false 222353 5 Fans of Will Christopher Baer's first novel, <I>Kiss Me, Judas</I>, have already met Phineas Poe: defrocked cop, former morphine addict, part-time psychotic, and a man who has lost his heart to a woman who left him in a tub full of ice, one kidney shy of the standard allotment. Poe knows a bad day when he sees one:<blockquote>The thing is that my consciousness drifts and I have forgotten what I look like. I pass my reflection in a blackened window and I may not recognize myself. My reflection is perceived as a threat, an ugly twin. My reflection is a dark nonperson, a stranger on the street and this is not an identity crisis as I understand the phrase.</blockquote> The bad days are back in Baer's second noir offering (and book two of his Poe trilogy), <I>Penny Dreadful</I>. Fresh from his surgical unpleasantness and eager to start a new life in Denver, Poe contacts a former colleague, Detective Moon, who shares with Poe the drunken admission that several handfuls of Denver's finest are missing. Among them is Moon's dearest friend, Detective Jimmy Sky.<p> When Poe agrees to look for Sky, things quantumly shift from bad to gross as he uncovers the gothish Game of Tongues, a freakishly cruel and narcotically fueled live action role-playing game (think Dungeons and Dragons in leather and chains), the object of which is to seek, suck, sever, and swallow the tongues of fellow players. Deaths ensue--imagine that!--and things spiral down from there.<p> Slim, existential, and darkly humorous, <I>Penny Dreadful</I> is a challenging (the point of view slides like Jackie Robinson, and if you prefer your dialogue with quotation marks you'd better bring your own) but beautiful train-wreck of a book that constantly dares the reader to look away. But if you don't look at the twisted metal, you'll never see the art. <I>--Michael Hudson</I> 1014536 2000 Penny Dreadful total:188|5:61|4:55|3:53|2:15|1:4| 188 718 266 19 2 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 02 10:38:05 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 17:55:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 1 false false Mon Apr 07 19:09:35 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 07 19:22:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 12:25:39 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 16 09:47:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 01 15:05:20 -0700 2007 Mon Apr 16 09:53:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Oct 07 09:23:27 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 16 17:32:33 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Sep 09 12:43:32 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 12:44:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Aug 11 14:27:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 14:29:04 -0700 2009
This is my second reading of this book.]]> 1 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Fri May 08 17:00:14 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 17:23:40 -0700 2009 -one of the few books I hated from the first line
-one of the very few books I didn't finish at a time when I finished nearly every book I started
-the only book that has ever given me a headache]]> 3 0 false false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 17:49:49 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 17:50:46 -0800 2009 5 1 false false Thu Jun 25 19:29:25 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 19:31:39 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 04:26:26 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 09:12:46 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 13:36:24 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 16 19:04:32 -0800 2008
But it was still a good story, and...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 06 13:34:23 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 06 13:37:30 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Jun 07 07:29:10 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 19 16:05:21 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Sat May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Wed Aug 01 13:17:02 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 01 21:07:27 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Sun May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sun Sep 16 21:23:22 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 16 21:26:06 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Sun Apr 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 15:35:37 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 15 12:40:48 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon Jul 02 01:51:09 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 02 01:51:49 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Wed Oct 24 17:49:15 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 17:49:42 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Wed Nov 04 01:13:07 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 01:13:07 -0800 2009