Jake Hinkson

Set in Conway, Arkansas, just a half hour's drive from Little Rock, the story opens with a pregnant teenager looking for her fiancé, who has gone missing just a few days before they were supposed to be married. She tries reporting his disappearance to the police, who just laugh and state the obvious conclusion, a conclusion shared by the man's mother. But Lily refused to give up, although as a member of a fundamentalist Pentecostal church who has never cut her hair or owned a cell phone, show more she's not at all prepared to go out into the world to look for him. But she finds an unlikely ally in one of Peter's co-workers, who may not fully agree that Peter didn't run off, but who sees the danger in letting Lily wander into dangerous places unwittingly. He's willing to be the one to drive her into Little Rock and to let her know what is going on around her.

"Annnnd you ruined it," Allan says, grimacing like he tastes something sour. "Look, Lily, I'm not here to be a stand-in for all the gays, ok? You ain't Kimmy, and I ain't Titus."

"What does that mean?"

"Do you even own a television?'

"No."

But for all the charm of a mismatched duo on a quest, this is not a novel looking to make anyone feel warm and happy. Peter and Allan were working in a motel where drug dealers and human traffickers were operating and Allan is fully aware of how dangerous these men are and of the bad things going on in the back annex. He knows that even asking around for Peter could get them both killed. But he's a man with a heart despite himself and he liked the seemingly straight-laced Peter, and he's got a clear idea of what could happen to a naive girl like Lily.

So this isn't a novel with a happy ending, but it's also not a hopeless one. What makes this book shine is the complex characters Hinkson has created here. No one is entirely good or bad, and there's a nuance to his portrayal of the members of Lily's church that is rare to find. Allan, an intelligent gay man stuck in a small Southern town caring for his FOX News-watching father, while filling his apartment with books and old movies, is a fantastic character. And Lily may know nothing about the world, but she does know that her child will need a father and she refuses to let her shame at what happened, and for which she is blamed far more than Peter, prevent her doing what she thinks is right.

This is the second book I've read by Hinkson and it won't be my last. It's good stuff. show less

"Then again, the third fundamental truth of life is this: to 99.9% of the world you don’t exist. I’m not being self-pitying when I say that because I’m talking about you. You do not exist to most of the rest of the world. How many people even know you’re alive? Of those, how many care? Don’t add it up if you’re the type that gets easily depressed."

While leaving a corner store and getting into his vehicle, Geoffrey Webb is shocked to see a man sitting in the passenger seat show more brandishing a hand gun. The would-be attacker demands Webb’s money but rather than going along with it, Webb decides to take the offensive. He doesn’t attack his assailant but rather chooses to go on a long drive and recount his days as a youth minister of a small Arkansas town. Threatening to crash the car if the crook doesn’t listen, Webb is finally able to clear the air surrounding his time in the cloth.

This is one hell of a debut novel, let me tell you. Jake Hinkson has unleashed a story that will stick with me for years to come. I was so engrossed in the story, that I lost sleep after I finished it. I couldn’t help thinking about the way Hinkson writes violence – it was just so damn raw. Hey, I can’t speak to the authenticity of a murder scene but I truly felt right there in the room when it was happening. You know that feeling when you’re watching a horror movie and the cheerleader is about to walk into a room and even though you can’t communicate with her, you just want to will her not to do it. Hinkson takes that feeling and dials it up to eleven.

I shouldn’t throw all the praise on the suspenseful or violent scenes as there’s lots in here to shed a spotlight on. Webb wasn’t exactly interested in being a youth minister, as at heart, he’s a con-man. He looked at a career in religion as being a job where you can get the most out of doing the least amount of work. Our narrator is a cynical man believing that people only want to talk to someone who shares their prejudices or someone who is going to tell them exactly what they want to hear, he thinks he has it all figured out and truthfully, he does, until everything goes awry.

"There's a level of trouble you can't talk your way out of," he said. "Some trouble is like a cancer. It just grows inside you. Nothing stops it. It just keeps growing and growing, eating everything it touches."

While he’s excellent at deceiving those around him, Webb soon learns how hard it is to perform damage control. Getting his roots into the community and becoming the mindless, suck-up that everyone loves happens quicker than walking up an escalator, the true talent comes in keeping up the act when something outside of his plan materializes. For this, all that is needed is one person to doubt his sincerity, to see him for who he truly is, to drive him mad in an attempt to keep everything together. There’s nothing a con-man can’t stand more than someone who is immune to his charm. Webb’s interactions with those who see through him are intense and add so much to his character.

Hell on Church Street is the second novel I’ve read from publisher New Pulp Press. If both this novel and Matthew McBride’s Frank Sinatra in a Blender are any sign of the quality of work this company is putting forth, I need to get some more of it.

Cross Posted @ Every Read Thing

I interviewed Jake! show less

A small town preacher in Arkansas is being blackmailed. He's at the forefront of the fight to prevent a referendum on whether the county should remain dry and so he makes an offer to the man with the most to lose if the vote doesn't happen, a man hoping to open a liquor store in town. He, in turn, decides to get the money by stealing it from a shady businessman.

If you like your crime novels noir, your characters compromised and plenty of things going wrong, you'll love this one. Hinkson's show more spare writing style suits the subject matter, and he manages to make each of his many characters surprisingly complex and nuanced. Taking place during the 2016 presidential primaries, Hinkson makes even the tertiary characters feel like actual people, no small task when writing about desperate people willing to do just about anything to protect what's theirs, or to escape to a better life. In this novel, the most sympathetic characters are the pair of blackmailers who set a whole series of crimes and disasters in motion. It's a well-told story that has a ton of tension and a very satisfying ending. I'm excited to read more from this author. show less

Since his incarceration, Daniel has been dubbed Saint Homicide by fellow cellmates. The man does not believe he is innocent; he fully understands why he’s locked up. Declaring that he acted only in the service of God, Daniel did something very, very wrong and he’s going to explain why.

Daniel believes he is a good man. He studies the bible, cares for his ailing wife, and protests outside of abortion clinics by declaring the procedure murder. He says he allows the Lord to work through him, show more giving him strength and providing him with guidance. It isn't until the disappearance of his sister-in-law, that his life begins spiraling out of control.

I’m a big fan of Hinkson’s first two efforts, Hell on Church Street and The Posthumous Man, and Saint Homicide brings with it an author at the top of his game. Hinkson weaves together some outstanding storytelling and clocking in at only fifty-six pages, you get a sense that not a word is wasted. Throughout the story, I was carrying a sense of dread for what laid ahead for these characters and if a writer can grab me like that, they've got to be doing something right.

Easy five stars.

Also posted @ Every Read Thing show less