The Gang’s All Here

I haven’t even found a copy yet, but Rod Lott of Bookgasm already has plenty of nice things to say about the second issue of Out of the Gutter, editor Matthew Louis’ collection between covers of “tough-as-nails fiction,” crime-related non-fiction, and “amusing filler, including sidebars, an R-rated poem, fake ads and comics.” Lott is especially complimentary of a short story by Christa Faust (author of the upcoming Hard Case Crime novel Money Shot) and of this issue’s centerpiece, a “Gangland” section “with four pieces of fiction involving gangs and Mafia types. It begins with John Rickards’ tongue-in-cheek ‘Vengeance of Mine,’ whose lead character is Jesus Christ. No, really--Jesus Christ, as in the guy who died for your sins, ‘so show a little fucking respect.’ Ken Goldman takes the prize, though, with ‘Fat Larry’s Night with the Alligators,’ a classic gangster tale of dead-body disposal, double-crossings and devilishly hungry reptiles.” You can read all of Lott’s gushing here.