18 Comments
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Rosie B's avatar

Damn! That was riveting.

A.P. Murphy's avatar

Thank you so much Rosie!

Alex Shifman's avatar

Lovers are often like castaways on a fragile raft in an ocean of famished sharks. They clasp together, one to the other, as the fibrous bindings that held the palmtree trunks come loose and fray, and rough gunmetal muzzles of the killers begin to nudge their vessel from its course.

Poetry! Right off the bat.

Alex Shifman's avatar

curses made of nothing but consonants

A.P. Murphy's avatar

Thank you so much Alex - a little forced maybe? Could be, I could see 'serious critics' shooting that passage down in flames as overwrought.

Alex Shifman's avatar

I’d have somethings to say to those critics

A.P. Murphy's avatar

Well, I think it would be actually correct to condemn it as over-purple *in isolation* but it's also there to signal a transition between hardboiled noir and fable that justifies its presence IMO

MA Knight's avatar

Epic. My reading got interrupted but I got back to it. Couldn’t wait. Wagner at the end—be still my heart.

Ron is a badass.

A.P. Murphy's avatar

In the best tradition of slobby middle-aged action heroes from history. Insider info - he was kinda designed to be a slobby rundown version of Richard Roundtree from Shaft, with more the look of Ron O'Neal from Super Fly.

MA Knight's avatar

WELL NOW IM IMAGINING HIM AS HOT

MA Knight's avatar

Gorgeous

A.P. Murphy's avatar

Quite the honey ain’t he? But he’s sadly with the angels now. Try to console yourself as best you can and soldier on as you may…

David Perlmutter's avatar

"...we in Special Crimes can make anyone talk about anything… whenever we want to..."

So can ICE...

A.P. Murphy's avatar

The parallels with contemporary authoritarian America are intentional...

Though it has to be said that ICE isn't really that interested in collecting information, just in brutalizing people. They are far from intelligence work in every possible way.

David Perlmutter's avatar

That line is something gangsters might say, and they sure act like gangsters...

A.P. Murphy's avatar

Very true, but there are "smart gangsters" like Don Vito Corleone and then there are dumb brutal fucks like Luca Brassi, and ICE thugs have Brassi all over them.

David Perlmutter's avatar

And Tommy DeVito from “Goodfellas”.