Richard Thomas (6) (1967–)

I finished Disintegration last night and I'm still shuddering from the after effects, unsure what to say about it all. So I'll start with this: The writing is excellent.

Written in first person, the experience is like being pulled into a twisted, psychotic, drug-addicted mind. This is exactly how it needs to be, because the main character is anything but normal. He is off balance and, consequently, so are we. Reading this book is a bit like being drugged. I was left teetering, wondering show more whether I'd crossed the line from reality into madness.

This book is not for the overly sensitive or squeamish reader. The content is raw and brutal, like an acid trip gone bad. And yet I wasn't looking for an antidote. I was hooked, like an addict, ill at ease but oddly compelled to seek another fix.

*I was provided with an advanced copy by Alibi via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.* show less

4.5 stars

Disintegration is the first book in Richard Thomas's Windy City Dark Mystery series, and the key word here is "dark." Thomas has written a first-class example of that subset of noir fiction known as "hard-boiled," offering a bleak vision of America, set against a dark and gritty urban scene and populated by a protagonist whose amorality and ruthlessness make him at times indistinguishable from the villains. Nevertheless, we care about Disintegration's unnamed "hero" because he show more didn't start out this way:

"Maybe those with the most to lose have the furthest to fall. Maybe the ones with everything, the American dream realized, they become the best soldiers. Because without love, there cannot be hate. Without a fullness, there cannot be a void. To be fractured, you must be solid once, a presence, a rock, complete."

As is the case in the best hard-boiled fiction, it is precisely the negative aspects of his broken character which make his ultimate sacrifice all the more powerful.

Strangely, it was this self-same emotional denouement which dropped my rating from 5 stars to 4.5. I won't disclose what bothered me here, so as to avoid spoiling the climax for other readers, but I have asked about it on Goodreads and would be delighted if another Goodreads member (or, even better, Mr. Thomas himself!) would answer my question. Suffice it to say that I found the ending illogical, though still gut-wrenching.

Disintegration's designation as part of a series is a bit misleading. The continuing presence in these novels is not a character whose personality might develop over the course of the series, but Chicago, the Windy City itself. Each book stands, and can be fully enjoyed, alone. Whether you start with Disintegration or Thomas's latest book Breaker, you are in for a fantastic reading experience.

I received a free copy of Disintegration through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

**Review originally published in SCREAM Magazine**

I am fond of the short story format, but when it comes to short story collections, there aren’t many that hit a five star recommendation. They tend to be a mixed bag and invariably contain tales that miss the mark. But, every once in a while, a collection comes along that blows my mind. I knew I was in for a treat when I saw the pull quote for Spontaneous Human Combustion was Chuck Palahniuk comparing the author to Lovecraft, Bradbury, and show more Gaiman.

This collection presents fourteen stories that run the gambit of horror, science fiction, fable, and dark fantasy. It’s an engaging blend of genres that offers a refreshing variety of settings and situations. “Requital” has a man caught in an endless loop of hells, suffering for his various transgressions. “Saudade” is about a nomad who travels the post-apocalyptic world seeking a better future while also trying to contain the beasts he harbors inside himself. In “Undone”, we see a man who takes his trapped-on-an-island virtual reality game a little too seriously, the story playing out like an episode of Black Mirror. “From Within” takes us to a dystopian future, where a man tries to protect his son from the alien colonizers that have overtaken earth.

And so it goes.

While all the stories contain interesting concepts and fun twists, what really stands out is the storytelling style of author Richard Thomas. The writing features much showing and little telling, focusing mostly on images, mysterious events, and emotions. The writing also pulls back the cover on humanity, revealing monsters both literal and metaphorical as well as showcasing the enumerable consequences of their twisted dark desires. Thomas has this innate ability to take a fantastical story and draw it out on a granular level that we can sympathize with, mixing raw human emotions with extraordinary circumstances.

Despite the diversity of stories, there are a few running threads that tie the collection together. One such aspect is the emphasis on the supernatural. From cults to the cosmos, every tale is suffused with the uncanny and otherworldly. Some stories reach deep into the well of magic and occult, yet even the ones that don’t still shimmer with an air of the paranormal. Another uniting aspect is the running theme of what one will do in the face of misery and trials. There are plenty of brutal and despicable moments, but Thomas is much more interested in the how and why, exploring each character and meditating on humanity’s darkest corners.

Spontaneous Human Combustion is a gathering of ideas that are both provocative and transformative. You’ll be scared, disgusted, appalled, saddened, and utterly engrossed by the events that transpire. These stories will slither under your skin and burrow into your brain; they’ll lay eggs in your sinus cavity and stay with you long after you’ve closed the cover. As short story collections go, this one certainly stands out from the pack. show less

DISINTEGRATION is hard-hitting dark noir of the highest order. The book moves at a breathless pace both in terms of plot and style. Writing with an incisive voice and relentless prose, Thomas explores some of the darkest material I've ever read. He manages to balance the darkness touches of subtle beauty.

Filled with taut, raw-edged material—sugar, glass, and cocaine—the book is thrilling, disturbing, gut-wrenching, and always, always entertaining. Set in Chicago and featuring a nameless show more protagonist, we follow a desperate man forced to do desperate things—a man living in the margins, a man lost to the world and to himself.

With fluid prose, compelling action, a flair for the literary and including a handful of subtle literary references, DISINTEGRATION excels at being both smart and tough. It takes us down dingy, mist-filled streets. It offers keen observations of human nature, and explores the zoos we construct for ourselves, the labyrinths, the never-sufficient penance we inflict on ourselves and others. A story of grief and regret, of rage and violence, of the need to break free, the novel moves at frenetic pace. Broken out into 100 chapters (some no longer than a handful of lines) DISINTIGRATION simply moves, sometimes so fast it will leave your head spinning.

The plotting seems simple enough at first: the protagonist is a damaged-goods enforcer who kills because he has to, because he wants to, because it’s his only form of escape from his demons. Similar to Dexter, the protagonist takes out the filth, the top predator in the food chain. However, as the book progresses, we learn that things are more complicated than we’d imagined; that secretes lay beneath secrets, that the man we think we know doesn’t know his own story.

Thomas does an exemplary job of withholding information, delivering it in a trickle that like the protagonist’s chemical dependence, keeps you desperate for more. Thomas also finds myriad ways to make this gritty killer likable so that when the book reaches its conclusion, we feel WITH him as much as we do FOR him. That’s the real accomplishment of the book: it’s easier to horrify than it is to inspire compassion. Thomas does both.

DISINTEGRATION is a fantastic read and well worth the price of admission. show less