Black Static

This month, if all goes according to plan, I'm taking a look at some of the books sent to me by Short, Scary Tales Publications that I never got round to reviewing at the time. And what better place to start than with Shadow Games and Other Sinister Stories of Show Business by Ed Gorman (1941 - 2016), a collection of stories that straddle the border between horror and crime fiction with ease. SST released the book in trade paperback in 2016 and it contains four previously published stories plus title piece "Shadow Games", which comes in at novel length and originally appeared from Cemetery Dance Publications way back in 1993, when we were all so much younger and Harvey Weinstein was just a scandal waiting to unfold in the pages of Hush-Hush magazine.

"Shadow Games" is the story of Cobey Daniels, child star turned teen idol who threw it all away when he came off his meds and held a young girl against her will. After a period in a mental hospital Cobey goes missing only to emerge as a playwright with a production based on his own life story. Then one morning he wakes up next to the dead body of a young woman and when questioned by the police Cobey panics and goes on the run. It's up to private investigator Puckett, who likes Cobey and wants to see him treated right, to do some digging around of his own and sort out what has really happened. But no good deed goes unpunished, and for Puckett the price is both high and personal.

This is a deeply cynical novel, one that takes a long hard look at the seamy underbelly of the Hollywood dream machine and shows how corrupt it is. The story is riveting, and made even more interesting courtesy of the character studies we get - abusive and hard as nails agent Lilly; corrupt and exploitative producer Wade Preston; Anne, the old flame Puckett reconnects with, now a writer and with an agenda of her own; and Puckett himself, the honest man who has to make something out of all their machinations. Forwarding the action are newspaper cuttings and excerpts from tapes that Cobey made about his life and troubled times, adding yet another dimension to the story. Cobey himself is a flawed character, someone who is more sinned against than sinning, and you can't help but sympathise with him while disapproving of much that he does. The plot is suitably convoluted, with plenty of twists that keep the reader guessing. All in all it's an entertaining and compelling story, one that comes with the reek of authenticity, even as you shake your head in disbelief. And in the wake of the Me Too movement and revelations about Harvey Weinstein it feels even more relevant than it would have done on first publication, pointing an accusing finger at the same toxic culture.

The four short stories that make up the rest of the book all deal with similar tinsel town/fame themes. Three video store geeks become fixated on former "Scream Queen" Michelle. Jason befriends her, but it is the brutal Billy with whom she starts an abusive relationship. It's an emotive story, beautifully characterised and sensitively written, with misogyny in the foreground and a strong subtext about the vagaries of fame and fortune, asking us to differentiate between the sirens of the silver screen who are simply fantasy figures and the real women who take on those roles, often at a terrible personal cost. In "Riff" jazz legend Mike Thorne is at the end of his life and plotting revenge against his cheating wife and agent. It's an engaging piece, with the restrained ending all to the good, while Mike's musings on how he's been made a fool of repeatedly make us feel for the character, while noting that, by his own admission, he's been similarly unfaithful with other partners.

Nicole is "Such a Good Girl", looking after her drug addict mother Kate, allowing pusher Mitch to move in and have sex with them both, but then he takes it all too far and Nicole discovers, to paraphrase Meat Loaf, that she won't do that. This was another story of toxic masculinity, of a manipulative male, with each step in the process of dehumanising the two women detailed, so that when Nicole finally stands up for herself you want to applaud. In final story "Pards" protagonist Bromley dreams of being a writer but is stuck in a supermarket job, and then the opportunity comes to interview one time cowboy star Rex Stone for a fanzine. He finds Stone a shadow of his former self and there are strong echoes of his own life in the fallen star's situation. Bromley manages to give Rex the life he deserves in his article, but isn't yet ready to shake off his own chains. It's another sensitively written story, one that gives us two loners in need of redemption, while showing that not everything is as it seems on the surface, that maybe people aren't as happy as we believe them to be, even those who have reached the pinnacle of their careers. It's a fine end to an excellent collection, one that entertains even as it gives us much to think about regarding both gender roles and the transitory nature of fame and celebrity.