Charles Ardai
Death Comes Too Late
(Hard Case Crime, 2024)

I had very high expectations for this book, and it did not disappoint me.  This is a fine collection by a writer who has, without a lot of fanfare, become one of the best writers of crime fiction working today.  There are true gems here: stories with sharply-etched characters in gripping situations, where plots move in unexpected directions.  The endings have a delicious habit of leaving you somewhere you never imagined you were headed while at the same time fitting the pieces together perfectly.

For me, the thing that brought the volume together was that most of these are family stories.  The book is full of parents and children, siblings, and spouses relating to and sometimes killing (or avenging) one another.  In this, Ardai shows that he has a working familiarity with human nature to go with his strong sense of craft; after all,  murder often begins at home.  The result is a book that often feels as real as it is entertaining.

Ardai says he writes short stories “in spite of the fact that short stories might as well be written in sand with a pointy stick.”  He is, of course, right about the typical shelf life of short fiction, but he may be wrong about this book.  To me, Death Comes Too Late lands near the top of the heap of single-author collections I’ve read, waaaaaaaaaay up there with books like Joe Lansdale’s High Cotton and Stephen King’s  Night Shift.  Collections this good tend to stick around a while.
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I could identify some favorites, but that could keep us here all day.  Do yourself a favor: stop reading this and go read the book instead.   

​Love this one. Written by drummer Richie Ramone, who was at the time a newcomer to the band,  as part of the Too Tough to Die sessions.   The song is indicative of how quickly Richie adapted to the spirit of the band.   Although it did not end up on the album, it was released as the b-side to the “Howling at the Moon” single and became a staple of the band’s live set for a time.  In 2002, a live version of the song was released on (and gave its name to) Smash You Live 85, a bonus disc of live material released as part of the band’s Loud, Fast Ramones compilation.   

When I think of the newer movies that I’ve screened in the basement lately, one stands out…
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I’ll admit that a lot of contemporary horror flicks don’t thrill me.   The most recent installments of some of the classic franchises (Texas Chainsaw and Halloween come to mind) have turned into gore-by-the-numbers dumbfests.   Newer concepts that generate a lot of hype (Black Phone, The Monkey) have fallen flat for me, and even good movies (X and Pearl) lead ultimately to disappointment (Maxxxine, a good movie but with a stunningly poor ending).  Every once in while, though, someone will pop out with one that really hits the spot for me, and Weapons by  Zach Cregger certainly did that.

For fear of spoiling some of the fun, I won’t talk a lot about the movie’s plot.  Suffice to say that the story is fairly complicated and it kept me guessing—generally incorrectly—as to what was going on and where the action was headed.   The story scores lots of points for originality.  It was refreshing, too, that Cregger clearly does not work from a “happy ending” checklist.  Some characters I expected to survive didn’t, some I thought would die didn’t, and although major problems do get resolved in the end there is not that forced closure bullshit some directors have tried to feed us lately (looking at you Guillermo del Toro for that over-tidy ending to your otherwise interesting Frankenstein).
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In addition to the strong plotting, some of the acting here is really wonderful.  Particularly nice are Julia Garner’s jittery school teacher and Amy Madigan’s oddball visiting aunt.  Their dynamic performances are crucial because they are playing well-drawn, complicated characters whose embodiment call for some real chops. 
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Most refreshingly of all, these all feel like real people.  The protagonists present a refreshing mix of flaws and failures while the villains themselves face nasty challenges that make their actions all too plausible.   If you like a mix of weird action and believable characters,  don’t miss this one.