New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sinister, and Sharp Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Class
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Crime stories narrated by detectives are an enjoyable read but crime stories narrated by criminals are even more so. Instead of solving the crime, the stories concentrate on constructing the crime and their efforts to either abscond with the loot or avoid the law.
Tony Knighton's anthology, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes presents several stories of Philadelphia's less law abiding citizens. Some are funny, some are suspenseful. But all are fascinating looks at the dark side of human nature and how far desperate people will go to get their needs met.
Among the best stories are:
"Happy Hour"- This is a hilarious and moving story about a petty thief trying to avoid his many enemies. Bobby, a recovering alcoholic, can't resist making off with a fancy discarded coat in the dead of winter. The good news is the coat conveniently has thousands of unmarked bills enough to pay off Bobby's debts. The bad news is the coat belonged to one of a group of hired killers as he learns from the cell phone that they also left behind.
The plot moves along briskly as Bobby jumps from one place to another from his apartment, to the home of a drug dealer, to an A.A. Meeting and runs into fresh complications. There are some plot holes abound such as when Bobby has a clear chance to purchase a train ticket out of town, he doesn't take it and some tense moments such as when he hears that one of his neighbors was killed by his pursuers. Eventually, things take a darker turn when Bobby's desperation to avoid this situation turns deadly.
"The Road Trip"- In The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey's character, Verbal Kint, describes real will as doing what the other guy won't do. This brief gruesome story illustrates this concept of one killer out doing another.
The Narrator is already a piece of nasty work. He is in the country breaking into a house and killing the only resident. He stops to get fuel and supplies in one of those lonely diners that you know is going to lead to trouble. A diner customer encounters the Narrator. In a plot twist worthy of Stephen King, the new guy proves to be a real cut up. It is a sinister short story that builds on the suspense and lowers it with an effective Karmic twist on the hapless Narrator.
"Sunrise"-This one is definitely the outlier of the anthology. It deals with crime but it is set in the future where Philadelphia has been ruined by war and climate change. A father struggles to get his ailing son to a hospital before sunrise when the daylight could be potentially fatal.
The story shows how familial love and sacrifice can cause people to do desperate things. The Reader's sympathies are entirely with the father as he protects his son in this dystopian setting. He commits a few crimes in the story, but his motive for protecting and healing his son are never in doubt. Not to mention, the setting leaves enough interest for Knighton to continue writing other works set in this eco-unfriendly environment.
"The Session"-This story reflects the inside of a psychopath, one who hides his true deadly intentions beneath a cover of respectability no matter how thin that cover is. Harold, a convict, is in session with Donna, a court appointed psychiatrist, for a conditional release.
The story is entertaining in an eerie darkly comic way as Harold alternates between what he tells the psychiatrist and what he really thinks. Harold verbally compliments a former psychiatrist by saying that the doctor "helped (him) a lot." However, he mentally calls the psychiatrist "a fat drunk fastly approaching senility."
The plot leads to sinister creepy implications when Harold's request is granted and he can't resist an oh so subtle peek at Donna's address. The story is open ended but one can't help but fear about the potentially dangerous effects that will occur after Harold's release.
"As Long As You Can"-Instead of murder, this story concerns itself with con games and what happens when criminals try to outdo each other with brains rather than physical force.
Hank works at a call center where he convinces lonely seniors that he's their long lost grandson who's in a bad spot and could they send him a few thousand dollars to get out of it. Most of the story consists of Hank's explanation over how this scheme works and how he got involved. It's clever in a scoundrelous way as various hurdles are covered from avoiding Caller I.D. to how the cons take notes of the right terms and names. (You don't want to slip and call someone "Grandma" when she was always referred to as "Nana.") The call center is treated ironically like any typical law abiding profession as the workers sit in their cubicles and boast about their sales.
Hank tries to outdo the others by calling his marks off the clock and asking for extra money. He is the type of crook that thinks he is so clever and can't be caught. His cockiness makes his downfall even better as he is outsmarted by a mark that is more than aware of the con and plays it better than him.
Tony Knighton's anthology may show that crime doesn't always pay. But it is always enjoyable to read.
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