Product Description
Three novellas of squishy-noir from Jordan Krall.
On the surface, Thompson looks like any other blue collar New Jersey town. But beneath the working class exterior lies a bizarro world of fetishistic crime, sleazy motels, and squid. In these three bizarro-noir novellas, the reader is thrown into a world of murderers, drugs made from squid parts, deformed war veterans, and a mischievous apocalyptic donkey...
THE HABERDASHER
Red Henry Hooper just got out on parole. He meets his friends, fellow small-time criminals Dix Hayden and Grant Minissi, in a cheap motel to drink a couple beers and perhaps plan another job. Things go sour when Grant takes some bad drugs. Meanwhile, in the next room, strange things are happening that will make Henry's day even worse: a woman is missing her feet and a notorious local gangster Robert Hapertas (aka The Haberdasher) is on his way. And he's not pleased...
THE LONGHEADS
Tommy Pingpong knew it was a mistake sending his partner Jake into the meeting with their boss. Now they were on the run from Peachy, a diaper-wearing gangster who would like nothing better than to kill the both of them. On top of that, the deformed war veterans called the longheads are buying up all the guns in town, planning something big that'll have severe implications for the town of Thompson.
THE APOCALYPSE DONKEY
When Simon Palmer took the black envelope from the tall man in the parking lot, he didn't know that this case of mistaken identity would make his day take such a weird turn for the worst. When the man finally realizes that he gave the envelope to the wrong guy, Simon is thrown into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that finally leads to a sleazy carnival of squid violence...
From the Inside Flap
"Krall has quite a flair for outrage as an art form, and with SQUID PULP BLUES, he's created a wholly unique terrascape of Ibsen-like naturalism and morbidity; an extravaganza of white-trash urban/noir horror." - EDWARD LEE, author of The Bighead and Brides of the Impaler
"An intriguing mix of film noir storytelling strained through a colander of pure bizarro." - TOM PICCIRILLI, author of A Choir of Ill Children and The Midnight Road
"SQUID PULP BLUES is a trip to the rusted underbelly of a sunken hulk, one loaded with enough nuclear waste to make Chernobyl seem like a giggle. By the time you return, strange new organs have blossomed within your brain, tentacles have replaced your limbs, and you couldn't be happier about it. Krall's vision of bizarro is not only dark and full of mystery, but guaranteed to entertain as well." - JOHN EDWARD LAWSON, author of Sin Conductor
"Jordan Krall's writing takes you places you never knew you wanted to go. In Squid Pulp Blues, the place is called Thompson, New Jersey. And here, you'll find no shortage of violence, trauma, and more importantly, squid. The locals may not be friendly. In fact, most of them are psychopathic assholes. But as long as they stay on the pages where they belong, you'll have one bloody good time in their company." - JEREMY C. SHIPP, author of Vacation and Sheep and Wolves
