Odinkoverall Ovrl Ovrl থেকে Parepey, Remboken, Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
I remember coming across Harry Dolan's work in the 2008 Amazon novel contest. His prose was clean and compelling. Tinged with a gallows humor. Very Bad Men is no different. While mysteries are not my preferred genre, the author pulls me into his story with sparse, compelling dialog and provocative situations. One of my favorite scenes involves killer Anthony Lark and a curious neighbor across the hall. She knocks at his door because her cat has gone missing. She wants to give him a flyer in case he sees the cat. She is Indian with long black hair. He wants to get rid of her but she lingers. She keeps looking past him into his apartment. Perhaps she thinks he is hiding the cat. He invites her into his apartment. She asks many questions. Where is he from? What does he do? She spills the drink he offers her on herself and asks to use his washroom. Was it any accident or intentional? She journeys deeper into his apartment. He finds her annoying and thinks of how easy it would be to fish the butcher knife out of the drawer and make her disappear. The way she lingers, we start to hope Anthony Lark does just that. Why won't she leave? The ambiguity of this character is riveting. The six page chapter is delicious. If you enjoy good writing, you can't go wrong with Very Bad Men.