Summer Bludgeon: An Unsettling Reads Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Anthology by H. Dair Brown

Summer Bludgeon: An Unsettling Reads Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Anthology Reviews

• 
  Jahmil Effend

  A highly tense read, these stories will take you on vastly different journeys and through some unique experiences with some fun characters.
  
  The thing I enjoyed most about his anthology was the diversity in authors. No stories feel the same and every author brought their best work to the table! This is a must read!
• 
  Robin Knabel

  Biased, of course. I've read the entirety of this book at least three times, and each time I enjoyed it. So excited about all of the talented authors, poets, and artists included.
• 
  Russell Gray

  On the heels of their previous crime anthology, Autumn Noir, Unsettling Reads offers us the follow-up collection appropriately named Summer Bludgeon. The title is fitting, not only because it rhymes with summer lovin', but because violent crimes spike during the summer months. So violent crime rates follow ice cream sales, you ask? Nope, that's what they call a spurious correlation. But, one might say that my month's reading enjoyment correlates to releases from Unsettling Reads. Nothing spurious about that.
  
  As is usually the case with short story collections, your experience may vary. There were a few stories here that didn’t really do it for me. But when a story did land, it did so like an Olympic gymnast.
  
  My favorites in the first section were “Bag it Up” by Allison Vincent, “Help Yourself” by Brandon Barrows, “The Tangled Web” by Eric Knabel, and “The Nest” by Mark Thomas. I really enjoyed the voice in particular from Allison Vincent’s story. The plot was solid, but it was the character that really served as the bass line that carried my enjoyment. It’s worth noting that I also enjoyed a previous story from Brandon Barrows (though looking at my Autumn Noir review, I forgot to mention him, Doh!). Both he and Eric Knabel cemented themselves as solid regular contributors here (Eric had a story in UR’s first short story collection). This is already getting lengthy, but I don’t want Mark Thomas to feel left out. What “The Nest” did for me was really solidify this first section as the section of the quirky twist.
  
  I can’t really say my favorite stories in Part Two follow any particular theme. “Dinner for Two” by Ken Luer hooked me immediately with dialogue that was witty, full of personality, and great turns of phrase. I also really liked how the small action beats between dialogue were often subtextual cues rather than the more typical physical actions I normally see. I really vibed with “The Last Summer” by Christine Eskilson because it captured that nostalgic lens that you might use to look back on a particular summer during your formative years. The story would have been solid enough just with that, but then we had the ending. Chef’s kiss.
  
  Part Three really ended with a bang for me. “Hopelessly Devoted” by Katie Brunecz was one of those fantastic stories that accomplished two things that many stories struggle with: providing backstory with organic dialogue that didn’t feel infodumpy, and letting the reader’s imagination fill in parts of the story. “Gemini” by Dair Brown genuinely surprised me. I mean, I have enjoyed all of Dair’s previous stories, so I go into one with a certain degree of expectation. But somehow, she still pulled one over on me and delivered one of my absolute favorites of the collection with a story that’s a continuation of her short “The Block” from Autumn Noir. I’m not sure if a person might feel a little left behind if they haven’t read the prequel, but I would expect the cleverness of this story and the gorgeous turns of phrase to win them over anyway. It’s a fine line to walk, putting poetic lines into prose fiction without it feeling a bit out of place, but Dair did just that multiple times with this story.
  
  This is getting so long, but now I have to talk about the story that ended this book with a bang. It seems to be a trend that I’m blown away by the last story in the collection. “Song of Summer” by Jacob Steven Mohr grabbed me and didn’t let go. I do question that a half handle of rum and a 12-pack of beer is enough to keep three college juniors oiled for an entire weekend, but all jokes aside, this story was fantastic. I can tell the author is a horror writer. This story just felt like a different beast compared to the others because of the dread that worms its way into the narrative.
  
  As you can probably tell, I loved this collection. I would recommend it to anyone. Even if you aren’t a big crime reader, what better way to dip your toes into the genre than with a short story collection?
• 
  Erica

  This anthology was a treat, with a mix of art, poems, and short stories that found plenty of new ways to explore the horrors people can commit, and the reasons why they might. The varied length of the pieces worked well as a whole, with shorter ones full of punch to punctuate the longer, more immersive works. For example, "Benny's Last Hike," by Juleigh Howard-Hobson, captures a fleeting moment, but exactly the right one to evoke the tone of the anthology. By contrast, Justin Thurman's "Coonhounds, For Instance" tosses you into a young boy's point of view on a frightening night and leaves you thinking about what happened well into the next tale.
  
  Another standout for me was "A Daughter's Love," by Ewan A. Dougall. The writer's voice is strong and clear, bringing to mind Chandler and Hammett as it follows a detective through a case that hits too close to home. The mystery is well-executed for a short story and makes me wonder what the author would be able to do with a larger canvas. And speaking of canvases, the art in the anthology definitely puts you in the right frame of mind to read the stories. Stark, weird, and full of sharp shapes, Edward Michael Supranowicz's work makes you feel just a little off-kilter. And the collage by Elliott Orchard-Blowen reminds me of poets Austin Kleon and Jojo Lazar in all the best ways.
  
  Overall, this anthology is definitely worth your time. A little summer bludgeon really is a blast!