An eclectic collection of short stories by the award-winning author of Bacalao and With Honour in Battle, Blackout & Other Stories has a little something for every taste. The stories range from the hard boiled murder of the title story, to more of McDaniel's popular submarine adventure stories, to ancient civilisation fantasy, strangely civilised and not so civilised vampires, and even a bit of science fiction. Here you'll find demigods and vampires, cabala and murder, fleet boats and u-boats, "unbelievable true stories" that never happened, and even a very unusual duel between a battleship and a carrier task force.
Genre: FICTION / Short Stories (single author)Jake Holden looked into his glass and wondered, not for the first time that afternoon, just why he was still sitting there. He knew he should be doing something--anything.
Well, he'd already done something, hadn't he? And didn't sitting in a bar with a Bourbon and Coke count as doing something, too? He was drinking, which was certainly something.
It just wasn't what he should be doing, he thought.
What he should be doing was walking four blocks uptown to the bus station, buying a ticket for somewhere else, and getting out of town. They were probably looking for him by now, wanting to talk to him, wanting to ask him what he knew about the two bodies in the master bedroom of his house.
Not that they'd have any real doubts. Any cop who found Irene Holden, naked, in her own bed, with a .45 slug in her head and, right next to her, Harry Custis, also naked and also with a .45 slug in his head, would naturally figure that Jake had something to do with it. Dead naked wife and dead naked neighbor just added up to outraged husband.
Cops thought that way, and you could hardly blame them. It was the way things usually were.
Not this time, though, Jake thought. He had no more idea who had shot Irene and Harry than he did whether Dewey's moustache was really going to be a major issue in the election. His wife thought it would--had thought, he corrected himself, since she was dead now and past thinking about anything.
"Another one?" the bartender asked.
"Yeah."
The bartender reached under the bar, grabbing the Old Crow and a bottle of Coca Cola. He filled a clean glass with ice and poured in the Bourbon. Then he opened the Coke and filled the glass the rest of the way up, leaving a golden ring of foam floating at the top of the drink.
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Spanish
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Fabiola Rosales
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