Bullets, Teeth and Fists / Jason Beech

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Crime/ Short Story Collection

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Availability
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Jason Beech is a Sheffield born author who now resides in New Jersey with his wife and daughter. When not writing Jason coaches soccer. He has previously published a novel, Over The Shoulder.

You can learn more about the author at his website.

Description:

In the author’s words, a collection of fourteen crime ridden and pulpy short stories.

Appraisal:

This is a decent set of tales, relatively well constructed and entertaining enough. Each has a little twist at the end that means the conclusion is unexpected although they tend to be on the short side. With the exception of a historical fiction story all are crime based.

The first is about a hitman who’s got to complete several jobs before getting to his daughter’s show. The second is dialogue driven, a couple have a disastrous date, but he’s a lot worse than he seems.

Bring It On Down is a neat coming of age story where Anthony, a schoolboy gradually develops from withdrawn and lonely to gang leader and bully. It’s longer than average (for this book) which I think helps. The author allows more time to develop the characters and situation.

The Thing That Looked At Me is also well done. Andy is having an affair with the bosses girlfriend. Trouble is he gets too close to her and she doesn’t like it. Interspersed with Andy lying in his own blood there is an ongoing flashback to what brought him here.

All in all a worthy read, relatively fast to get through.

FYI:

Nothing of note.

Format/Typo Issues:

Nothing of note.

Rating: *** Three Stars