JHR 1: Welcome to 6
Stabs, Rob. So tell me … did you down any alcohol prior to playing this little
game? Or are you doing this “man-up” straight?
RP: Hey Jesse. Well,
assuming we’re using the standard layman’s definition of time, where past
precedes present, which is followed by future, the answer is yes, yes, and yes.
If we’re using the definition that all times past present and future occur
simultaneously, the answer is yes.
2: What 6 words best
describe your novel WITH THE RIGHT ENEMIES?
RP: Psychopath on
parade, full speed ahead.
3: Setting aside your short story collection and your
forthcoming novel TOMMY SHAKES, you’ve authored 3 additional books: UNCLE DUST;
VERN IN THE HEAT; and ENEMIES. Dust’s criminal business decisions drive the
characters in ENEMIES into a frenzy. Meanwhile, you’ve described the region
Dust hails from as a fictional town about where Santa Cruz lies (an hour south
of Oakland—but with little Oakland all over it.)
Why did you decide to create this “fictional location”
rather than using an actual one?
RP: What I know of
Santa Cruz isn’t badass enough to resemble Oakland that closely, although there
are parts of it I had in mind for certain scenes, such as when Vollmer is
cruising for hookers in Enemies. And even there, I don’t think the actual
blocks in Santa Cruz are close to as busy as they are in the novel.
4: Speaking of
locations, you’ve been noted as saying you live and will likely die in Oakland,
California. So how the fuck did you become a San Francisco 49ers fan?
RP: I was a Niners
fan in Santa Cruz for those great Bill Walsh teams. Once I started rooting for
Ronnie Lott, there was no going back. And I later moved to San Francisco,
stayed there for several years, but Jesus that place is expensive. I think
Oakland suits me better anyway.
5: What are 3 of your
favorite places to do a reading?
RP: Pegasus Books in
Berkeley (that’s where my book launches have taken place), The Octopus in
Oakland, and Blondie’s on Valencia in San Francisco. I had a few other
favorites that closed, in Oakland and SF, every damned one with a full bar.
6: Two-part question
since I got no clue when you and me will get our next chance to talk about your
books: Have you got an anticipated release date yet for TOMMY SHAKES? And do
you consider TOMMY similar to or different than DUST, VERN, and ENEMIES?
RP: The lovely and
talented Chris Rhatigan at All Due Respect has Tommy scheduled to publish
September 27.
I think all my books
are different, even though they take place in the same universe. Tommy stands out
in that regard because he’s far worse at his job than any of my other
protagonists, a career criminal who just isn’t that good at it and is trying to
save his marriage by pulling one big job. It is my most overtly noir book since Dust; that may be why Chris
likes it so much.
JHR: Well, Rob, I’m
impressed. Thanks to the cumulative effects of all the alcohol you downed—past,
present, and future perfect tense—you didn’t flinch-an-inch. But you are
bleeding profusely. So our on-site S&G medics will get you aptly patched,
and dump you in The Gutter once again.
Meanwhile, I’d watch
my back if I were you. Chris “Keyser Soze” Rhatigan has a street cred
reputation to maintain. And after hearing that you called him “lovely” he may
wanna stab you a few times himself.
Badass Book Reviews
For folks who ain’t
into foreplay, I rated this
book a kick-ass 5 stilettos—go forth BUY and enjoy!
For those who
ain’t in such a rush WITH THE RIGHT ENEMIES came within a busted heel of
earning 6 stilettos—and that ain’t no easy feet—
Oops I meant
feat.
Regardless of
whether the author’s male or female, when I snatch a book from the shelf I want
the writer to fuck my brains out. I wanna be transported … out of my crazy
head—and out of my messy life.
I had a serious date
with a surgeon’s knife when I delved into ENEMIES. Don’t take much reckoning to
reckon that inside my head wasn’t a fun place to be. So splitting the pages of
a book that prattles about a mundane soccer-mom driving her kid to practice
ain’t got a chance in hell of carting me away.
While preparing
myself to write this review, news broke his week in wealthy Jupiter Florida—where
the Martin County Sheriff’s Department alleges The Orchids of Asia Day Spa has
been providing paid sex services—and that many of the women performing these
acts were not only coerced, but may also be victims in a “human trafficking
operation” that extends all the way to China.
According to
public statements from the Sheriff’s Department, many of these women were
driven from location-to-location, worked long hours, had no days off, cooked
rice on hot plates, and weren’t provided condoms.
Psychologists can
debate words like sociopath, psychopath, and anti-social-personalities till
their tongues fall off. The rest of us may not recognize a psychopath if we
meet one. But most of us sure as hell know what a psychopath is when we read
about one. We also know a person’s got to be a cold-hearted fuck to force
anyone—man, woman, or child— into conducting sexual acts.
Writing for Psychology Today, Dr. William Hernstein
presents 9 characteristics commonly associated with psychopaths in an article dated
January 30, 2013 (the parenthetical comments are my summations and peanut
gallery quips):
·
Uncaring (Hey, who isn’t sometimes???)
·
Shallow emotions
·
Irresponsibility (tend to place blame at other people’s feet)
·
Insincere speech (What? They lie? Really?)
·
Overconfidence (often lacking fear)
·
Narrowing of attention (not easily distracted—i.e. stalkers
ignore the ice cream truck)
·
Selfishness (which often includes a “parasitic” lifestyle)
·
Inability to plan for the future
·
Violence
While time
doesn’t allow discussing these categories in depth, I take exception to the
trait “Inability to plan for the future”—this category feels like too much of a
“cookie-cutter” approach. Psychopaths more likely fall into two different
categories: Disciplined and Undisciplined. Criminals with extensive military
training often display brilliant abilities to think and plan long-term. And “Organized
Crime” earned that name for a reason. Be scared of dudes like murderous cannibal
Jeffrey Dahmer folks—but pay no attention to millionaires and billionaires decked
in starched white shirts and fancy suits (unless perhaps they live in China)
sounds like the message a lot of talking heads are singing.
One of my primary
reasons for creating this 6 Stabs format alongside my book reviews sprang from
Ink-Quisitive me wanting to know how the authors in this series perceive their
books compared to how I felt, reacted and perceived their work—and that’s why I
ask them to describe their book in just six words.
Rob described ENEMIES
as “Psychopath on parade, full speed ahead.”
ENEMIES ain’t a
crazy crime caper where one person’s psychopath is another one’s fun-lovin’
criminal. While this book’s a
work of crime fiction, Mr. Pierce understands the characteristics of what so-called
normal people typically call a
psychopath. Wasting no time Pierce dumps us on the street—and, without fanfare,
we meet Vollmer at age thirteen.
Pierce skillfully
gives us insights into Vollmer’s youth … the years spent on the streets fending
for himself; but I suspect this dude was also born a few fries short of a Happy
Meal.
Depending on one’s preference,
Vollmer quickly evolves or devolves. I prefer devolution: his abysmal
descent hastened by jolting twisted choices. Yet even with his French fry
shortaged-brain, Vollmer understands at times that his violent actions tax him.
To alleviate his stress, Vollmer trolls and turns to hookers. But hookers
raining from heaven wouldn’t cure his kinda ills.
As evidenced by the
recent events in Jupiter, Florida, lots of people pay for sex. Lots of people
hire hookers. But what Vollmer does with hookers? That’s a completely different
appetite. By the time we reach page 50, Vollmer’s humanity’s been snuffed.
But once he becomes a
man, with a gun and a plan, Vollmer’s no longer independent.
He’s just a headcase-carrying member of the Loosely-Amalgamated Association of
Psychopathic Workers.
ENEMIES in its
entirety sports some sharp hairpin turns. While plummeting-headlong into Pierce’s
festering cesspool of cunning criminal piranhas, at first we feel confident. We
think we’ve slickly discovered who the players are: Rico and Tenny in particular.
Yet after those early
pages we suddenly slam the brakes. The bridge ahead is closed. Pierce demands
we make a detour onto unfamiliar turf—
We screech to make
the jarring turn: and instantly catch whiplash.
And soon as we get
our confidence back? Pierce jams another Detour sign in our face. At times
these detours block our view of Vollmer. Instead of a real-life sex-slaves
operation, we find ourselves entangled in a drug war.
But instead of
street-level dealers, we’re drinking with the criminal equivalent of generals, sergeants,
and lieutenants. Keene’s one of the generals. And while generals own their foot
soldiers—otherwise known as dumb-asses—we meet few of them in this book. In fact,
ENEMIES proves top-heavy, loaded with intelligent or cunning bad-asses: all
over-confident in the battle of swinging dicks. Their combined testosterone
funk surpasses even L.A.’s smog.
Hookers aside, you’ll
meet four key women on the sheets of this novel’s sodden pages: Valerie,
Theresa, Mimi, and Olivia (aka Olive). Olivia wins the 6-Stiletto Hot-Ass
award. Val wins a possible pay-your-own-ass-way trip to … ta da: Oakland. Damn
that chick’s got issues. Maybe my giving her a dumb-ass award will cheer her
up.
The quality of their
individual asses aside, all four a these women made the bone-head mistake of
boning the callous criminal sometimes known as Uncle Dust. As mentioned in 6
Stabs, it’s Dust’s business decisions that drive the criminal piranhas in
ENEMIES into this dark frenzy—with the ferocity of a woodchipper.
Too bad for them a
lot of their time gets chewed (and their teeth get gnashed) chasin’ Dust’s
dust.
As Mr. Pierce pointed
out to me last year, ideally readers should snatch and devour his book UNCLE
DUST before diving into ENEMIES. But unlike lesser-skilled writers I’ve read
who re-introduce their earlier characters, Pierce did an excellent job crafting
ENEMIES. Which allowed me to experience and enjoy ENEMIES without feeling
lost—though I knew nothing of Dust’s sordid backstory.
After playing 6 Stabs
with Rob, I’m surprised he didn’t say “Psychopaths” plural on parade. One
character without doubt seems to easily “qualify”—the dude gets way to happy
feeding people’s doggies. Perhaps some of the others are just Type A
sociopaths, or so-called “hardened criminals.” Hard to pin a label on Cobb:
maybe douchebag creep.
Now … about that
broken heel I mentioned earlier. While I stayed thoroughly immersed in Pierce’s
piranha world throughout—and although life is messy … and many problems lie
unresolved, I would’ve relished seeing this book taken further. Since I don’t
write “spoilers” I ain’t gonna get specific. Instead I highly suggest this
buy-n-ride to most of you.
Anyone who can’t
handle a dark book—or who might suffer psychologically from encountering scenes
where men physically assault women should likely avoid reading ENEMIES.
Though ENEMIES is
fiction, Pierce’s characters act with the same cruelty as the real life criminals
who force others into sexual slavery—a horror that gets “desensitized” when
given innocuous labels such as “human trafficking.”
Interested readers
can find WITH THE RIGHT ENEMIES on Amazon.
