Off The Record by Luca Veste

Off The Record Reviews

• 
  Timothy Mayer

  38 stories were selected for this anthology to promote literacy (Why not 33 and a 1/3? But I digress….). The only stipulation was that each story, from some of the best new crime writers, had to be based around a classic song title. What results is a razor sharp collection of tales from both sides of the Big Pond. Most of these can be read in one sitting, excellent for those of us with not enough time on our hands.
  
  Neil White begins with “Stairway to Heaven”, about the fate of a prisoner doing time for murder one. He dreams of the ultimate escape, but his sins may not take him in the direction desired. Depressing story, but with a fitting conclusion.
  
  “Respect” by Col Bury takes place in contemporary England. A gang of street toughs are waiting for their order in a take-out place. But another patron is waiting for his too. They think he’s weak. They are about to find out just how wrong they are. Reads like a superhero “origin”.
  
  “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” by Steve Mosby is creepy. It’s told from the point-of-view of a man who saw the sea take someone dear to him. He’s never left the coast and spends his days searching for the bodies of drowning victims. In the end, we’re never quite sure if the sea itself is the killer.
  
  Les Edgerton contributes with “Small Change”. Two men sit at a bar and talk. One is a former convict, the other a writer. The convict tells the story of a punk who tried to shoot him. In the end we learn why a 0.38 works different than a 0.22.
  
  “I Wanna Be Your Dog” happens to be my favorite song by Iggy and The Stooges. It’s also the title of a story contribution by Heath Lowrance. This one starts out about a young punk scowling over the funeral of his father. It quickly turns into a story about the upbringing of a serial killer.
  
  A J Hayes offers “Light My Fire”. An artist who has committed murder finally confronts his pursuer and has the chance to explain himself. He manages to come to terms with what he has done and the punishment for it fits the crime.
  
  “Redemption Song” by Sean Patrick Readon is the tale of six Irish kids who turn into gangsters in Boston. But the particulars of their growing up involves a death. A death which will soon be revenged in a gruesome manner.
  
  “Down In the Tube Station at Midnight” by Ian Ayris goes back to the UK. It’s a short segment in the life of a hit man who hates his job. He’s got another assignment and regrets what he has to do. But it pays well. Plus, he has a family to support.
  
  Nick Triplow’s “A New England” is another story from the other side of the lake. A riot squad is going into action against a potential outbreak of political violence. They’ve trained hard, but anything can and will happen. It feels like a slide picture dropped from a history book.
  
  “Shelia Take a Bow” by Charlie Wade is easy the creepiest story in the collection. A small businessman has to get rid of his buxom secretary because his wife has taken a dislike to her. The wife also has a wicked swing with a golf club. And this is just the beginning.
  
  Ian Rowan’s ‘Purple Haze” has two university students slumming through a housing project looking for some good drugs. But they walk into a deal gone bad. What results is the biggest rush of their lives.
  
  My favorite story in the collection is “Free Bird” by Thomas Pluck. A Vietnam veteran and his son share a bonding experience around the father’s Trans Am. Whereas most of these stories have bad ends, this one actually surprised me with an uplifting conclusion.
  
  “Venus in Furs” by Matthew C. Funk manages to get in the spirit of the original Velvet Underground song. A crook finds himself in a codependent relationship with a femme fatale. She wants him to make the ultimate sacrifice for her. Will he do it?
  
  “Dock of the Bay” by R. Thomas Brown manages to be topical and grim at the same time. A banker is on his way down. He’s caught his wife with another man, but comes up with a sinister plan for revenge.
  
  “Shadowboxer” by Chris Rhatigan left me a little confused. It’s a stream-of-consciousness story told from the view of a man on the run. Or is it? He’s racing past lone towns and isolated farms in the American mid-west. I think.
  
  “Roll Me Away” by Patti Abbot concerns a motorcycle racer and his lust for glory. He achieves transcendence in the end, but not the kind I’d like.
  
  Chad Rohrbacher’s “I Wanna Be Sedated” begins with a man observing his own funeral. He then goes on to watch his son grow up and make some of his same mistakes. But his grandson may turn out better. A nice, but bitter story from inside the head of a dying man. I think.
  
  “Back in Black- A Hiram Van Story” by Court Merrigan begins with the protagonist telling two russian girls: ‘If you want to live, listen to me.’ The girls have rolled a Russian mobster and they’re on the run. The teller may be too late to save them.
  
  “Life on Mars?” by Paul Brazill reads like an unpublised section of A Clockwork Orange. Two English punks survive their regin of terror on the local community with one in jail and the other going off to college and becoming respectable. But the jailbird eventually gets out and tracks down his old companion.
  
  “Superstition” by Nick Boldock is the only story in this collection with a supernatural twist. A gambler discovers the cat hanging around his house can bring him good luck. But sometimes good luck streaks come to an end.
  
  “Bye Bye Baby” by Victoria Watson is a little hard to write about. A mother refuses to come to grips with a tragedy and more depressing scenes occur. Not for new parents with anxiety.
  
  “Blood on the Dance Floor” is the offering from Benoit Lelievre. I enjoyed his selection in the last Beat to a Pulp anthology, so I was looking forward to his contribution in this one. He doesn’t disappoint. Two smooth dancers at a club challenge each other to a competition for the hottest girl. But be careful for what you wish for because you just might get it.
  
  “American Pie” by Ron Earl Phillips goes in a different direction than I had expected. Tons of ink have been written about the classic Don McLean song (somebody even spent two years putting together a series of tapes on it). Phillips uses it as a tale of baseball and broken dreams. There is a ray of light at the end.
  
  “Detroit Rock City” by Chris La Tray would make a good opening to a drive-in movie. Two Bonnie and Clyde wannabees attempt to rob an Indian casino with unexpected results.
  
  Nigel Bird’s “Super Trouper” has a war vet buying a pair of shoes. This allows him to tell an interesting story of what happened in Afghanistan. You can’t be too careful.
  
  “So Low, So High” is from Pete Sortwell. A man argues with his doctor about the medication he’s taking. It’s either the start or conclusion of something horrible.
  
  “Behind Blue Eyes” by Julie Morrigan is a good adaptation on the old Who song. I always thought the original was about a gunfighter in the wild west. Her take involves a British gangster and the underling who tried to rip him off. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made.
  
  “Paranoid” by David Barber. It’s a good interpretation of Black Sabbath. Now we know what drove the man in the song insane.
  
  “Nights in White Satin” by McDroll isn’t exactly what I thought the Moody Blues song was about, but it works just the same. A woman suffering from mental issues comes to a bad conclusion.
  
  “Be my Baby- Killing for Company” by Cath Bore is a police procedural story about a crime scene investigator looking into a murdered youth. Plus points for an original ending I didn’t expect.
  
  “California Dreamin’” by Eric Beetner is a tale of love and revenge which fits the landscape to perfection. The ending is a little unresolved, but it works just the same.
  
  Told mostly in the form of a conversation “A Day in the Life- How Many Holes” by Steve Weddle concerns a man taking a lady friend to see her dying mother. We do learn a lot about both of them on the trip.
  
  “The Karma Police” by Darren Sant is a variation on “The Most Dangerous Game” . In the future, contestants fight for survival and the game is televised.
  
  Simon Logan’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is an industrial fiction story set in the near future. A graffiti artist is paid by a corporate sponsor to paint one more slogan. But he has a unique interpretation to the job.
  
  “Comfortably Numb” by editor Luca Veste is about a British bag snatcher, or a “grab and run” artist. He’s been snatching women’s purses for years, but his biggest target just might lead to a final downfall.
  
  “Death or Glory” by Nick Quantrill is another painful tale. A man decided to keep his band together over the years and work a crap job on the side. Fame eludes him while his wife’s career takes off. Anyone whoever lived for music can identify with this one.
  
  “Two Little Boys” by Helen FitzGerald strays into Margaret St. Clair territory with a story about two gay men and a psychotic relationship councilor. Black humor at it’s finest.
  
  Finally, Ray Banks gives us his take on The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows”. This is a familiar story of a love relationship gone sour. The woman strives onward while the husband turns into a useless pile. The ending comes with rivers of blood.
  
  This is another excellent collection of short crime fiction by an assortment of current writers. It’s of uniform high quality. I was glad to see some authors I’m already familiar with standing next to ones I’ve just discovered. There’s a lot to look forward to from all of them.
• 
  Nick

  Let's be clear from the outset - I'm one of the contributing authors to this charity anthology. Ordinarily I'd decline to review a book that I am in - but in this case, I can say without any hint of bias that this collection is so good that it needs to be said.
  
  Editor Luca Veste has gathered together 38 writers from the US and UK for this charity collection of gritty, uncompromising stories. The standard is high from start to finish. It would be silly to attempt to review every story so here are my personal highlights.
  
  Heath Lowrance's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is my pick of the bunch. This story packs a brilliantly nasty punch which left me reeling. Very few stories are genuinely shocking - this one is, and is told with unflinching skill. Quite simply one of the best short stories I have ever read - and I really mean that.
  
  Charlie Wade's "Sheila Take A Bow" is a tale of a woman scorned and the revenge she wreaks on her hapless former employer. Blackly humorous and quite excruciating in places. Great stuff.
  
  Vic Watson's "Bye Bye Baby" is something of an anomaly in this book of mainly hardboiled/noir/crime stories. It may be genre-defying, but it's certainly dark. It's a truly gut-wrenching read, and even though I knew what was coming, it still hit me right between the eyes. A hard-hitting story of the type that is hard to write, and even harder to read (for the right reasons). Excellent.
  
  Pete Sortwell's contribution to this anthology is the quirky "So Low, So High", and I've selected this as a highlight due to the sparky storytelling and strong, highly believable voice. There's a nicely worked twist in the tale, too.
  
  Nick Quantrill brings you "Death Or Glory", in which he cleverly dramatises his own take on the song's own storyline. Set in Hull (as is usually the case with Nick's stories), the local references perhaps gave it an extra point in my eyes - I used to hang out at many of the same places our hero apparently did - but there again, if it had been set somewhere else it would have no less resonance. This is probably the story with the clearest link to its parent song. There's a palpable sense of sadness in its ending, too.
  
  Helen Fitzgerald deserves praise for "Two Little Boys" which has a deliciously wicked sense of humour. I loved the ending - I won't spoil it for you, but it's very funny indeed (if you have a dark enough sense of humour, that is).
  
  Finally, to the final story in the book, from the collection's most heavyweight name - Ray Banks. His "God Only Knows" is simply fantastic - superbly told by a narrator you're rooting for from the first paragraph. An excellent way to finish an outstanding anthology.
  
  I would never stake my reputation by urging people to buy a book I didn't believe in. But I believe in this one, as it's head and shoulders above its peers and lives up to its considerable hype by quite some way. Quite simply - just go and buy it, and enjoy.
• 
  Darren Sant

  Luca Veste should be applauded for putting together such a huge charity project that encompasses thirty Eight writers from the USA and the UK. All profits are going to benefit two children’s literacy charities in the UK and the US. Check out the links below and show them your support:
  
  
  http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/
  
  http://www.cliontheweb.org/
  
  There are not one but two Forewords. To represent the UK is Matt Hilton. To represent the US is Anthony Neil Smith.
  
  Off The Record’s content is inspired by, as the name might suggest, classic song titles. There is every spectrum of music represented in fictional form including such classic songs as: Stairway To Heaven, Comfortably Numb, Light My Fire, Sheila Take A Bow, Free Bird, Venus In Furs, Life On Mars, Behind Blue Eyes. An eclectic range of choices if ever there was one. Thirty eight voices all putting their unique slant on these classics titles.
  
  This review could be several thousand words long to be honest. Such a huge range of talent is represented. I’ll reign in my gushing enthusiasm and give you a few words about each tale.
  
  Neil White’s Stairway to Heaven brings us a prisoner whose desperation and despair leads him to a fateful act. Col Bury’s Respect features a vigilante who the reader can’t help but root for. Steve Mosby’s God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters is beautifully told and deliciously melancholic and tells of a deep connection with the sea. Les Edgerton's Small Change made me smile with its interesting twist.
  
  Heath Lowrance brings a violent and disturbing but intelligently told tale with I Wanna Be Your Dog. AJ Hayes writes his prose with the mindset of a poet his Light My Fire is no exception to this. Redemption Song by Sean Patrick Reardon gives you a lot of detail for the minimal work count afforded. A tale well told. Ian Ayris blends violence and thoughts of literature in they way only he can in Down In The Tube Station At Midnight.
  
  Nick Triplow's A New England brings us stark social commentary and a humane act. Charlie Wade brings us humour with a violent edge in the Smiths inspired Sheila Take Bow. Iain Rowan's Purple Haze an adeptly told tale of some lads out of their depth on the wrong side of town was believably told. Thomas Pluck brings us Free Bird and outlines that sometimes you just have to do something regardless of the consequences.
  
  Matthew C. Funk brings obsession and S&M to the table with Venus In Furs. R. Thomas Brown at his intelligent and thoughtful best brings us revenge in Dock Of The Bay. Chris Rhatigan doesn’t waste a single word in the intense Shadowboxer. In Roll Me Away by Patti Abbott brings us sadness and irony.
  
  I Wanna Be Sedated by Chad Rohrbacher a haunting tale in every sense of the word. Court Merrigan brings Back In Black (A Hiram Van Story). A dark tale with a darker conclusion. Paul D. Brazil does what he does best and entertains in that way only he can. Humour and dark deeds mixed deliciously in the blender of his imagination. Nick Boldock master of the clever ending brings us Superstition a tale of one man fortunes.
  
  Bye, Bye, Baby is Vic Watson’s excellently told melancholic tale. Blood On The Dancefloor by Benoit Lelievre is a dark tale of competition and perhaps also jealousy. American Pie by Ron Earl Philips was reflective and ultimately heart warming. Detroit Rock City by Chris La Tray has an expansive emotional feel to it. Exceptionally well drawn characters. Super Trouper by Nigel Bird zooms in to the minutiae then expands effortlessly to the big picture. Classic Nigel Bird.
  
  Pete Sortwell's So Low, So High seemed to almost perfectly encapsulate the title. I greatly enjoyed Julie Morrigan's Behind Blue Eyes a good old fashioned gangster tale. David Barber with Paranoid takes the straw that broke the camels back and uses it to violent effect. McDroll brings us Nights In White Satin and a tale of quiet despair, the kind of tale she does so well.
  
  Be My Baby “Killing For Company is by Cath Bore. Excellent descriptive writing and with a well constructed unexpected conclusion. California Dreamin’ by Eric Beetner feels so realistic you can almost feel the sun beating down upon you. A classic revenge tale. A Day In The Life “How Many Holes” by Steve Weddle a cautionary tale: Don’t mess with folk you don’t know. My own Karma Police is a Sci-fi tale. Good taste prevents me from reviewing my own work.
  
  Smells Like Teen Spirit by Simon Logan a very stylish feel to it. One of my favourites. Luca Veste picks Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb for his selection. A gritty tale that also manages to encapsulate it’s title nicely. Nick Quantrill never disappoints and Death Or Glory is yet another strong well detailed tale from the Hull writer. Two Little Boys by Helen Fitzgerald gave me a good chuckle or two. A tale of an alternative therapy that is an accident waiting to happen. Ray Banks tells the tale of a worthless character who we feel no sympathy for. A story with a most satisfying conclusion.
  
  I could gush about this collection but then you’d get bored and I really only want to convey a simple message: Buy this book not only is it a great value uplifting read but it is for worthy causes. A fantastic mix of up and coming talent and some established names all of whom I am proud to feature along side. There really isn’t a bad story on it. Mr Veste should rename his blog which is called Guilty Conscience. His own conscience is clear he’s done sterling work here.
  
  
• 
  Ben Cheetham

  Where to begin? From well known authors to virtual unknowns, the depth of talent on display in this anthology is staggering. It almost feels unfair singling out particular stories as they're all strong enough to merit attention. Honestly I could bang on for pages about all the brilliant little gems served up here, but you'd probably have nodded off by the time I was done, so I'm just going to highlight a few of my favourites.
  
  The anthology kicks off with Neil White's 'Stairway To Heaven', a moody tale of guilt and remorse that sets the tone nicely for what's to follow. AJ Hayes's 'Light My Fire' is another standout. A man tries to make sense of his partner's senseless murder by confronting her killer, an artist whose obssession with his muse has driven him over the edge. There's an unsettling, almost surreal quality to this story. I had to read it twice before I fully grasped what'd happened. In Paul D Brazill's grimly witty 'Life On Mars?' a man wakes up to a blinding hangover and a past he'd rather forget. It's a cautionary reminder that the past is never dead, only dormant. Nigel Bird's 'Super Trouper' is a departure from most of the stories in this collection, in that it doesn't deal directly with a crime. Bird takes us into the mind of a soldier traumatised by his tour of Afghanistan. He writes with a machine-gun rythmn, firing off sentences like bullets, brilliantly evoking the sense of disorientation felt by a soldier struggling to readjust to normal life. This story packs a real emotional punch. Eric Beetner's 'California Dreamin', is a brilliantly brutal and tense tale of revenge, and a dark commentary on shallow LA people. The anthology finishes on a very high note with Ray Banks's 'God Only Knows', a story straight from Britain's gutter. Banks sketches the grimy little world of a petty criminal eeking out a living in the NE of England, mining a vein of dark wit that will be familiar to anyone who's ever read Viz. This story is peppered with great lines, but my favourite has to be 'The nicest thing they said about Shona was that she could suck the froth out of a drip tray from the other side of the pub'. I'm smiling even as I write that one. In amongst the grime there are some beautifully poignant moments. In fact, the same could be said of most of the stories in 'Off The Record'. Love, hate, murder, madness, it's all here. If there's been a better crime fiction anthology published this year, I don't know about it.
• 
  K.A. Laity

  This charity anthology assembled by Luca Veste offers you the glowing feeling of donating to a good cause. It also offers you some fine tales by folks like Col Bury, Les Edgerton, Heath Lowrance, Ian Ayris, Nick Triplow, Thomas Pluck, Patti Abbott, Paul Brazill, Julie Morrigan and many more. Some standouts also include a chilling little tale by Vic Watson, a hypnotic "California Dreaming" by Eric Beetner and "God Only Knows" by Ray Banks. A fine group of stories and a great concept that plays to each writer's strengths. Fascinating choices.
• 
  James Everington

  A strong collection of (mostly) crime short stories, all named after a classic song, and for charity to boot.
  
  Crime is not always my thing, although I'd already read a few of the authors in this anthology - and indeed Nigel Bird and Iain Rowan both turn in quality contributions (and both focusing on 'normal' crimes & the psychology of those involved, rather than cops & robbers stuff).
  
  Of the writers new to me, many hit the spot - Eric Beetner, Helen Fitzgerald, Paul D. Brazil being highlights. Star of the show was Steve Mosby though, whose 'God Moving Over The Face Of The Water' is as good a short story as I've read for awhile. Rock on.
• 
  Iain

  I have a feeling that the particularly short story length made it quite difficult for some of the authors to cram in a proper story. There is a handful of decent tales but quite a few that just don't go anywhere, or end abruptly.
  
  Very little that's terribly bad, but also not much that's truly satisfying.