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A Beast Without a Name: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan
Think you can’t buy a thrill? This book proves you wrong.
Katy lied.
Or did she?
As with the blues and Elvis and somebody else’s favorite song, it’s open to interpretation.
These twelve tales interpret shady pasts, dubious presents, and doomed futures. There’s no hiding inside a hall of rock and sand from stories as deliciously wicked and terrifically twisty as the jazz-rock noir that inspired them.
These masters of crime fiction heard the call and wrote it on the wall for you and me.
As they name the beast, they make alive worldly wonders in characters you’ve known for decades through the hypnotically woven tapestries of Steely Dan, destined to live on as indelibly as the hallucinatory memories in the caves of Altamira.
Edited by Brian Thornton with stories by Steve Brewer, W.H. Cameron, Reed Farrel Coleman, Libby Cudmore, Aaron Erickson, Naomi Hirahara, Matthew Quinn Martin, Richie Narvaez, Kat Richardson, Peter Spiegelman, Jim Thomsen, and Jim Winter.
Katy lied.
Or did she?
As with the blues and Elvis and somebody else’s favorite song, it’s open to interpretation.
These twelve tales interpret shady pasts, dubious presents, and doomed futures. There’s no hiding inside a hall of rock and sand from stories as deliciously wicked and terrifically twisty as the jazz-rock noir that inspired them.
These masters of crime fiction heard the call and wrote it on the wall for you and me.
As they name the beast, they make alive worldly wonders in characters you’ve known for decades through the hypnotically woven tapestries of Steely Dan, destined to live on as indelibly as the hallucinatory memories in the caves of Altamira.
Edited by Brian Thornton with stories by Steve Brewer, W.H. Cameron, Reed Farrel Coleman, Libby Cudmore, Aaron Erickson, Naomi Hirahara, Matthew Quinn Martin, Richie Narvaez, Kat Richardson, Peter Spiegelman, Jim Thomsen, and Jim Winter.
232 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2019
10 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Brian Thornton
15 books15 followersBrian Thornton is the author of twelve books and a whole bunch of short stories. He does all of his own stunts, loves the color blue as well as singing in the car with his wife and son, and lives with his family in Seattle, where he recently completed his third term as Northwest Chapter president for the Mystery Writers of America.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2021
Fiction Based on Music
A Beast Without a Name is a collection of twelve short crime fiction stories all based on the music of Steely Dan. Eleven take their cues from song titles and one from an album title. Steely Dan was allegedly named for a steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs’ beat classic Naked Lunch.
Despite a handful of hits in the Seventies such as Reelin’ in the Years, My Old School, and Rikki Don’t Loose That Number, Steely Dan is a bit of an obscure band and the vast majority of their soft rock jazz fusion catalog is not well known by most folks these days. Therefore, as a reader you are probably not that familiar with most of the songs used as story titles in this book. Despite a few call-outs to the band and hidden references, most of the stories are simply take offs on the song titles rather than the lyrical visions of the songs.
The stories are as follows: (1) Pixie Dare Returns Peter Spiegelman; (2)Monkey in Your Soul Matthew Quinn Martin; (3) Here at the Western World Naomi Hirahara; (4) Black Friday Steve Brewer; (5) Hey Nineteen W.H. Cameron; (6) No Static at All Jim Winter; (7) West of Hollywood Libby Cudmore; (8) Don’t Take Me Alive Aaron Erickson; (9) Rikki Don’t Lost That Number Richie Narvaez; (10) Kid Charlemagne Kat Richardson; (11) The Girl Could Be So Cruel Jim Thomsen; and (12) Halfway Crucified Reed Farrel Coleman.
While all the stories in this collection were entertaining, for my money, Here at the Western World by Naomi Hirahara is the most original. This is a song that was left over from their album work and then, although never been on the air before, was stuck on their greatest hits album by the record company. Here’s the chorus: “Knock twice, rap with your cane
Feels nice, you’re out of the rain. We got your skinny girl. Here at the Western World.”
Hirahara takes this odd little song and turns it into a Kurt Vonnegut like exposition on a secret company that hires out artificially enhanced lookalikes to play the part of the deceased for the grieving spouse right up to including re-enacting the meet up or the wedding night. A brilliant turn of a song title into something new.
Black Friday by Steve Brewer is also a favorite. The song title apparently refers to an 1800’s Gold speculator in Australia who ran off with all the proceeds. The connection to Brewer’s story is obvious as it relates a story of a casino robber who ran off to hide in the Australian Outback until the day one of his ex partners who also had a million in proceeds swam-dived off the 22nd floor.
And not to be forgotten is Katy Lied which is an album title, not a song, but takes in a lyric from the song Dr. Wu: “Katy lies, you could see it in her eyes.”
A Beast Without a Name is a collection of twelve short crime fiction stories all based on the music of Steely Dan. Eleven take their cues from song titles and one from an album title. Steely Dan was allegedly named for a steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs’ beat classic Naked Lunch.
Despite a handful of hits in the Seventies such as Reelin’ in the Years, My Old School, and Rikki Don’t Loose That Number, Steely Dan is a bit of an obscure band and the vast majority of their soft rock jazz fusion catalog is not well known by most folks these days. Therefore, as a reader you are probably not that familiar with most of the songs used as story titles in this book. Despite a few call-outs to the band and hidden references, most of the stories are simply take offs on the song titles rather than the lyrical visions of the songs.
The stories are as follows: (1) Pixie Dare Returns Peter Spiegelman; (2)Monkey in Your Soul Matthew Quinn Martin; (3) Here at the Western World Naomi Hirahara; (4) Black Friday Steve Brewer; (5) Hey Nineteen W.H. Cameron; (6) No Static at All Jim Winter; (7) West of Hollywood Libby Cudmore; (8) Don’t Take Me Alive Aaron Erickson; (9) Rikki Don’t Lost That Number Richie Narvaez; (10) Kid Charlemagne Kat Richardson; (11) The Girl Could Be So Cruel Jim Thomsen; and (12) Halfway Crucified Reed Farrel Coleman.
While all the stories in this collection were entertaining, for my money, Here at the Western World by Naomi Hirahara is the most original. This is a song that was left over from their album work and then, although never been on the air before, was stuck on their greatest hits album by the record company. Here’s the chorus: “Knock twice, rap with your cane
Feels nice, you’re out of the rain. We got your skinny girl. Here at the Western World.”
Hirahara takes this odd little song and turns it into a Kurt Vonnegut like exposition on a secret company that hires out artificially enhanced lookalikes to play the part of the deceased for the grieving spouse right up to including re-enacting the meet up or the wedding night. A brilliant turn of a song title into something new.
Black Friday by Steve Brewer is also a favorite. The song title apparently refers to an 1800’s Gold speculator in Australia who ran off with all the proceeds. The connection to Brewer’s story is obvious as it relates a story of a casino robber who ran off to hide in the Australian Outback until the day one of his ex partners who also had a million in proceeds swam-dived off the 22nd floor.
And not to be forgotten is Katy Lied which is an album title, not a song, but takes in a lyric from the song Dr. Wu: “Katy lies, you could see it in her eyes.”
November 19, 2019
I may be biased, since I have a story in this collection, but let's set that aside for a moment. This is a fabulous collection!
November 3, 2022
There are twelve stories here by some great writers. Some of the stories are fantastic, some are good. This book is worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews