Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories Audiobook

With this critically acclaimed debut collection, Frank Bill announces himself as an author of fiercely defined vision. In these vivid tales, Bill's southern Indiana proves a literary destination of immense nuance, even as his mostly working-class characters cry out in voices that cannot be denied. "Blasts off like a frigging rocket ship and hits as hard as an ax handle to the side of the head after you've eaten a live rattlesnake for breakfast."-Donald Ray Pollock, best-selling author

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"After the first three stories (which will quickly sift out the Eat-Pray-Love lightweights), it's hard not to think of a Tarantino movie. Murder, rape, revenge, drugs, guns (lots of guns), dogs, meth labs, pot, booze, hard men and hard women, living in a hard land during a merciless time (the 1980s to the present). Characters in previous stories show up again (though in this grim landscape, you only have so many bites at the apple), as Frank Bill populates (and de-populates) his little blood soaked postage stamp of earth with enough familiarity to have you wondering at times if you aren't in fact reading a loose novel (like Faulkner's Hamlet). In the end, I felt this effort does stand as a collection of short stories, most of which seem to clock in at 15 pages or so. The stories are so short that I found myself wishing Bill had extended some of them into something longer. Most of the time they work fine just as they are, but there were a couple that faltered a bit due to the rush to wrap them up. That said, the dialogue is spot-on, the violence, memorable. Does Bill wallow in it. Yes. But what I found, which was strangely satisfying, is a pretty steady pattern of "Old Testament Wisdom" in most of these stories. When lines are crossed and your loved ones are "touched," then you must touch back. To do otherwise would be to ignore "the doctrines of existence.""

— Steve (4 out of 5 stars)