out whats to come of Bishop Rider, and I hope there are continuations of his other short stories because I need more!
Once you start reading this you won't be able to put it down.
Beau has a way of writing that draws you in, horrifies you to your core, and leaves you wanting SO. MUCH. MORE. I cannot wait to find out whats to come of Bishop Rider, and I hope there are continuations of his other short stories because I need more!
Once you start reading this you won't be able to put it down.
April 2, 2023
I really enjoyed these stories by Beau Johnson. This is the beginning of the Bishop Rider stories, so I started with this edition. I look forward to reading further tales of Bishop Rider in the future.
December 23, 2024
The very definition of hard hitting crime writing!
September 25, 2018
A Better Kind of Hate is an eye for an eye meets revenge fantasy indulgence into betrayal and retribution, stripped to the bone and unbound from convention. Beau wasted no time hooking me into each new set-up, presenting well-paced, concise situations imaginative enough to keep the pages turning... it’s in his often truly inspired consequence scenarios, though, that the author’s inspirational itch seems repeatedly satisfied… Where his boundary between fantastically unrepentant and redemption through reckoning is an ever-moving line, Beau bulldozes beyond civility, confronting uncomfortable, often cringeworthy truths with unblinking boldness and enthusiastic brutality... But he succeeds in humanizing his characters enough that their sometimes over the top depravity maintains relatability. His is a unique brand of payback porn with a beating heart – I enjoyed reading it almost as much as Beau clearly enjoyed writing it.
July 16, 2018
If revenge is a dish best served cold then Beau Johnson's characters dine in the Arctic. Some authors labour long and hard to get the reader into their story, setting the scene with a cargo container full of words. Beau takes you there on a bullet train. His needle-sharp prose pulls you in with laser focus to a place where you can smell the blood. The stories in A Better Kind of Hate are inventively gritty and captivating. Perhaps they are not for the faint of heart, but you will need to read them to find out. I believe after a few frosty nibbles you will come back hungry for more.
October 5, 2022
Beau Johnson is possibly the nicest author on Twitter. I lead with that because if you read this book without knowing that, his characters might lead you to assume he is a professional hit man or a serial killer. I'm sure all that disturbed earth in his backyard is just composting from an autumn pumpkin patch. Yes, that's got to be it.
A Better Kind of Hate is a short story collection about anti-heroes, and bad people, and vengeful victims, and assorted other human monsters stuck on one end or another of malignant desperation. Johnson left "brutal" and "unflinching" in the rear-view mirror about 20 miles back and he has a full tank of gas and a passenger seat full of energy drinks.
Most of these stories are very short—some only two or three pages—but their power lies in an inverse proportion to their word count. Do not misunderstand: they are not mindless gore or the novelization of an exploitation film (though if you like either get your favorite bookmark and dig in, because you'll like it too). No, these stories are often profoundly cerebral, walking a fine line between hardboiled noir and psychological horror. They are taut, mean, and not a single unnecessary word survived the editorial blade...and there are plenty of blades, and axes, and baseball bats, and cardboard compactors, and, well, you get the idea.
Johnson's stories give you what you don't get when your morally gray but unsatisfyingly anodyne television procedural fades to black. Beau's world is less Law & Order, and more True Detective (nihilistic monologues and all). And of course Beau's most interesting creation, Bishop Rider, starts to stretch his legs here in A Better Kind of Hate. And Bishop, well, he's kind of what Batman would be like if someone that psychologically damaged were real—equal parts boogeyman and angel of vengeance. So, if you like him, Bishop Rider goes on to rampage through several of Johnson's subsequent books, the newest being Old Man Rider, which at the time of this review is about to debut on October 24, 2022.
So if you enjoy seedy crime stories, tales of a town's darker underbelly, and the bleakness that comes when a city eats itself, I highly recommend you add this to your list.
Goodreads Blog & Reviews | Amazon | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Linktree
A Better Kind of Hate is a short story collection about anti-heroes, and bad people, and vengeful victims, and assorted other human monsters stuck on one end or another of malignant desperation. Johnson left "brutal" and "unflinching" in the rear-view mirror about 20 miles back and he has a full tank of gas and a passenger seat full of energy drinks.
Most of these stories are very short—some only two or three pages—but their power lies in an inverse proportion to their word count. Do not misunderstand: they are not mindless gore or the novelization of an exploitation film (though if you like either get your favorite bookmark and dig in, because you'll like it too). No, these stories are often profoundly cerebral, walking a fine line between hardboiled noir and psychological horror. They are taut, mean, and not a single unnecessary word survived the editorial blade...and there are plenty of blades, and axes, and baseball bats, and cardboard compactors, and, well, you get the idea.
Johnson's stories give you what you don't get when your morally gray but unsatisfyingly anodyne television procedural fades to black. Beau's world is less Law & Order, and more True Detective (nihilistic monologues and all). And of course Beau's most interesting creation, Bishop Rider, starts to stretch his legs here in A Better Kind of Hate. And Bishop, well, he's kind of what Batman would be like if someone that psychologically damaged were real—equal parts boogeyman and angel of vengeance. So, if you like him, Bishop Rider goes on to rampage through several of Johnson's subsequent books, the newest being Old Man Rider, which at the time of this review is about to debut on October 24, 2022.
So if you enjoy seedy crime stories, tales of a town's darker underbelly, and the bleakness that comes when a city eats itself, I highly recommend you add this to your list.
Goodreads Blog & Reviews | Amazon | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Linktree
June 4, 2024
First time reader of Johnson; won’t be the last (bought all of the books on the back of this!)
Unapologetically dark, brutal and deeply moorish reads. Are Rider and Batista better than the criminals in these stories? Sometimes you wonder.
-All the stories deal with justice of sorts, albeit not always from the POV you’re most used to nor necessarily your personal understanding of it. Well worth a read for those of you who take your coffee like me; dark and somewhat on the bitter side.
Favorites included: More Than They Could Know, I Remember, The Struggle is Real, Toad Baseball, In Preparation, Knit One, Purl Two, Wonder Twin Powers, Activate, And Now, Back to Our Program.
An overview of the stories below for those who like that kind of thing:
-Fire in the Hole:
Bishop Rider is introduced; a renegade cop on a mission to take down bad people (with just a little bit of help)
-Front, then Center:
Living example of your father’s sayings & showing two employees what happens when you’re disloyal and take what doesn’t belong to you.
*cheating- body parts in a wheel barrow
-Right Time, Right Place:
More body parts in a wheel barrow and team Rider & Batista tracking down a king pin bad guy and a brutal showdown.
-Dicks and Jars and a Third World War:
A man victimized behind bars for a year (give or take) prepares gets his chance at vengeance when he learns his main abuser is being let out.
*surprisingly existential and self questioning in spite of its simple brutality. Probably not the most fruitful way to question your orientation though.
-Gank:
Rider goes after a serial killer of girls. Smoking. Balls.
-The Only Thing That Fits:
Turns out the serial killer was working with this brother and is on the loose continuing their work.
Batista struggles and crosses over to Rider-like territories when he captures the perp. Ultimately Rider and Batista are not the same.
-Loose Impediment:
Another act of revenge on a man who’s cheated with someone’s wife.
A fairly unconventional (but effective, I suspect) way of getting your golf techniques perfected.
-Known Associates:
Hinted at earlier, we learn a bit more about Rider’s family history and his motivation/drive
-Coffee, Tea and Me:
Do you prefer coffee or tea?
A man slowly poisons his cheating wife.
-Recompense:
An axe killer who murdered his parents and got off easy is trying to cash in on a tell-all. Of course, someone might have something to say about that.
-Bobby Charles:
A bereaved father/husband seeks out the young man responsible for his family’s death for revenge. What they both get is something different, but no less brutal.
-#TheMediumIsTheMessage:
Vengeance comes for dentistry students/rapists when one of their victims decides to take things into her own hands.
*on-campus rape and the impotent handling by school officials that leaves people hangin dry
-Love, It Makes the World Go Round:
A short vignette about the psycho stalker.
-More Than They Could Know:*
A grocery employee and an outsider at his place of work has reached the end of the line when it comes to snide comments, stares and put-downs from his boss and colleagues. A baler comes in handy..
-I Remember:*
The death of a child and a father’s reaction to an early parole. A fall from a silo.
-The Place Before the Place:
A man has stolen from the wrong kind of boss and now finds himself in the trunk of a car, sees his life flash before him in a sense and wonders how he got the be where he is.
-Saving the World, One Appliance at a Time:
A story of how a copper got his nickname ‘the arm’; it’s not the usual baseball based reason but a far bloodier one.
-The Struggle is Real:*
A life of neglect and abuse and a string of bad choices later leads a woman to have a gun pointed at her head and with a choice to make.
-Darnell (Waiting on the Day):
A weary man observed his gritty and violent surroundings waiting to witness to evil held at bay.
-Regrets? I’m Thinkin’ Yeah:
A woman recounts how she came to die at the hands of the wife of a man she was cheating with.
-Heavy Lego:
A drug dealer is outed as the worst filth possible and faces the music. You don’t mess with kids.
-Alma:
A father and his daughter are looking for justice for their wife/mother.
-Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch:
A new employee at a retirement home learns (the hard way) that you don’t mess with certain old folks.
-A Full, Upright and Locked Position:
A pilot decides to get vengeance on as many people have wronged him as possible with this one-way trip.
-Toad Baseball:*
A man recounts how he accidentally killed his brother in a run-in with the town bullies, the subsequent blackouts and the exacerbation he experiences when he sees the bully again years later. A confessional and hints of DID.
-Size Matters:
A brother vying to take over the gang at all costs and a dose of payback.
-In Preparation:*
A serial killer fell in love and recounts how he ended up killing again after the death of his son & his wife discovering his extracurricular activities. Comes with a paranoia-inducing twist.
-A Better Kind of Hate:
The eponymous story of the collection. A short vignette focusing on one of the cases that turned Rider into what he was to become. A murderer he missed early in his career, but a loose end Rider is not about to let go.
-Knit One, Purl Two:*
Spending time inside changes a man and (if he wants) teaches him new skills like, say, crocheting. At the same time, other people never change and decide to unwisely poke the bear with the crochet needle.
-Wonder Twin Powers, Activate:*
A woman joins a deadly game of hunter and prey in order to find her sister who sent her a desperate message. Comes with a twist full of betrayal and brutality. This is one would-be victim you’d do well to stay away from.
-Of Dream Scenarios and Plans:
If you’re going to have someone you know killed, make sure it’s done properly and that they don’t know your deepest fears. Snake!
-And Now, Back to Our Program:*
A woman plans to hit her sister where it hurts when she learns that she’s been having an affair with her husband. I imagine the less than happy ending in this made quite a few male readers squirm.
-Ten Off the Top:*
A funeral service man seizes the opportunity to get revenge for what the grieving man did to him and his mother due to his unpaid debts. It’s far from pretty, but possibly the most Mother’s Day suitable story of the lot. Kind of.
-Never One to Do Things by Half:
An agent posing as a doctor has been found out and learns there are worse things than being killed, especially if you are a father.
-Anniversaries of the Heart:*
Shines a light on the preceding story and what happened after the agent was set free; it’s not pretty but hard to see how it could have gone down any other way when you take away what (who) someone cares for the most.
-An Older Type of Care:*
Years have passed and Batista is in a rest home, riddled with cancer and a diagnosis of Alzheimer when he asks Rider for help. A less than caring nurse has been abusing Batista and several others and it’s up to Rider to see things right.
-No Offense to Mr. Neeson:
A ‘dirtbag’ decides there’s been enough exploitation movies made and makes his own stand with his special set of skills.
Unapologetically dark, brutal and deeply moorish reads. Are Rider and Batista better than the criminals in these stories? Sometimes you wonder.
-All the stories deal with justice of sorts, albeit not always from the POV you’re most used to nor necessarily your personal understanding of it. Well worth a read for those of you who take your coffee like me; dark and somewhat on the bitter side.
Favorites included: More Than They Could Know, I Remember, The Struggle is Real, Toad Baseball, In Preparation, Knit One, Purl Two, Wonder Twin Powers, Activate, And Now, Back to Our Program.
An overview of the stories below for those who like that kind of thing:
-Fire in the Hole:
Bishop Rider is introduced; a renegade cop on a mission to take down bad people (with just a little bit of help)
-Front, then Center:
Living example of your father’s sayings & showing two employees what happens when you’re disloyal and take what doesn’t belong to you.
*cheating- body parts in a wheel barrow
-Right Time, Right Place:
More body parts in a wheel barrow and team Rider & Batista tracking down a king pin bad guy and a brutal showdown.
-Dicks and Jars and a Third World War:
A man victimized behind bars for a year (give or take) prepares gets his chance at vengeance when he learns his main abuser is being let out.
*surprisingly existential and self questioning in spite of its simple brutality. Probably not the most fruitful way to question your orientation though.
-Gank:
Rider goes after a serial killer of girls. Smoking. Balls.
-The Only Thing That Fits:
Turns out the serial killer was working with this brother and is on the loose continuing their work.
Batista struggles and crosses over to Rider-like territories when he captures the perp. Ultimately Rider and Batista are not the same.
-Loose Impediment:
Another act of revenge on a man who’s cheated with someone’s wife.
A fairly unconventional (but effective, I suspect) way of getting your golf techniques perfected.
-Known Associates:
Hinted at earlier, we learn a bit more about Rider’s family history and his motivation/drive
-Coffee, Tea and Me:
Do you prefer coffee or tea?
A man slowly poisons his cheating wife.
-Recompense:
An axe killer who murdered his parents and got off easy is trying to cash in on a tell-all. Of course, someone might have something to say about that.
-Bobby Charles:
A bereaved father/husband seeks out the young man responsible for his family’s death for revenge. What they both get is something different, but no less brutal.
-#TheMediumIsTheMessage:
Vengeance comes for dentistry students/rapists when one of their victims decides to take things into her own hands.
*on-campus rape and the impotent handling by school officials that leaves people hangin dry
-Love, It Makes the World Go Round:
A short vignette about the psycho stalker.
-More Than They Could Know:*
A grocery employee and an outsider at his place of work has reached the end of the line when it comes to snide comments, stares and put-downs from his boss and colleagues. A baler comes in handy..
-I Remember:*
The death of a child and a father’s reaction to an early parole. A fall from a silo.
-The Place Before the Place:
A man has stolen from the wrong kind of boss and now finds himself in the trunk of a car, sees his life flash before him in a sense and wonders how he got the be where he is.
-Saving the World, One Appliance at a Time:
A story of how a copper got his nickname ‘the arm’; it’s not the usual baseball based reason but a far bloodier one.
-The Struggle is Real:*
A life of neglect and abuse and a string of bad choices later leads a woman to have a gun pointed at her head and with a choice to make.
-Darnell (Waiting on the Day):
A weary man observed his gritty and violent surroundings waiting to witness to evil held at bay.
-Regrets? I’m Thinkin’ Yeah:
A woman recounts how she came to die at the hands of the wife of a man she was cheating with.
-Heavy Lego:
A drug dealer is outed as the worst filth possible and faces the music. You don’t mess with kids.
-Alma:
A father and his daughter are looking for justice for their wife/mother.
-Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch:
A new employee at a retirement home learns (the hard way) that you don’t mess with certain old folks.
-A Full, Upright and Locked Position:
A pilot decides to get vengeance on as many people have wronged him as possible with this one-way trip.
-Toad Baseball:*
A man recounts how he accidentally killed his brother in a run-in with the town bullies, the subsequent blackouts and the exacerbation he experiences when he sees the bully again years later. A confessional and hints of DID.
-Size Matters:
A brother vying to take over the gang at all costs and a dose of payback.
-In Preparation:*
A serial killer fell in love and recounts how he ended up killing again after the death of his son & his wife discovering his extracurricular activities. Comes with a paranoia-inducing twist.
-A Better Kind of Hate:
The eponymous story of the collection. A short vignette focusing on one of the cases that turned Rider into what he was to become. A murderer he missed early in his career, but a loose end Rider is not about to let go.
-Knit One, Purl Two:*
Spending time inside changes a man and (if he wants) teaches him new skills like, say, crocheting. At the same time, other people never change and decide to unwisely poke the bear with the crochet needle.
-Wonder Twin Powers, Activate:*
A woman joins a deadly game of hunter and prey in order to find her sister who sent her a desperate message. Comes with a twist full of betrayal and brutality. This is one would-be victim you’d do well to stay away from.
-Of Dream Scenarios and Plans:
If you’re going to have someone you know killed, make sure it’s done properly and that they don’t know your deepest fears. Snake!
-And Now, Back to Our Program:*
A woman plans to hit her sister where it hurts when she learns that she’s been having an affair with her husband. I imagine the less than happy ending in this made quite a few male readers squirm.
-Ten Off the Top:*
A funeral service man seizes the opportunity to get revenge for what the grieving man did to him and his mother due to his unpaid debts. It’s far from pretty, but possibly the most Mother’s Day suitable story of the lot. Kind of.
-Never One to Do Things by Half:
An agent posing as a doctor has been found out and learns there are worse things than being killed, especially if you are a father.
-Anniversaries of the Heart:*
Shines a light on the preceding story and what happened after the agent was set free; it’s not pretty but hard to see how it could have gone down any other way when you take away what (who) someone cares for the most.
-An Older Type of Care:*
Years have passed and Batista is in a rest home, riddled with cancer and a diagnosis of Alzheimer when he asks Rider for help. A less than caring nurse has been abusing Batista and several others and it’s up to Rider to see things right.
-No Offense to Mr. Neeson:
A ‘dirtbag’ decides there’s been enough exploitation movies made and makes his own stand with his special set of skills.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 23, 2019
Brutal, stunning, and achingly honest.
Beau's collection of short stories pull no punches (actually, there's a ton of punching in this book), so much so that you wonder if he is actually Canadian.
I didn't know much about the book going in, and while there are some bleak stories inside, if anything you find yourself desperate for more.
Here's hoping Beau cracks the code and delivers a novel in the future that leaves us on the floor, shivering and taking book selfies.
If you like your books as black as that coffee you are drinking, this is highly recommended!
Beau's collection of short stories pull no punches (actually, there's a ton of punching in this book), so much so that you wonder if he is actually Canadian.
I didn't know much about the book going in, and while there are some bleak stories inside, if anything you find yourself desperate for more.
Here's hoping Beau cracks the code and delivers a novel in the future that leaves us on the floor, shivering and taking book selfies.
If you like your books as black as that coffee you are drinking, this is highly recommended!
August 20, 2021
A collection of short stories. Dark, troubling, cathartic, revenge, killing, graphic violence. I'm all in. Introduces Beau Johnson's alter ego / newest anti-hero of his new novel, ex-cop Bishop Rider, there are more short story collections I have to catch up on , but I'm jumping to "Brand New Dark" , out now from Down & Out books.
November 1, 2021
The stories in A Better Kind of Hate are brutal and relentless. Some were even too brutal for me, but overall, the collection is good, gritty, bloody, revengeful fun (if you like that kind of thing, and I do). I think this book is a good introduction to Beau's stories. I want to read more of them and see what happens to and with Bishop Rider, who probably needs to take some anger management classes, but I hope he never does.
March 10, 2024
Vile, brutal, and so violent. I loved every minute of this book. Bishop tells his story one short story at a time. This book did not disappoint and the violence was second to none.
August 12, 2018
Amazingly gruesome! Beau Johnson does it again with another KILLER story! Strongly recommend!
November 16, 2025
Author Beau Johnson and his iconic retribution-dealing character Bishop Rider have been on my radar for a while now. I’m pleased to have finally made it around to opening my Johnson/Rider account. I started with the author’s first short story collection, A Better Kind of Hate which features several stories that introduce the Bishop Rider character.
Now I know why there is such critical acclaim for Johnson and his graphically violent retribution stories. A Better Kind of Hate is a superior collection of stories featuring revenge, reckonings, comeuppance, what have you. And in keeping with such a collection each story features graphic violence being dished out upon someone who deserves it. The kills are as inventive as they are brutal and described in cringe-inducing detail. In a good way. This is highly entertaining stuff.
But there are a couple of aspects that jumped out at me that elevate Johnson’s work above the run-of-the-mill revenge porn. First, in a lot of similar stories, whether film or in written form, the incident that requires avenging is presented with a prurient level of gratuitous, graphic detail. I’ve never been a fan of that part, waiting patiently for the actual revenge part to begin. In A Better Kind of Hate the offending incident in most stories is alluded to just enough for us to know why what’s about to happen happens. The reader can focus on enjoying the inventive, brutal ways in which the offending party, or parties, will receive their comeuppance.
Second, Johnson is a master of the internal monologue. Sometimes from the point of view of the offender, sometimes the avenger. These insights into the thoughts of the characters, more than anything elevate Johnson’s work from low-hanging revenge porn to, dare I say, a thoughtful analysis of human behaviors and motivations. But, yeah, don’t get too hung up on that. Mostly, it’s just a bunch of dirtbags getting chopped up like they should.
Now I know why there is such critical acclaim for Johnson and his graphically violent retribution stories. A Better Kind of Hate is a superior collection of stories featuring revenge, reckonings, comeuppance, what have you. And in keeping with such a collection each story features graphic violence being dished out upon someone who deserves it. The kills are as inventive as they are brutal and described in cringe-inducing detail. In a good way. This is highly entertaining stuff.
But there are a couple of aspects that jumped out at me that elevate Johnson’s work above the run-of-the-mill revenge porn. First, in a lot of similar stories, whether film or in written form, the incident that requires avenging is presented with a prurient level of gratuitous, graphic detail. I’ve never been a fan of that part, waiting patiently for the actual revenge part to begin. In A Better Kind of Hate the offending incident in most stories is alluded to just enough for us to know why what’s about to happen happens. The reader can focus on enjoying the inventive, brutal ways in which the offending party, or parties, will receive their comeuppance.
Second, Johnson is a master of the internal monologue. Sometimes from the point of view of the offender, sometimes the avenger. These insights into the thoughts of the characters, more than anything elevate Johnson’s work from low-hanging revenge porn to, dare I say, a thoughtful analysis of human behaviors and motivations. But, yeah, don’t get too hung up on that. Mostly, it’s just a bunch of dirtbags getting chopped up like they should.
August 27, 2023
I woke up with a pulled hamstring this Sunday morning which limited my activity to things I can do lying in bed. I’d been meaning to read A Better Kind of Hate for a while, so with an ice bag under my leg, I ventured forth.
You may want to pace yourself with these stories and you run the very likely chance of overdosing on violence and mayhem. I’ve written a bit of this sort of thing myself and felt inoculated, but even I needed to put this down, at least long enough to refill my coffee and get another bag of ice. But feel free to binge the entire collection like I did. Not sure what it will do to my psyche, but if I land in prison anytime soon, I blame Beau Johnson.
Not to give any spoilers, but The Place Before the Place was the story I most wish I’d written myself. It’s a wonderful premise and full of possibilities and dread.
You may want to pace yourself with these stories and you run the very likely chance of overdosing on violence and mayhem. I’ve written a bit of this sort of thing myself and felt inoculated, but even I needed to put this down, at least long enough to refill my coffee and get another bag of ice. But feel free to binge the entire collection like I did. Not sure what it will do to my psyche, but if I land in prison anytime soon, I blame Beau Johnson.
Not to give any spoilers, but The Place Before the Place was the story I most wish I’d written myself. It’s a wonderful premise and full of possibilities and dread.
April 18, 2024
This is such a satisfying read! And it fits just whatever mood you happen to be in. It's raw, it's funny, it's perfect. Some stories left me grinning like a loon after imagining a few people in my past taking the place of a character. Some just made me in awe of the amazing ingenuity of how to kill off bad ones. And when you think you've had it all worked out? Watch out for that fast curve ball hitting you where it hurts the most. And holy h*ll am I happy there are several books with Rider ahead. I'll inhale them one after another.
February 6, 2023
It's important to know that this is the first book featuring the Bishop Rider character because I started reading and thought I was missing something, like coming into the middle of a conversation. Then I realized the book was purposefully written this way—a series of vignettes that are all connected, and you learn more and more as the (at first glance) short stories intersect. And the violence? Second to none. Bravo!
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