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The Bad Kind of Lucky
Remmie Miken is starting over after a bad run. He’s got himself a crappy apartment in the big city and a job hustling burgers and fries. One night Remmie makes nice with a neighborhood gangster. So begins his quixotic pursuit of a whore-on-the-run and ten grand in cash. Heading south into Baja, Remmie brushes shoulders with lowdown crooks, a Catholic priest, cartel enforcers, a strawberry picker, and a wild-eyed expat. The Bad Kind of Lucky is a twisted comedic noir that follows Remmie straight into the void. Praise for THE BAD KIND OF “In The Bad Kind of Lucky, Matt Phillips leads us on a road trip from hell. This novella delivers dynamite action and humor in equal terse insights and a real noir ending. Remmie’s journey will knock you six ways from Sunday.” —Rusty Barnes, author of Ridgerunner and The Last Danger “A savage excursion into low-life criminality…This blood-pumping, border-hopping, bullet-spitting thrill-ride is Phillips’ best book yet.” —Tom Leins, author of Meat Bubbles & Other Stories and Repetition Kills You “This triumph of a book will take you on a journey with a great cast of characters…all in pursuit of a car, money and a beautiful woman—the ruin of many men. Will any of them be left standing? The release of a new Matt Phillips book should be a major event marked on the calen¬dar of all noir fans—outstanding!” —Aidan Thorn, author of When the Music’s Over and Rival Sons
190 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 16, 2018
12 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Matt Phillips
22 books91 followersMatt Phillips lives in San Diego. His books are A GOOD RUSH OF BLOOD, QUIET AND THE DARKNESS, TO BRING MY SHADOW, COUNTDOWN, KNOW ME FROM SMOKE, THE BAD KIND OF LUCKY, ACCIDENTAL OUTLAWS, REDBONE, BAD LUCK CITY, and THREE KINDS OF FOOL. His short fiction has been published in Tough, Mystery Tribune, Retreats from Oblivion, Shotgun Honey, and Out of the Gutter. More info at www.mattphillipswriter.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 26, 2018
A Car Chock Full of Money, Fantasy, Lust, & Death
The Bad Kind of Lucky is a short despair-laden journey that takes Remmie from his life as a grease-stained fry cook to a grand escapade chasing a hooker in a sports car allegedly filled with money and death. Witty, turbulent, dark, and futile, but a side trip into Baja is eminently more exciting than flipping another burger and banging on the apartment wall to shush the loud neighbor.
The Bad Kind of Lucky is a short despair-laden journey that takes Remmie from his life as a grease-stained fry cook to a grand escapade chasing a hooker in a sports car allegedly filled with money and death. Witty, turbulent, dark, and futile, but a side trip into Baja is eminently more exciting than flipping another burger and banging on the apartment wall to shush the loud neighbor.
October 26, 2021
Phillips writes tight, crisp atmospheric prose that recalls the bygone eras of pulp and noir genres while mixing in a modern, hip narrative. Slick, razor-sharp dialogue and realistic characters make Phillips The Crime Writer to Binge Read. The only crime committed being my own late arrival to his work.
June 2, 2020
The dread of Matt Phillips’ THE BAD KIND OF LUCKY gets you into the protag’s head in such a compelling way the only analogy I have is when you take a bite and say, ”this tastes horrible,” but keep eating.
It's that kind of page-turner!
It's that kind of page-turner!
August 17, 2019
I recently read and quite enjoyed ‘Redbone’ also by Matt Phillips and thought I would give this novel a try to see how it compared.
Remmie is a fry cook at a burger joint in the ‘big city’ and is trying to get his life back on track after a bad run. While unsuccessfully trying to get to sleep one night, he has a disturbing encounter with his ‘gangster’ neighbour who enlists him to head south of the border in pursuit of a prostitute, Veranda Cline, a new Dodge Charger, $10k and her dead Detective brother.
This novel has a completely different feel and style to ‘Redbone’, as although still a noir style novel, it’s written in a more lighthearted style, despite the dark undertone of the plot. It starts off very fast paced and initially drew me right in to Remmie’s plight and what he sees a a chance at a new life. The story plots like a bad road trip with Remmie encountering a series of (bad) characters along the way, each trying to muscle their way into a cut Remmie’s possible fortune. However a lot of these characters just play a fleeting part in the story and are gone as quickly as they arrive. After the initial rush, I felt the story sort of stuttered a bit before we get to the slightly disappointing climax. There was still plenty to enjoy in this novel, especially the fast paced comedic noir style and also the varied cast of characters, to entice me into reading more of Matt Phillips work.
Remmie is a fry cook at a burger joint in the ‘big city’ and is trying to get his life back on track after a bad run. While unsuccessfully trying to get to sleep one night, he has a disturbing encounter with his ‘gangster’ neighbour who enlists him to head south of the border in pursuit of a prostitute, Veranda Cline, a new Dodge Charger, $10k and her dead Detective brother.
This novel has a completely different feel and style to ‘Redbone’, as although still a noir style novel, it’s written in a more lighthearted style, despite the dark undertone of the plot. It starts off very fast paced and initially drew me right in to Remmie’s plight and what he sees a a chance at a new life. The story plots like a bad road trip with Remmie encountering a series of (bad) characters along the way, each trying to muscle their way into a cut Remmie’s possible fortune. However a lot of these characters just play a fleeting part in the story and are gone as quickly as they arrive. After the initial rush, I felt the story sort of stuttered a bit before we get to the slightly disappointing climax. There was still plenty to enjoy in this novel, especially the fast paced comedic noir style and also the varied cast of characters, to entice me into reading more of Matt Phillips work.
November 23, 2018
“Just a woman—right, Remmie thought, everybody is just a woman to a man like you. He thought for a moment about his wife—former wife, that is—and told himself Gonzo was right, that all women are just women. No more, no less. Except he knew it was a lie. He knew Veranda Cline was waiting for him, wanted him, needed him. How? He didn’t know, but she pulled at him like… like a hook run through his heart. Yanking, pulling, tearing. The why and the how and the where didn’t matter. What mattered was that hook, that bloody point tearing at his insides.”
Fry cook Remmie agrees help a thug locate a woman who fled the country with a bunch of cash. Something about Veranda makes Remmie believe finding her will solve all his problems and they’ll walk off into the sunset together will all the cash. But things don’t work out the way you want when you’re the bad kind of lucky.
There’s no shortage of violent action. Remmie is a great noir protagonist. No matter what the story throws at him, he remains focused on his goal—get the girl.
Fry cook Remmie agrees help a thug locate a woman who fled the country with a bunch of cash. Something about Veranda makes Remmie believe finding her will solve all his problems and they’ll walk off into the sunset together will all the cash. But things don’t work out the way you want when you’re the bad kind of lucky.
There’s no shortage of violent action. Remmie is a great noir protagonist. No matter what the story throws at him, he remains focused on his goal—get the girl.
June 25, 2024
Once again, Matt proves he's one hell of a voice in the world of noir fiction! This novella had quite a bit of humor in it, which is different from what I've read from Matt, but the humorous moments, and especially the dialogue, wasn't just for the sake of humor ... it helped progress the story or deepened the characters. And damn he can weave humor into a story! I laughed my ass off numerous times from the dialogue, which is always awesome for me when reading an otherwise dark as hell story.
The cast of characters played off each other perfectly, and despite everyone being someone you'd likely not want to be pals with in real life, they were easy as hell to connect with, and with how Matt writes his fiction, you can't help but feel like you're right there, part of the group and along for one hell of a ride.
The list of authors who I buy their work without reading the story description, just pure impulse buy, is very few. Matt is damn sure on that list! I hope he keeps releasing titles!
The cast of characters played off each other perfectly, and despite everyone being someone you'd likely not want to be pals with in real life, they were easy as hell to connect with, and with how Matt writes his fiction, you can't help but feel like you're right there, part of the group and along for one hell of a ride.
The list of authors who I buy their work without reading the story description, just pure impulse buy, is very few. Matt is damn sure on that list! I hope he keeps releasing titles!
March 9, 2019
In "The Bad Kind of Lucky" by Matt Phillips, if Remmie Miken didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. But his luck was not as bad as the dead whore, dead pimp, dead detective, dead fixer, dead Mexican outlaw, dead beautiful girl, or others who take the dirt nap in this odd and funny contemporary noir novel.
One character tells Remmie, "I think you bringing me nothing but hell and death." And that seems the case as Rennie goes with the flow venturing into Mexico on a mission to find the girl, find the car, and find the money. The path is littered with bodies as he pursues his elusive goal.
The book is indeed funny, even laugh out loud hilarious in passages, and the author uses words well and manages to maintain momentum throughout most of the story. A few passages, about two thirds through, drag a bit, but overall it is interesting, entertaining, and even somewhat educational. The author seems knowledgeable about the geography of Baja California. Well worth reading.
One character tells Remmie, "I think you bringing me nothing but hell and death." And that seems the case as Rennie goes with the flow venturing into Mexico on a mission to find the girl, find the car, and find the money. The path is littered with bodies as he pursues his elusive goal.
The book is indeed funny, even laugh out loud hilarious in passages, and the author uses words well and manages to maintain momentum throughout most of the story. A few passages, about two thirds through, drag a bit, but overall it is interesting, entertaining, and even somewhat educational. The author seems knowledgeable about the geography of Baja California. Well worth reading.
January 23, 2022
A fantastic crime story for fans of the road novel. The book opens with serious action and never lets up the whole way through to its grizzly conclusion. If you like Elmore Leonard, Don Winslow and others like them, check out Matt Phillips.
November 6, 2023
On the road crime noir that speeds in some places and drags in others.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews