'The Baddest of The Bad' is Oh So Good

Crime fiction can be broken down into subgenres. There are the cozies like those found in Ellery Queen, the hard-boiled grit of a Sam Spade or Mike Hammer novel, and the fact-heavy and suspense-driven stories of James Ellroy. Then there are the stories about people who have crawled out of the gutter.

In fact, there's a whole magazine dedicated to the screwed up people and their screwed up relationships that often end in bloodshed: Out of the Gutter. Gutter went books this year and they gave me a copy of their debut "The Baddest of the Bad" to read and review.

"Bad" is a volume of short stories from Gutter, and they are what you expect: gritty, blood-soaked yarns about bad people doing really bad things. As I went from story to story I shook my head in disbelief at the lowliest depths the imagination was capable of reaching, and, most importantly, I kept turning the page looking for more. "Bad" is a horrible car wreck with crumpled autos and crumpled bodies, and as much as you tell yourself to look away you are only driven to keep staring.

Just as with the Gutter magazines, "Bad" is broken down into 10, 15 to 20, and 30 minute reads with flash story interludes. It makes picking a story to read while waiting in line that much easier. Just be prepared to receive some strange looks from passers by.

My particular favorites from this volume are Victor Gischler's "Final Tally," a serial killer romance, and Jordan Harpers delightfully morbid "Playing Dead." There are many more stories to satisfy the crime fiction fan's thirst for murder, greed and gritty meanness, but you're going to have to read it to discover your own favorite.