With some feedback from a first reader, I finished and polished a new short story to submit to the Mystery Writers of America anthology. I’ve had success there once before, so I’m hoping lightning strikes again. This may be the first time, though, that I’ve managed to get my story in ahead of the deadline. It should arrive tomorrow (deadline is Friday).
I finished Ian Rankin’s new Rebus novel, Standing in Another Man’s Grave, and posted my review this morning. Rankin is going to be at Murder by the Book tonight, where I’ve seen him once before. Alas, a previous commitment prevents me from attending this time. I’d love to ask him about the way he portrayed his recent character, Matthew Fox, in this novel and if that means he’s kicking the guy to the curb! Ah, well, there’s always twitter. He’s responded to me there before.
I started (and almost finished) a new novella from Bill Pronzini, Kinsmen, from Cemetery Dance. I’ve long been a big fan of the “nameless detective” novels. I’m having a bit of a problem figuring out when this one is supposed to take place. In some ways, it feels like the 1950s. There’s TV but no cell phones. However, there’s a reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the character is pushing 60. I guess if you go to a remote small town, it can feel like half a century ago, especially in some social attitudes. Good to be reading Pronzini again. I also have his other CD novella, Femme. Both have great cover art by Glen Orbik (The Colorado Kid).
This week’s Justified was fun. It had some lighter moments and some very dark ones. The ending was a huge surprise. I expected a repeat of Andrea’s fateful ride with Silvio in The Sopranos, and it was meant to turn out that way, but we’re dealing with people who aren’t used to killing others. It cost a lot for Ava to make that call and even more for Colton to set about carrying it out. Kudos to Ellie May for picking up the signals. She hasn’t exactly displayed rocket scientist intellect in the past. Maybe she had help, like from whoever pounded on the bathroom door while Colton was summoning his courage.
Most of the episode was taken up by Raylan and Rachel tracking down Lindsey and Randall after she took off with all his money. Randall revealed himself to be a true hot head, first when he was a firecracker with a short fuse while negotiating with Hoppus, and then by the way he couldn’t let the poor convenience store clerk get away with flirting with Lindsey. It was really good to see Rachel get some decent screen time. She had Raylan’s back, but she also couldn’t cut him a break. “I’m thinking you should have seen this coming,” she says at the beginning. She sticks with him until it’s time for work and then she hands him a weapon that will play a major and unexpected part in the outcome. In the meantime she got to take a nightstick to a guy who was waving some sharp blades in her face. He should have seen that coming, too.
My favorite line of the night was when Raylan was taunting Randall. “You like her spinning up the boys, keep ’em pixelated like Longfellow Deeds.” Not the way we’d use the word “pixelated,” but a nice call-back to last week when Randall said he wanted to take the Gary Cooper hitch out of Raylan’s gait. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town was a Gary Cooper film and a woman in that movie describes Longfellow Deeds as pixelated. Some people are confused by the term, so someone else explains: The word “pixilated” is an early American expression derived from the word “pixies,” meaning elves. They would say the pixies had got him. As we nowadays would say, a man is “barmy.”
The beanbag shotgun was a nice touch, because it gave Raylan a non-lethal way to handle the situation and provided several unexpected moments. The first was, of course, when Raylan hauled off and shot Randall early on. However, Randall is built like a fireplug, so it didn’t take him down for as long as he expected. Raylan was truly hurt by Lindsey’s deception, and he wanted to know more about her decision. I think he was hoping Randall had forced her, but he came to realize that she enjoyed the game, too. The next surprise came when she shot Raylan with the beanbag gun, but she handed out the same to Randall. When they come around, Randall says, “How many times did she shoot me?” Raylan is pleased to respond, “Couple more times than she shot me.” Randall’s crooked-legged gait was funny. And Raylan gets off the last crack with the beanbag gun. “You say more more word about chickens and I’m going to shoot you again.” He does, and he does.
Raylan gets the upper hand, and the chickens. Still, I have to wonder how often he’s showed up for work looking like he went ten rounds with, well, with a guy like Randall.
Very little mention of Drew Thompson this week, except for the message on Shelby’s screen. I have to admit that I was impressed by the way Boyd figured out to determine how much the preacher’s sister knew. It was more subtle than his usual tactics.
